DISABILITY ETIQUETTE
All people are human and deserve to be shown respect regardless of their circumstances. We all have blind-spots, and it’s important to be aware that the people who made this site were able-bodied white women. We encourage all people to do your own research and use the resources we have provided on the Resource page.
In many cases, the etiquette involved in situations with individuals with disabilities may be different than you would expect.
READ about proper etiquette below to educate yourself:
Loading...
Reload document 
Open in new tab (Link to “Disability Etiquette: Treat Everyone with Respect” pdf made by the New York State Department of Health)
LEARNING DISABILITIES & TUTORING
Learning disabilities and the support students receive in school can have far-spreading implications not only for students’ college experience but their entire life. As tutors, you can help students on a more personalized level than instructors, and can therefore develop important relationships. Gila Vogel, Barbara Fresko, and Cheruta Wertheim’s article, “Peer Tutoring for College Students With Learning Disabilities: Perceptions of Tutors and Tutees” (Link through ResearchGate) in the Journal of Learning Disabilities, explores the way tutors and tutees in Israel perceived their relationships. Many of the same ideas are applicable here in America (LINK to article through NP Library Database).
READ some of the important take-aways from Vogel, Fresco & Cheruta’s article below:
Tutees’ Self-Perception and Attitudes
“Researchers have reported that students with LD view themselves as having lower academic or social competence (Kloomok & Cosden, 1994) and as having greater difficulty handling academic demands, adjusting to change,and adjusting to university life (Saracoglu, Minden, & Wilchesky, 1989)than their peers without LD. In contrast, other studies have shown no difference in self-esteem between students with and without LD (e.g., Blake& Rust, 2002). Moreover, Hall, Spruill, and Webster (2002) found that students with LD obtained significantly higher resiliency scores and higher scores on a need-to-achieve scale than their peers without LD, and reported fewer stressors” (486).
Student Difficulties
“A summary of the difficulties encountered (Skinner & Lindstrom, 2003) includes (a) deficits in study skills, such as test preparation,note taking, and listening comprehension; (b) problems with organizational skills; (c) difficulties with social interaction; (d) deficits in specific academic areas, with reading and written composition being the most frequent; (e) low self-esteem; and (f ) higher drop-out rates” (486).
“Attention and concentration deficits were rated as the most severe of the difficulties by both the tutees and the tutors. Reading materials in English, writing papers, summarizing articles,and studying for exams were also identified as areas of difficulty for many tutees . . . Nonacademic skills—that is, difficulties in emotional and social areas—received the lowest [difficulty] ratings by both tutees and tutors” (488).
Helpful Skills to Learn
“As services that improve more generalizable skills have been found to be more beneficial to the overall achievement of students than services aimed at sup porting specific courses (Keim, McWhirter, & Bernstein, 1996), tutors should be encouraged to continue and even strengthen their emphasis on organizational skills and learning strategies, while providing tutees with a sense that their specific, course-related needs are being met” (491).
(Emphasis added.)
Tutors’ Perceptions
“However, tutors rated three items as significantly more problematic than the tutees. The tutors were more disturbed about lacking the skills to deal with tutees’ learning disabilities . . . The second item on which tutors reported more difficulties than did the tutees related to the tutees’ ability to describe their learning needs. This problem has been cited as common among persons with LD (Hartman Hall & Haaga, 2002; Lynch & Gussel,1996; Madaus, 2005). As shown in this study, there is a gap between how well students with LD perceive their ability to describe their needs and how well their audience (in this case the tutors) perceives this ability . . . Finally, a significant difference be-tween tutors and tutees was found regarding difficulties in forming the tutoring relationship, although once formed, both sides were highly satisfied with the results. Given the importance cited in the literature (Beilke & Yssel, 1998; Graham-Smith & Lafayette, 2004) of personal relationships on outcomes for students with LD, specific attention should be given to the training of tutors in this area to expedite the formation of the tutoring relationship” (491).
LEARNING DISABILITIES & IDENTITY
READ Eva Gibavic and Cheryl Howland’s description of what happens when a student hits their learning disability wall:
“Most of the time people with a learning disability (LD) look, act and perform like everyone else. However, when they encounter an experience that puts them face to face with their disability it is very much like hitting a wall at full speed. The LD wall is usually invisible to everyone else, yet when a person with a learning disability hits this ‘wall’ s/he can have a powerful and painful reaction.
So here we have a student with LD having just hit the LD wall. Our student is unable to perform as required, and s/he is also having a reaction to the impact. In addition, all around him/her are family, teachers, and friends who did not hit this wall and who cannot perceive that there is a wall. These non-learning-disabled individuals often cannot see or understand that our student is severely impacted by his/her experience and, while our student may have a real desire and need to perform in the prescribed manner, s/he cannot.
In the moment when individuals face their hidden disability, having been impacted by their learning disability “wall,” they have to deal with the following:1. They cannot perform in the prescribed manner.
2. They are hurting from the impact.
3. Their experience is denied and questioned by well meaning parents, peers, teachers and others who do not understand.
4, They MUST perform somehow.
5. If you were that person, how would you react?” (1-2)
From Gibavic, Eva and Howland, Cheryl L. “Learning Disability Identity Development and Social Construct,” in Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (not required reading, available as an article in hard copy book in STL)
READ these important excerpts from Howland & Gibavic’s Two Tier Model of Identity Development in Persons with Learning Disabilities
The Howland/Gibavic Model of Identity Development in Persons with Learning Disabilities
TIER ONE: INFLUENTIAL VARIABLES: SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND TIMING
Support Systems: Receiving positive support, negative support, or no support can make or break how a student deals with a disability and they perceive themselves.
Timing: The timing of when a student is diagnosed can drastically change how they experience school and life
Social Receptivity/Acceptance: The attitudes of people around a student towards learning disabilities also effects self-perception and the schooling experience.
Dual Diagnosis: The chance of a student having multiple diagnoses (such as “emotional/behavioral difficulties, ADHD, as well as mental health and other medical issues” (3)) isn’t rare.
TIER TWO: STAGES OF IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
Problem with the Wrong Name: The student does not yet have a diagnosis but knows they have difficulty learning at times.
Diagnosis: The student is diagnosed.
Grief and/or Relief: Changes due to the student’s life due to diagnosis can bring both grief and relief. What the changes themselves are influences how the student reacts.
Resistance and/or Alienation: The student may feel mixed or negative feelings towards their learning disability and/or the help they receive. This stage may be simultaneous with Passing.
Passing: The student works to “fit in” with students without learning disabilities and be what they see as “normal.”
Redefinition: The student understands that the previous two stages will not make their learning disability disappear.
Ongoing Resolution Process: For each individual, this model’s stages are fluid. People with learning disabilities may experience these stages repeatedly in different orders as identity formation is an ongoing process.
If interested, read the full article in the book Readings for Diversity and Social Justice, edited by M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. W. Hackman,
M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga in the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz.
As you can see, a person’s relationship with their disability and identity are both ever-evolving. When deciding how to approach a student’s tutoring sessions, it can take a while to figure out the best method. But don’t lose faith! Trial and error will still help you narrow down the best approach eventually.
Using a person’s interests, your knowledge of how they learn and what they are good at, and the rapport and relationship you build with them, you can begin to understand and help your tutees’. Even if at first you have to provide more support for the student, you can help them learn to use some of the strategies you use together on their own and need less support.
Never pressure a student to disclose that they have a learning disability. In some cases, the student may not even have been diagnosed. But there is a justifiable fear of disclosure and the effects it can have on your school life and experience. Try to make your tutoring sessions a safe place for students by emphasizing the privacy of information they share with you, respecting their learning process, and trying to help them however possible.
You can ask about learning strategies that have worked in the past, use graphic organizers to structure information and break down concepts and processes into concrete, understandable pieces, or help students visualize concepts. These strategies can be helpful for all students, but especially students with learning disabilities.
Student in library
WORKS CITED
Disability Etiquette: Treat Everyone with Respect. New York State Department of Health, https://www.health.ny.gov/publications/0951.pdf. Accessed 28 June 2021.
Howland, C. L., & Gibavic, (2010). “Learning Disability, Identity Development and
Social Construct.“ In M. Adams, W. J. Blumenfeld, C. Castaneda, H. W. Hackman,
M. L. Peters, & X. Zuniga (Eds.), Readings for Diversity and Social Justice (2nd
ed.), pp. 519-525. New York, NY: Routledge.
Vogel, Gila & Fresko, Barbara & Wertheim, Cheruta. (2007). “Peer Tutoring for College Students With Learning Disabilities Perceptions of Tutors and Tutees.” Journal of Learning Disabilities. 40. 485-93. 10.1177/00222194070400060101.
