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I think several of the logistical issues that a "disabled" person runs into in society are symbolic of society's indifference toward disabled people. I mentioned earlier that MV points out that stairs for a handicapped person is a hindrance. But the existence of the stairs also symbolizes the way society outcasts handicapped people. The person cannot climb the stairs and thus is excluded from everything that floor has to offer.

A culturally oriented read of disability for the classroom would strip these same symbolic hindrances. As we read in the Mooney/Cole reading, Jonathan was teased because he had to leave his classroom to go to the "resource room" to practice reading. The resource room was meant to be a helpful space for Jonathan to develop his reading skills but in reality, it was a symbol of his "disability". Having to discontinue his class and walking down the hall to the resource room where students from the gifted program would taunt him is also symbolic of this.

Perhaps classrooms should invite learning differences and find more creative and inclusive ways of representing the strenghths of every type of student. Rather then shoving the students off to a separate room and making the disparities between the students blatantly obvious, instructors should find ways to incorporate disabilities in the classroom in such a way to obscure these differences just as Martha's Vinyard had for the deaf.