ABSTRACT
The right to an education is a recognized civil right in the United States, meaning that children have the right to attend school without discrimination or undue government interference. Children with disabilities can be found across all socio-economic groups, and many receive accurate disability diagnoses and benefit from special education. Special education is designed to provide, in the least restrictive learning environment possible, resources, learning opportunities, and support services to children and adolescents who have a disability. Analogous to the work done in critical race theory with regard to racism, disability studies (DS) treats "disability" as a social construct defined by the historical, socio-cultural, political, ideological, and economic conditions of a society rather than the presence/absence of impairments. Subsequently, the intersection of whiteness and normalcy converge in the medical model of disability in a manner that racial minorities and poor students are classified as an "other" under the guise of a disability and pushed out of the mainstream classroom.
