TASH NEWSLETTER
Volume 10 · Issue 12 · December, 1984
VIEWPOINT
A Modest Idea* for Preventing People with Developmental Disabilities
in America from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making
Them Beneficial to the Public.
The following VIEWPOINT was contributed by William Allen and Ronnie Cohn
to express their frustration over the current shift of national priorities
from humankind to military hardware. They have coupled this distress with
their concern over the lengthy transition in special education from a developmental
to a critical skills approach to instruction.
William and Ronnie are currently CoExecutive Directors of the Area IV Board
on Developmental Disabilities in Napa, California. This federallyfunded,
state agency is mandated to monitor the legal, civil and service rights
of persons with developmental disabilities in Napa, Solano and Sonoma Counties.
Bill's current special interest is the development of program evaluation
tools which can be utilized by consumers, while Ronnie focuses on the methodology
and effects of transition from special education to adult living. Both have
been members of TASH since 1978.
We have noted, to our complete surprise, the increasing consternation of
people involved in the field of developmental disabilities over recent cuts
in human services. "How is it," they ask with innocent naively,
"that the government can arm people in far away places, while people
with disabilities in this country get zip?' Hah, we respond, the answer
is simple: People who bear arms possess a valuable skill in today's fast
paced, kill a stranger or someone with a different point of view world.
Get with it!
Think about it, millions and billions of dollars going to a large, worldwide,
human service agency and all you have to do to qualify is be able to pull
a trigger, throw a small metal object, push a button, wear green or blue
clothes and follow simple, onestep directions. Are you with us?
Ever present crises regarding fluctuating class enrollment and funding could
be resolved. Special education teacher salaries would be supplemented by
federal dollars for their role as recruiters. A perrecruit fee for those
who successfully transition to the military would help offset state and
local dollars.
The resurrection of old labels would be a welcome and additional benefit
for some. MR would, of course, stand for Military Readiness. Those people
with developmental disabilities recruited for duty in the third world would
be classified as part of the TMR (Third World Military Readiness) Task Force,
while those trained for modern, laser battle would become a part of the
EMR (Extraterrestrial Military Readiness) Task Force.
Assessment and evaluation techniques currently utilized by the military
are remarkably synonymous with traditional special education techniques
and the recruit with developmental disabilities should perform quite well.
Assessment is completed by a number of paper and pencil tests regarding
nonfunctional activities. Evaluation is a welldefined, lockstep rank and
responsibility system not unlike residential and vocational continuum models.
Dollars for community board and care, medical, vocational and case management
services would be eliminated. An entire professional generation of social
workers would need to be rehabilitated, but the coat would be significantly
less than those of the aforementioned services on the open market.
While dollars for research and purchase of prosthetics dwindles in the public
sector, the military provides a virtual "Disneyland" of hardware
for the developmentally disabled. For example, the person who needs the
use of a mechanical device for ambulation would have access to the world's
most advanced wheelchair, the tank. While those who have vision impairments
could avail themselves of sonar, radar and other electronic, sightassistance
paraphernalia.
Sure, you got it: The answer is easy: go with the dollars. The autism fad
is over; learning disabilities, no more, forget it. It's all so simple,
start training people with developmental disabilities for the military right
now.
In fact, most of the work has already been completed. Most graduates of
special education in the last 20 years have learned to follow simple directions,
stand in line, be complaint, wear similar clothes, match green to green
or blue to blue, place round metal cylindrical objects in holes, throw an
object, push a button, have an unfashionable haircut, survive on low wages,
and live in large, congregate settings. It's perfect!
Just think, no more guilt over readiness training or the developmental model.
Dignity of risk, normalization, transition plans -sure they're all there.
Everything finally fits together, we knew what we were doing all along.
We were training people for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Be all
that you can be!
* Thanks are due obviously to Jonathan Swift and his "A
Modest Proposal" with the recognition that hyperbole is often the easiest
and most fun way to make a point.
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