Pictured top left is an example of a copper foiler. The top right is one of H’s many stained glass projects with multiple hanging loops.

One of my favorite parts about being an art teacher (an there are many) is that there are so many opportunities to create a space that works for so many different types of students. These students benefit so much from working together or alongside each other while they create art, as well as just interacting on a regular basis, sharing ideas, materials, space, and more. One of my most surprising classes that seems to draw students of many different abilities is my stained-glass summer camp. Students must wear long pants, tie back their hair, wear safety goggles, and often wear gloves. Since I have started the class, I have noticed a growing population of students who are somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Those particular students enjoyed building, playing Minecraft, and very structured projects with a clear objective. Stained glass was the perfect fit for them. I am lucky to have a class where students are not graded on output, so I was able to give them the time they needed to complete projects. One student, “M,” had clearly been working at school on self-advocating, and was comfortable telling me when she needed to take break, or needed fresh (not wet) gloves to wear. I kept a stack of dry clean gloves for her to change in to, allowing her to continue working without the setback uncomfortable gloves would have caused. Carrie Sandahl speaks about “crip time” in her video, and I immediately thought of how lucky I was to be able to provide the amount of breaks this student needed, along with the help of a college intern who would often take “M” for breaks outside the classroom if it was too loud, busy, or bright. “M” was also able to use a foiler, something I was able to provide through a donation. This allowed her to be hands on with more of her project, and allowed her to really own it. Without the foiler, she would have required much more help to complete her project. I loved Veronica Hick’s question on her blog, “The use of technology is not limited by a person’s abilities. So why not push our minds to include the assistive tech that is available to the field of art education?” I have used some of the adaptations she has suggested in other classes, and the foiler in this instance was greatly helpful.

“H,” another student who I have known for a long time, took the class in the summer, and then again with his dad as a winter workshop. He was so excited about designing stained glass that aligned with his interests (the color yellow, and cheetahs), and was beaming with pride at the end of the class with the work he had created. “H,” who was almost obsessing about his designs, ended up asking to have multiple hanging loops attached all over his project, so that that he could change how it was hanging as he felt necessary. This idea was something no other student thought of, and when he allowed me to share his idea, other students began to think out their own designs in a new way. He felt proud that his ideas were changing how his classmates were thinking, as well as in the fact that he thought of it before anyone else. He was also challenged to create work in an environment where there were high expectations, due to the nature of the medium, and he rose to the occasion. I think if I had lowered my expectations of him, or gone into the start of the class with a preconceived notion of what he could achieve, I would be doing both myself and H a disservice. In my classroom, he is just another student, no an outsider, not an exception, nor was he excluded. He is not included because of his placement on the Autism Spectrum, but because he is an excited and hardworking student with something to contribute to my classes. While “Code of Freaks” mostly discussed the portrayal of people with disabilities in media, I think it warps peoples’ views of disabled people in the world, and the film made relevant points to our everyday lives as well. When we view people as other in a negative way, it only harms our ability to understand and navigate our worlds. Understanding and familiarity on the other hand, lead to wonderful collaborations, new ideas, and creativity.

Chasnoff, Salome. “Code of the Freaks (Work-in-Progress).” Vimeo, Codeofthefreaks.blogspot.com, 15 Nov. 2018, vimeo.com/20531038.

Hicks, Veronica. “Tech: Make It Assistive, Make It Adaptive, Make It Yourself.” Veronica Hicks, 28 Oct. 2014, veronicahicks.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/tech-make-it-assistive-adaptive-make-it-yourself/.

Sandahl, Carrie. “Carrie Sandahl, UIC Department of Disability and Human Development.” Vimeo, Arts Alliance Illinois , 23 Aug. 2018, vimeo.com/24992332.