How Students with Disabilities Are Affected by Implicit Bias

Implicit biases are unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that influence an individual's perception of the world and the people in it, affecting their behavior, decisions, and treatment of others. Due to the unconscious nature of implicit bias—also called unconscious or unintended bias—these attitudes are held without the individual being aware of them and may run counter to a person's conscious beliefs.

When implicit bias affects how an individual treats others, it's referred to as a microaggression. Many adults of non-majority social groups are so experienced with microaggressions that they are adept at recognizing and navigating them.

But for children who lack the life experience and vocabulary to recognize and address microaggressions, these interactions can have deleterious effects that alter the course of their lives. For that reason, it's crucial to become aware of implicit bias in the classroom, including why it persists, how to recognize it, and how it can affect students who are victims of it.

Why implicit bias persists in the classroom

While explicit bias has waned considerably due to the social progress our culture has made in the last 50 years, implicit bias persists in schools and our culture at large. Why has implicit bias persisted, particularly after the previous decade of warp-speed social change? That is likely because implicit bias is unconscious, and it's tough to treat a malady that you don't know is there.

Undoubtedly, every educator in the country would agree that all children are entitled to a comprehensive and equitable education. Yet often, the education provided to children of non-majority social groups is not fair or complete. This is not because educators maliciously deprive students of this, but because they are humans who, just like the rest of us, are affected by implicit bias and unaware of how it can affect the way they treat their students.

In other words, implicit bias in education exists because teachers are human and fallible, but it persists because it is unconscious. Invisible and ephemeral, implicit bias is difficult to rein in without a broad awareness of it and the shapes it takes within the classroom.

Disability and implicit bias in the classroom

Without them being aware that they are treating children with disabilities any differently, implicit biases can cause educators to:

• Assume that a student with a disability lacks certain skills and cannot complete specific tasks, all without knowing about their disability or its limitations.
• Assume that a student with a physical disability must also have cognitive issues, causing them to teach below the student's level and leaving the student unchallenged.
• Assume that a student with a disability has lower ambitions and standards for themselves, thus putting a ceiling on their development and achievement.
• Offer unsolicited help to a student with a disability because of an assumption that they will not perform well, reducing their confidence in their abilities and diminishing their self-efficacy.
• Avoid including students with disabilities in class discussions because the teacher is uncomfortable or worried it will make the student uncomfortable, both serving to block the student from full and equitable participation that would build confidence and self-efficacy.
• Assume that all students will seek help if they are struggling, not taking into account that it's often the most vulnerable students who may not feel comfortable asking for support precisely for the reasons listed above.
• Ask a student with a disability to take on a low-stakes role during group work because the educator has a limited view about the student's capabilities, pigeonholing them into roles with less responsibility instead of challenging them and building new skill sets.
• Assume that students who have difficulty with written or oral communication/public speaking are intellectually challenged somehow, not taking into account that communication skills vary from person to person and are not an indication of intelligence or achievement potential.

The effects on students with disabilities

A reading of this list makes two things very clear about implicit bias in the classroom:

1. It causes educators to generally count students with disabilities out before they've even had a chance to begin, creating lowered performance expectations for children with disabilities.
2. Lowered expectations leads to students putting unnatural limitations on themselves. Suppose a trusted adult authority figure believes they are incapable of something. In that case, a young person is likely to internalize that belief, which damages confidence and their ability to achieve higher.

In other words, implicit bias leads to lowered expectations which leads to performing at levels lower than natural ability, making implicit bias a perfect circle of self-fulfilling prophecy. If an educator (unconsciously) believes a student will only achieve up to a certain level and then does not support development past that point, the student will likely peak in just the spot that the educator's implicit bias predicted.

In this way, implicit bias presupposes the failure or mediocrity of some students right from the start. Deprived of encouragement and instruction that would challenge them, implicit bias robs students with disabilities of confidence and self-efficacy in the short-term and an equitable education that would set them up for success in adulthood in the long term.

Moving forward

It's essential to qualify this discussion of implicit bias by acknowledging that #NotAllEducators are driven by implicit bias. Nonetheless, it's likely that all educators could benefit from some self-reflection and self-analysis. Improved self-awareness allows for deepening awareness of how one's actions affect others. This, combined with acknowledging the existence of implicit bias, is the first crucial step in eliminating it.