Requirements
Removing Mental Barriers First
Geary Rummler states, “if you pit a good performer against a bad system, the system will win every time” (2004, p.xiii). This echoes our beginning quote – that barriers to learning or performance are not often inherent in the capacities of the learners or workers themselves, but in the design of resources (materials) and the system.
One parent of a severely disabled child, who’s now 34 and fully-employed living independently for 15 years, describes this mindset as “presumed competency.” We presume the competency of many learners based on a false set of indicators, to include physical disabilities, mental disabilities, learning disabilities, race, gender, life circumstances (such as pregnancy or trauma) and other, frankly, irrelevant variables. When we base our assumptions on a learner’s competencies on these sorts of characteristics, we sell them short. And when we sell them short, we design environments and systems that sell these individuals short. In the face of such designs, they are unable to demonstrate just how well they can perform, and we remain blind to how well they can perform.
We limit individuals by design.
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