Epilogue

Helena Donato-Sapp, a disabled student in high school, shares her perspectives related to special education. After joining the panel on “Conceptualizing the Promise and Power of Critical Special Education,” Helena offers her reflections on that moment and her lived experience navigating a school system shaped by ableism, adultism, and outdated paradigms of special education. Diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities, she has learned that the greatest barriers are not academic but systemic—teachers and structures that marginalize, erase, or pathologize difference. Through personal stories and educator archetypes, she critiques the obsolescence of special education and calls for an “upgrade” grounded in Disability Justice, Critical Disability Studies, and DisCrit. Her journey from trauma to empowerment reveals how affirming schools can transform lives. Now a 16-year-old Disability Justice activist, she challenges educators to embrace youth voice, reject deficit ideologies, and reimagine education as inclusive, liberatory, and empowering.