Art Description (What inspired you to create the artwork?) This photo represents my experience in the special education system. As a child in special ed, my class was generally not included in a lot of activities, like field trips and activity days. We were often left feeling very disappointed. Now, as an adult, I realize that we lost out on so much more than just the fun events.

In high school, I was in a class full of intelligent outside the box thinkers. There were artists, musicians and comedians. One thing we all had in common was that the education provided for us did not enable us to go to post-secondary school in a traditional way.Many of my school friends have ended up in minimum wage jobs or floating around not knowing what to do. I got into post secondary as a mature student. Now that I'm in college, I realize that I lack many of the basic abilities necessary to succeed on my own.

The special Education students hands were tied up as soon as you enter those classroom doors and our futures have been limited by the people who were supposed to help us succeed in life.

This photo is my portrayal of the special education experience, the cage, is limiting access to the required knowledge and, at the same time, is isolating the subject from her peers in the mainstream classrooms. The letters scattered on the ground represent dyslexia. The letters are difficult to see just as others can't see that she has dyslexia, so they don't fully understand why she isn't learning at the same pace as everyone else. This causes people to be frustrated and short-tempered with her, and she is often thought to be lazy. Kids with learning disables aren't lazy. We are stuck in small cages call the 'Special' Ed class.