“Presume competence” means, as Dr. Douglas Biklen has explained,7 “approach each child as wanting to be fully included, wanting acceptance and appreciation, wanting to learn, wanting to be heard, wanting to contribute.” It doesn’t mean to assume that a person faces no barriers, and it is never an excuse for withholding supports and accommodations. “Presume competence” most definitely is not a call for blaming disabled people for struggling with those barriers.
