Disability and Inclusive Education

I am really interested in inclusive education and disability. I always have been, even when I was teaching in segregated education settings. I kept running into kids who could have been educated back home in their community schools. It seemed the only reason they were in special settings was that they qualified for some sort of label - and kids with educational labels went to special settings. Of course, back then integration for some students with disabilities was a new idea, even if it did carry with it the possibility that any student could be taken out of the regular class and put in a special setting if her/his achievement or performance changed.

Special education was a boon to kids with disabilities when it began to take off around the middle of the last century. Before that, kids with disabilities mostly were not in school. They stayed at home or were sent to institutions. The development and growth of special education meant that they could get an education, even though they had to go to segregated settings. At that time, special education also was a revolution - and a positive one.

But change does not stop happening. New and better ways to do things are found. That does not mean the older ways were bad. It just means that new ideas and new ways to do things have been found, and that they do a better job than do the older ideas and methods. Change is a constant, and it impacts education just as it does other aspects of society.

So, change is happening in education for learners with disabilities. We have learned that inclusion in the regular classrooms of community schools is better education than is inclusion. Though change to inclusion in education is not common everywhere, there are many teachers and parents who have chosen it. Teachers have found inclusion to work, and to work better than what was happening before. There is a learning curve, of course. Every change brings a learning curve with it.

Experience has shown that kids with disabilities are happier when they are educated with their regular peers. Teachers see this and parents see this. After a brief adjustment period, the regular peers accept their new schoolmates. The regular kids also benefit from having more diversity in their classrooms. They learn lessons that are not taught in the textbooks from which they study. They learn lessons of acceptance, support, and understanding.

The United Nations has recognized that being educated together in community schools is good for everyone. That is the base of the UN Education For All policy. The UN believes education together in regular community settings is the most effective way to combat discrimination based on some element of difference. Inclusion is a human right and is the practice of social justice.

That does not mean that everyone accepts that inclusive education is better. It is challenging to accept that what one has always understood is not the best answer anymore. Many governments cling to segregation for some students with disabilities because they cannot envision these students achieving more in regular settings - and, of course, they think change will be expensive. Many teachers cling to segregation because their professional development programs have not prepared them for change.

There are many reasons for resistance to change. And with resistance comes the heat and friction of impassioned discussion. Discussion is essential to moving forward in education for people with disabilities. I hope this blog will result in exchanges of views as we all move to a stronger, more positive future for learners with disabilities.

My next blog will talk about something that is happening in education im Mumbai, India. That "something" is happening in the huge slum of Dharavi, the slum where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed. Conditions in Dharavi are depressing in general. There is poverty everywhere. But there also is the most exciting program in education and disability I have seen anywhere.