Module One: Disability in Context

Part A:
Why learn about Inclusion?
- In 2015, 7.4% of children aged 0–14 had
some level of disability and 4.0% had a
severe or profound level of disability.
- Disability was more common among boys
(9.4%) than girls (5. 4%).
- The most common disability types were
intellectual and sensory/speech.
- BUT we are also talking about children and
young people who have additional
learning needs, and this includes the gifted and talented

Part B: How do you view disability?

Watch Video #1: "Yes I can" - RIO Paralympics, 2016 (Duration 5:30 minutes)
 How did you feel when watching the athletes and performers in "Yes I can"? What
was your emotional reaction to it?
I felt inspired and moved by people with disabilities as they don’t even let their weakness or
limited capabilities stop them.

 What does the video say about people with disabilities?

That people with disabilities are superheroes and can-do things that anyone else can do as
people with disabilities should be limited or treated differently by the general society. As
they adapt and learn without complaining about their limitations. Even when they are
knocked down (2:35) by everyone that is their willpower to move forward.

Now watch Video #2: Stella Young - TED Talk (Duration 9:16 minutes)
Stella was born in 1982. She was diagnosed with 'osteogenesis inperfecta' and spent most of
her life in a wheelchair. She presented the below TED talk at Sydney in April 2014. Stella
unexpectedly passed away in December 2014 at the age of 32.
 What is your reaction to what Stella has to say about disability and people's reaction
to it?
I felt terrible the fact only students have experienced an encounter with disabled people as
objects of inspiration. here that it's not his fault i mean that's true for many of us you know
for lots of us disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors. As disabled people are
there to inspire although it’s not true, they are here to be inspirational and doesn’t make
you exceptional.

 Stella talks about "inspirational porn". Is "Yes I can" inspirational porn? Why/why
not?

 Or this one that's all you quit try yeah these are just a couple of examples but there
are a lot of these images at that you know you might have seen the one the little girl
with no hands drawing a picture with a pencil held in her mouth you might have
 seen a child running on carbon fibre prosthetic legs and these images you know
there are lots of them out there they are what we call inspiration porn.

Yes, the term “yes, I can” is inspirational porn as it is deliberately because if they objectify
one group of people for the benefit of another group of people so in this case we're
objectifying disabled people for the benefit of non-disabled people the purpose of these
images is to inspire you to motivate you so that we can look at them and think well however
bad my life is it could be worse I could be that person.

 What is the place of stories that are inspirational? What benefits, and drawbacks, do
they have?

Inspirational or motivational tales are tales of promise, hope, and inspiration. They evoke
powerful feelings in the reader and foster a close relationship between them and the
author. A motivational story's principal objective is to elicit a positive feeling in the reader.

Part C: An Historical View of Disability

People with disabilities have fought against social exclusion in an organised and politicised
way for over fifty years. While there is no cohesive international history of the Disabled
People’s movement, the slogan “Nothing about us without us” identifies the movement’s
central concern. People with disabilities have equal rights to everyone else in society. As
such, they have the right to choose to participate equally in all aspects of society and make
decisions about their own lives.

 There is no one exact moment marking the beginning of the Disabled People’s
Movement, but rather a range of social forces and events. Institutionalisation,
eugenics, and the treatment of people with impairments in the holocaust were stark
and horrifying examples of the differential ways in which people with impairments
were treated. For those countries involved in World War I and World War II, the
huge numbers of soldiers returning with impairments made the institutionalisation
of all people with impairments impossible and the barriers in mainstream society
more apparent. This created some significant early changes. In North America, for
example, the 1968 “Architectural Barriers Act” meant that any building that received
federal funding had to be accessible to everyone. Following the mantra of “nothing
about us without us,” legislative change through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (and
amendments in 1978), supported the Independent Living Movement in the US to
create the opportunities for people with impairments to make decisions about their
own lives.
 At the international level, 1981 saw the United Nations International Year of
Disabled Persons. This helped draw attention to disability as a public issue rather
than a personal problem, with its focus on personal stories of disabled people’s
experiences of discrimination. As a result, national governments in many countries
responded with the introduction of rights based and anti-discrimination measures
specifically addressing the experience of disabled people. For example, the
Americans with Disability Act (1992) and the Disability Discrimination Act (1992,
 Australia; 1995, UK). This legislative focus on discrimination against people with
disabilities addressed areas of inequality, such as: employment, education, access to
the built environment (buildings, train stations, buses, trains), goods and services,
buying land, sport, government provisions. Prior to the 1970s, particularly in the
English-speaking world, the prevailing view was that individuals with impairments
needed to be “fixed” (if possible) through medical intervention. This view is
sometimes called the medical model of disability.
 In the 1970s and 1980s, activists and scholars started questioning the assumptions of
the medical model. They argued instead for a “social model” of disability, where
disability is seen to arise because of physical, organisational, and attitudinal barriers
in society. Importantly, the social model of disability also made a divide between two
different concepts — impairment and disability.

Video 1
 What effect does a medical model have on the way we view people with disability?

People with disabilities are perceived as being odd or distinct from "what is normal."
Disability is viewed as a personal issue for each person. According to the medical paradigm,
a disabled person must be fixed or cured. According to this viewpoint, disabilities are tragic,
and those who have them deserve sympathy.

“Social model of disability disabilities socially constructed the social model of disability
contrasts with what is called the medical model of disability according to the medical model
of disability is a health condition dealt with by the medical professionals people with
disability are thought to be different So what is normal or in other words for to be abnormal
disability seems to be the problem of the individual and not the problem of society from the
medical model a person with disability is in need of being fixed or cured the medical model
of disability is all about what a person cannot do and cannot be from this point of view
disability maybe seen as a tragedy and people with disability.”

 What are the advantages of a social model?

“Disability is the result of the interaction between people living with impairments and an
environment filled with physical attitudinal communication and social barriers it therefore
carries the implication that the physical attitudinal communication and social environment
must change to enable people living with impairments to participate in society or in the
community on an equal basis with other people's social model perspective does not deny
the reality of impairment nor its impact on the actual individual however it does challenge
the physical attitudinal communication and social environment to accommodate
impairment as an expected incident of human diversity the social model seeks to change
society in order to accommodate people living with impairment it does not seek to change
persons with impairment to accommodate the actual society it supports the view that
people with disability have a right to be fully participating citizens on an equal basis with
everyone else the social model of disability is now internationally recognised way to view
disability.”

Part D: International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health

The way we use language is powerful. Language influences the way we perceive and act
towards others. As a teacher paying attention to the way you refer to children and
students is an important aspect of inclusive practices.

The World Health Organization introduced the international classification of functioning,

disability, and health (ICF). ICF is named as it is because of its stress is on health and
functioning, rather than on disability. This tool provides a framework to think about the way
all people function in everyday life, no matter what the reason for one's impairments
 It attempts to "normalise the experience of disability by acknowledging that any
person could experience disability at any time through illness or an accident"
(Foreman, 2017 p. 28).
 It focuses on the level of functioning of a person as they interact with their
environment.
 Previously, once you were disabled, you were in a separate category and the ICF
moves away from this kind of thinking.

Video 1 and Video 3: How to explain the ICF and What is ICF?
How does the environment make a difference to how we experience the world? Is there
anything you notice the in the language which focuses on how a person function in an
environment rather than their 'disability'?

 This is just what ICF says: to describe the disability of an individual, we must describe
the characteristics of the body (“gelatinous”), the activity is taking place (walking on
sidewalk) and the surrounding environmental factors (manhole with too large holes,
no danger warning).
 A framework for summarising and organising data on functioning and disability is the
International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF). It offers a
conceptual framework and a common vocabulary for the characterisation and
quantification of health and disability.

Reflect on the different meaning of these words and thinks about the words you use to
describe people with disability.
- Impairment refers to an irregularity in the way organs or systems function.
- Handicap refers to the social or environmental consequence of the disability.
- Disability refers to the functional consequences of the impairment (Foreman,
2017 p. 28).

Part E: Develop your Critical Thinking: The Principles of Inclusion

1. Principles of social justice and human rights
2. All children can learn
3. Normalisation
4. The least restrictive environment
5. Age-appropriate behaviour

Part F: Journey to Inclusion

Reflect: Consider your experience with educational settings.
 Do you support inclusion for all students?
Yes, all students deserve a sense of inclusion at their educational settings.

 Is there a case for children to not be fully included?

Low-socio economic, gender, race, and disability

 Could you argue that some students are best catered for when they are integrated
or segregated?
Integrated is the best thing for as it allows students who learn about various cultures in
school eventually feel more at ease and secure about these differences. This enables
individuals to socialise with a larger variety of social groupings and feel more assured in
both their relationships with others and themselves as a result.

Part G: Language of Inclusion

The language of disability and accessibility
 People are often described as suffering from or afflicted by a disability. Equally
problematic is describing individuals as accomplishing something despite the
disability. Words and phrases that are considered derogatory include cripple, lame,
deaf, and dumb.
 Accessible language is language that includes everyone. People can feel excluded
when: they don't understand words or phrases. language is used in ways that pose
challenges to users of other technologies, such as text-to-speech software

Lecture Slides:
Inclusion as an educational and social philosophy
• Attitudes towards disability have evolved over the last few decades, children and
young people with a disability now live with their parents or elsewhere instead of in
institutions
• People with disabilities have a right to participate in a variety of educational contexts
and students with disabilities are now educated within regular classrooms
• Why do teachers need an understanding of student diversity? Classrooms have
increasingly diverse student populations, Good teaching addresses individual needs
of all students, Focus on effective teaching not disabilities
• Includes: Indigenous students; those with EAL/D; student from varied religious and
cultural backgrounds.

Explain concept of Disability

• Many definitions of disability
• A disability is functional consequence of an impairment
• There are different types and ranges of disability
• Students with a disability in mainstream classroom is one example of increased
diversity
• Students may have an intellectual disability, a physical disability, a sensory disability,
a learning difficulty or have behaviour problems
 • Intellectual disability: significant difficulties in reasoning, thinking and problem-
solving
• Physical disability: difficulties with mobility or movement
• Sensory disability: impairment in vision or hearing
• Learning difficulties: difficulty in learning basic skills of literacy and numeracy
• Behaviour problems: difficulty conforming or complying in situation-specific settings
• Developmental disability: significant problems in development during childhood
• Gifted and talented students may underachieve or have dual exceptionalities and
may need specialised support
• Focus on supporting student needs to achieve productive outcomes
• Use terms such as student with additional educational needs or student with a
disability.

Principles that form basis of inclusive practices

• Social justice, equity, human rights, all children can learn, normalisation, least
restrictive environment, and age-appropriateness
• Changing attitudes and social justice movements contributed to enhancing lives of
those previously restricted due to gender, religion, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and
disability issues
• What is People First principle?
• No decisions based solely on disability
• People who are disadvantaged should have equal access to educational provisions
• Widespread belief that all children can learn
• Least restrictive learning environment
• A range of educational placements
• Normalisation: people should be able to live as normal a lifestyle as possible
• Children and young people with disability have access to same social opportunities
as their non-disabled peers.

Terminology and concepts related to inclusion

• What is integration, mainstreaming and inclusion?
• Integration: participation in regular school tasks or placement in less restrictive
setting
• Mainstreaming: placement in a regular class; however, educational support may not
cater for students’ individual needs
• Inclusion: educational process and philosophy that underpins it
• All schools should cater for all students
• Support underlies effective inclusive practices
• Underpins initiatives aimed to support students at risk of under-achieving such as
Indigenous students
• Inclusive contexts value and celebrate social, cultural, intellectual and behavioural
diversity
• Understanding based on individual needs of student within regular classroom
• Has a connection with ideas about social justice.

Language about disability

 • Social justice underlies the correct use of
terminology
• Always remember People First principle
• Don’t refer to a disability unless necessary
or relevant
• Focus on individual needs or additional
needs of student and not on disability
• Avoid expressions such as deaf, a victim of
blindness, autistic children, and normal
children
• Use expressions such as people with a
disability, she uses a wheelchair, or he has
spina bifida
• What are differences between
impairment, disability, and handicap?
• Impairment refers to an irregularity in way
organs or systems function
• Disability is functional consequence of
impairment
• Handicap is social or environmental
consequence of disability.

An historical view of education for children with disabilities

• Home schooling, residential schooling, special schools, hospitalisation, or
institutional provisions
• Specialised services in segregated settings, schools, classes or groups
• After-school life at home or in a sheltered workshop
• Move towards early intervention, integration, inclusion and post-school programs.

A range of educational responses to disability

• A range of educational opportunities including inclusion

• Students can be integrated, mainstreamed, or fully included
• Aim to find least restrictive environment for child
• What is best for student’s individual education, social, physical and emotional
needs?
• Most school systems provide a range of classes and schools to cater for special
educational needs
• Use of placements will vary according to individual needs of student
• Residential special schools, separate special day schools, separate special schools,
units or classes located in a regular campus, single special class in regular school with
part-time regular placement, to least restrictive, which is regular class
• Following placement, appropriate practice needs to be addressed
• Early intervention, partial participation, cross-school/class programs, curriculum
adaptations, partial or supported participation, individualising instruction, modifying
classroom environments, post-school programs, lifelong learning
 • All teachers should provide for individual needs of all students in their class
• What are some benefits and concerns about inclusion?
• How have attitudes changed towards inclusion?
• How has funding and support changed?
• How are schools responsible for identifying needed resources?

Outcomes of inclusion for students with a disability

• Emphasis on identification of support needs
• Positive social outcomes for students with disabilities
• Greater opportunities for social interaction
• Improvement of communication skills and friendship building
• Negative outcomes: social isolation and negative influence of teacher’s aides on
social interaction
• Positive or negative outcomes for skills acquisition
• Interactive/small groups help social development and skill acquisition
• Academic performance or behaviour of typically developing students is not
compromised by students with a disability in class
• Teaching methods used for students with disabilities may benefit typically
developing students too
• Many teachers see parents as invaluable supports, others do not prefer parents to
volunteer in classroom
• Both parents and teachers facilitate support
• Parents of students with disabilities want inclusion, positive attitudes, acceptance of
their child and effective educational opportunities
• Some parents may worry about lack of support
• Parents of typically developing students worry about impact of inclusion on their
child
• With experience and support, teachers become more confident and positive towards
inclusion, increase their professional skills and their personal satisfaction increases
• Role of teachers includes developing a positive attitude, training to increase skills
needed for facilitating inclusion
• Most inclusive classrooms cater for all students and not just for the students with a
disability
• Principals tend to be more supportive of inclusion than teachers
• Other factors may include support, logistic matters, number of students with
disabilities in each class, need for multiple evaluation approaches, parental struggles
and feeling of new teachers that they are unprepared to teach students with
disabilities
• Ensure a life-span process
• Prepare students for transition from school learning to adult learning
• Explore post-school options
• What support programs extend education for older students beyond school?
• What adult learning options are available?
• Are there community training programs available?

Teaching students with additional needs in regular classes

• How can educators work together to:
 – plan for instruction?
– adapt curriculum?
– encourage partial participation?
– modify classroom environments?
– engage students from diverse backgrounds?
• Planning involves individualising goals and strategies according to student’s needs
• Adapting curriculum means making learning more meaningful, relevant, and
accessible for student with disabilities
• Partial or supported participation provides ways for students to be involved in tasks
as much as is feasible
• Curriculum may need to be modified or a more functional curriculum may be needed
• Planning results in varied instruction, content, learning processes, outcomes, and
assessment according to a students’ individual needs for some participation in class
activities.
• Social, physical, and academic environment may need amendment to accommodate
student’s needs
• This includes gifted and talented students who might benefit from an enriched
curriculum.

How does inclusive teaching:

• Value and include all students?
• Modify physical setting?
• Focus on support needs?
• Enable all students to progress at their own rate, experience success and
work towards outcomes relevant to current and future contexts?
• Include managing resources to ensure each student achieves support they
need?
• Ensure learning is relevant to student needs?

Myths and misconceptions about disability

• Inclusive education can help overcome misconceptions about disabilities
• Learning about disability and getting to know people with disabilities can provide
opportunities for dispelling misunderstandings about differences
• One myth is that teachers need to know all about a child’s disability in order to teach
them
• Effective teaching methods that benefit all students are attributes mostly required
• No need for special patience or unusual skills
• Detailed knowledge of a student’s individual needs will help teacher plan effective
teaching methods
• All teachers of regular classes will continue to be expected to provide appropriate
educational programs for a diverse range of students.

Future of Inclusion
• Inclusion is a concept that extends well beyond students with a disability
• All schools should strive for optimal education for all students
• All teachers of regular classes will continue to be expected to provide appropriate
educational programs for a diverse range of students
 • Inclusion will increasingly figure in professional standards for teachers in Australia
and elsewhere.

Summary
• Concept of inclusion as an educational and social philosophy
• Concept of diversity
• Overview of principles
• Terminology and concepts
• Appropriate use of language
• An historical view of inclusion
• A range of educational responses to disability
• Outcomes of inclusion
• Teaching students with additional needs in regular classes
• Myths and misconceptions about disability
• Future of Inclusion.

Discussion questions
1. What are essential differences between inclusion, integration, and mainstreaming?
2. It is sometimes said that it is environment that ‘handicaps’ an individual. Considering
physical, social, and academic components, how could a school provide a
handicapping environment?
3. How has principle of normalization impacted on lives of people with a disability?
4. How have you viewed people with a disability that you encountered in past? In
retrospect, could you have got to know and understand them better?

Tutorial Slides:

1. What do we mean by diversity?

Diversity means having a range of people with various racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and
cultural backgrounds and various lifestyles, experiences, and interests. Having a variety of
individuals and point of views represented in the department. In essences, diversity is a
group of people who are different in the same place.

2. What is the difference between integration, segregation, and exclusion?

Integration: A process of placing students with disability in existing educational institutions,

where the student is expected to adapt and change to participate in learning experiences
and learning environments. Integration is not compatible with inclusion (Graham, 2020)

Segregation: Education provided in a separate environment. Segregated setting means that

students with disability are not educated with their same-age peers. This is not inclusive
education (Graham, 2020).

Exclusion: The process of directly or indirectly denying or preventing students with disability
from obtaining access to education (Graham, 2020).
 3. What is ableism?

Ableism is explained as the process of making judgement and decisions that affect others
based on able-bodied experiences and being critical without reflection (Graham, 2020).

4. What is the difference between the medical model and social relational model of
disability?

Medical Model: A perspective on disability that regards people with disability as ‘objects
and their characteristics as ‘deficits’ to be remedied or cured (Graham, 2020).

Social Relational Model: Perspective on disability that sees disability as being imposed by
society’s failure to accommodate persons with impairments. It positions disability as a
societal failure, rather than an attribute or condition located within an individual.

5. What is ICF?

The World Health Organization introduced the international classification of functioning,

disability, and health (ICF). ICF is named as it is because of its stress is on health and
functioning, rather than on disability. This tool provides a framework to think about the way
all people function in everyday life, no matter what the reason for one's impairments. It
attempts to "normalise the experience of disability by acknowledging that any person could
experience disability at any time through illness or an accident" (Foreman, 2017 p. 28).
It focuses on the level of functioning of a person as they interact with their environment.

The primary function of the ICF is to standardise terminology, data collection and
assessment, particularly for eligibility for disability and health-support funding. For example,
the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) in Australia is informed by the ICF. This
biopsychological model is used more frequently in the fields of psychology, allied health,
and modern medicine, and has not been broadly adopted in education. It is important to
note that the language used within the biopsychosocial model is heavily influenced in the
medical model. This biopsychosocial model has been promoted in education (Cooper 2008):
however, the model has not matured enough to be useful in inclusive education, mainly
because it focuses too much on individual impairment and not enough on the structural
barries that can be adjusted (Graham 2020 page 34).

6. What is inclusive language?

Inclusive language is the words and phrases used that avoid biases, slang and expression
that discriminate against groups of people based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and
ability (e.g., avoid expressions such as deaf, a victim of blindness, autistic children, and
normal children, and use expressions such as people with a disability, she uses a wheelchair,
or he has spina bifida) (Graham 2020).

7. Why do we use person-first language?

Person First Language (PFL) prioritises the personhood of the person rather than their
identity. Using Identity First Language reinforces the labels placed on individuals rather than
their status as people. An example of this is if we refer to student with Down Syndrome as
“Down’s Children”, we place the focus on the syndrome rather than the children
themselves. Ultimately, it aims to avoid perceived and subconscious dehumanization when
discussing people with disabilities.

8. What is the difference between equity and equality?

Equity: The division of resources based on a commitment to impartiality, fairness, and social
justice (making sure people get access to the same opportunities e.g. ensuring everyone
can see over the fence regardless of height).

Equality: Equality promotes fairness and justice by giving everyone the same thing (the
equal and exact division of resources). Equality is not the same thing as equity

9. What is inclusion?

Inclusion is the action or state of including or of being included within a group. In the
context of education, it refers to the fundamental human right and process of systemic
reform in education. It aims to eliminate barriers, enabling all students to participate in
learning experiences and the learning environment with their same-aged peers. Inclusive
educations differ from exclusion, segregation, and integration (Graham 2020).