This week, we discussed disability-inclusive education. In this post, I define what that is, what it looks like in the classroom, and the benefits it has for social and economic development. I also discuss the role ICTs play. I finish my post by discussing how inclusive education is integrated into the CRPD and the UN SDGs.  Continue reading →

As every person has valuable skills, experiences, and ideas to contribute to society, it is important to provide every person with equal access to education resources. Education not only valuable for a person’s development as an individual, it is a necessary key to access opportunities and jobs in a society. The World Report on Disability estimates that there are “between 93 and 150 million school-aged children with disabilities globally” (UNESCO 9). Children with physical or mental disabilities are being excluded from classrooms around the world, limiting their opportunities and putting them behind the starting line from a young age.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that “up to 35 percent of students in OECD countries require some form of special support to meet their individual learning needs during their school careers” (UNESCO 10). As many teachers around the world do not have training on how to identify students with disabilities, the students are often left out classroom lessons or sometimes even punished if teachers do not understand the disability. We need more worldwide trainings on ways to identify and include children with disabilities in the classroom, so that everyone has the opportunity to learn on a level playing field. Each learner should be able to maximize their full potential and celebrate their own special gifts.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) will be an essential element to developing inclusive education systems. ICTs allow all students to learn based on their individual learning needs. ICTs include online classrooms and digital learning environments, communication aids such as screen readers and alternative keyboards, and accessible media formats (UNESCO 11). A “one size fits all” teaching method does not work because we do not have just one kind of student – every person has methods that work better for them. Inclusive technologies account for different learning needs, give students the tools they need to succeed, and remove the barriers put into place by only having one teaching method.

To incorporate ICTs in classrooms around the world, there needs to be a greater emphasis on policy changes and increased funding for inclusive education. Policy objectives include the learner level, organization level, and system level. At the learner level, ICTs should be included not only in traditional educational settings, but also in lifelong learning and social spaces (UNESCO 22). At the organization level, educational organizations should be working with ICTs to increase participation learning opportunities (UNESCO 22). At the system level, ICT stakeholders must agree that technology is effective in creating more inclusive learning spaces, active dialogue must be present, and effective data must be present to continue policy support (UNESCO 22). Funding should be secured from a variety of budgets, including health, education, social affairs, and information society sectors (UNESCO 42).

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares education as a human right for all. Inclusive education is the cornerstone to the human right to education, as every person has the right to have their education meet their learning needs. As we strive to make education inclusive for all learning needs, we will see learners growing both inside and outside of the classroom. If all learners are able to grow to their full potential, the world will grow too, as we will see the full impact of combining every person’s skills and ideas.

Resources:

http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002272/227229e.pdf#page=11

https://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights/universal-declaration-of-human-rights/articles-16-30.html

This week in class we went over the concept of Inclusive Education. The literature that we went over to prepare for this session included looking at the UN G3ICT Model Policy for Inclusive ICT’s in Education for PWDs. This piece focuses on how UN member states can make education more accessible to persons with disabilities. Within this document is a chapter related directly to policy actions and objections at three different levels of an inclusive education system. An interesting feature to these actions and objectives is that they are not technology specific, this was done with the intention of making sure that the actions and objectives do not become less relevant as technology progresses. I found this section of the document most intriguing because of the highlighted steps that can be seen in the image below:  

Oftentimes as initiators of change we forget that before diving into pushing for a certain policy we need to take a step back and review the current situation. I think that this document does a great job of explaining the need to take these steps and then provides critical questions to be asked at each stage in relation persons with disabilities. I think that a similar approach should be taken when writing out our final capstone projects, I am excited to be able to use this as a guide as I work on my project for the rest of the semester.

In class we also had the opportunity to talk about the importance of inclusive education models and how they align with several of the UN SDG”s. Professor Cogburn had the opportunity to speak about a project that he had worked on for several years with the Nippon foundation. His efforts eventually led to the creation of the first masters degree in disability management that can be completed online. It was exciting to see that American University was part of these efforts and in some ways is a trailblazer in creating inclusive education. I think that it is also important to emphasize why it is so critical that this degree could be completed online and how it relates to another concept we talked about in class called universal design. When someone mentions that a product or service has been made with a universal design it means that it is made with the intention of granting equal access to said product/ service to everyone regardless of capability. In order for us as a society to be more inclusive we need to start designing everything with the concept in mind.

This blog post will discuss how education is linked to freedom and development and the environmental concern of electronic educational technologies.
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