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Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023

The development of SEEDS (Scalable Educational Experiment with Digital Empowerment) by a collaboration of Microsoft Research India, Vision Empower and the Centre of Accessibility in the Global South, IIIT Bangalore, is described. India has over 240,00 children with visual impairment. The system uses feature phones rather than smart phones, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) - to enable the child to be rung back and HEXIS for braille. The use, piloting and challenges of the system are briefly outlined.

Presented at the Disability Innovation Summit: Inclusive Interactions conference organised by the GDI hub on 13 Sept 2023.

Three models of disability innovation start-up are introduced based on 8 years of experience mainly in the area of the education of children with disabilities in Ghana. The models are: the community centred approach; the student led approach; and the hybrid model which is revenue driven. Outcomes and difficulties are briefly discussed.

Set of tools developed by Learn More consultancy firm within the Inclusive Education Resources and Toolkit. Available in 4 languages (Arabic, English, French, Spanish) the tools include:

Identifying children who are out of school or have dropped out
Making an Inclusive, Learner-friendly Classroom
Social and Emotional Learning in the Classroom
Accessible School WASH Checklist
Tip sheet: WASH for Children with Disabilities
Teachers Communities of Practice
Teacher Interview Guide: Personal Professional Development
A Lesson Plan Template
Universal Design for Learning
Organization and Management of School-community Liaison Committees
Elements of an Inclusive School Policy
Supporting Children’s Speech and Cognitive Development from Birth to Seven Years Old
Sparking grassroots coalition building
Disabled Peoples’ Organization (DPO) collaboration strategies
Stakeholder alignment workshop template

Published by Save the Children Italy, Save the Children Sweden

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant challenges to education globally, as schools were closed, and alternative means had to be sought to enable students to continue with their studies. In the resource-constrained setting of Bangladesh, the pandemic impacted on the education of 37 million children (UNICEF 2021), of whom children with disabilities have been amongst the most severely affected. Already disadvantaged compared to children without disabilities in terms of access to education, the pandemic and the challenges of accessing remote learning have deepened inequalities between children with disabilities and their able-bodied peers. This study was undertaken as part of DID Task Order 13 Bangladesh, the goal of which is for girls and boys with disabilities to have equal access to quality education and support. Interventions are based in the two districts of Narsingdi and Siranjganj and the subdistricts of Narsingdi Sadar, Tarash and Sirajganj Sadar. The aim of this research was to explore the experiences of children with disabilities, their parents and teachers in respect of access to learning opportunities during school closures and beyond. Its findings inform the interventions of the project, specifically the support required for individual learners with disabilities and their families as well as for the schools where they are enrolled. Method: This qualitative study was carried out in the three sub-districts of Bangladesh mentioned above and based in schools denoted for project intervention. Children with disabilities were purposively selected from school records to represent a range of ages, grades, type of disability and different sexes. Screening was conducted using the UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM). Data was collected between October 2021 and February 2022 and included in-depth interviews with 22 children with disabilities, 23 caregivers and six teachers, as well as through household and school observations. Findings: Based on the CFM, 91% of the children interviewed have difficulties in more
than one functional domain, with the most common being difficulties in controlling behaviour, learning and communication. The study found the CFM to be more sensitive to identification of functional difficulties than the teachers’ assessments. Through the interviews, a range of challenges were raised regarding continuation of learning during the pandemic. Almost all the children mentioned that they missed their schools, and particularly their friends. Caregivers expressed concern about their children being out of touch with their studies, acknowledging that schools provide an environment that helps students learn. When movements were restricted, and children could not go to
coaching classes or be with their friends, some children displayed regressive behaviour such as increased agitation because of the social isolation. One of the most common supports that facilitated learning during school closures was the appointment of private tutors. In addition, family members helped their children study at home. Where teachers were able to visit children and provide structure and support for home learning (in the form of assignments), this significantly contributed to children’s motivation to continue with their education. While the caregivers tried to support their children as far as possible, several factors impacted negatively on learning viz. lack of motivation of children to continue with their studies, inadequate support from teachers and financial constraints undermining the ability of families to cover the costs of education. Especially challenging was the lack of access to technological support and limited time and skills of parents to support their children with disabilities, in addition to their household responsibilities and other children to look after. Although caregivers talked about the lack of support from teachers, the teachers, on the other hand, mentioned that they were not fully equipped with knowledge and skills to appropriately support learners with disabilities. In some instances, children with disabilities were kept behind a grade for not passing their class assessments or were allowed to progress to the next grade without achieving the required competencies. Observations of homes revealed that almost all of the children with disabilities interviewed were living in low-income households, with overcrowding, outside washrooms, minimal furniture and no conducive study areas. Some houses had mud flooring and tin rooves, posing multiple safety and physical barriers for children with disabilities. School visits enabled identification of inaccessible infrastructure, including access roads, entrances and washrooms. Although all of the schools visited had ramps, none of these were fully usable and none had rails. As schools reopen, interviewees identified various strategies that would contribute to encouraging learners with disabilities to return to school and participate effectively in learning. These include specific focus on learners with disabilities by teachers in order to
provide targeted support; ending discrimination against those who do not perform well academically; and differentiation of the curriculum and assessments for learners with intellectual disabilities. These interventions, together with ensuring accessible school infrastructure, will contribute to creating a more enabling environment for learners with disabilities.
Recommendations: The COVID-19 pandemic has further deepened vulnerability of low income families and exclusion of children with disabilities from education. In order to address the potential widening gap that could be created by a surge of dropouts following school closures, various interventions need to be prioritized. These include building on the strategies of resilience already developed by families to support learning of their children; and enhancing parents’ confidence in providing support themselves. In addition,linkages between home and school need to be strengthened and appropriate learning resources made available to children at home, taking cognizance of the inaccessibility of
technology and remote programmes for children with disabilities (both in terms of devices and connectivity). It is essential that teachers’ role in supporting learning at home for children with disabilities be strengthened; and that teachers are equipped with skills to cater for disability and diversity among learners. This needs to be accompanied by removal of barriers in the built environments of schools and their surrounds.

•The ICT Directory for Inclusive Education presents Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) that have the potential to foster the education of children with disabilities in inclusive schools.
•The ICTs are presented according to the type of difficulties they can address. These difficulties, which are defined in the Washington Group questionnaire, can affect a student’s participation in the classroom:
-Visual impairment
-Hearing impairment
-Communication difficulties
-Difficulty remembering/concentrating/learning
-Difficulty moving upper limbs
 

Early childhood education has the potential to expand opportunities for disadvantaged children, provided that programmes use inclusion as a guiding principle. While the international community has committed to inclusive education, countries vary in their efforts to extend this goal to early childhood. Universal access is the basis of inclusion, and countries must address barriers related to socio-economic status, ethnicity, gender, language, disability and remoteness. Cooperation among multiple actors to identify special needs early and provide integrated services is needed, as are inclusive curricula that support children’s socioemotional development and identity formation. Finally, educators must be given the knowledge, training, and support to implement inclusive practices and work with families from all backgrounds

Policy paper 46.

This package is designed to assist with the training of staff within CBM and its partners. It has been prepared with country and regional advisory staff in mind but will have value for project/ programme management and other staff too. It has been designed for use with small groups of participants (e.g., maximum 10-15).

This training package focuses on inclusive education. It interprets inclusive education in a broad sense as a dual process of bringing about education system change, at all levels of education, to the benefit of all learners; and supporting the needs of individual learners, especially those with disabilities. It is not a training about specific impairments, nor will it show participants how to identify, teach and support learners with specific impairments. Instead the package helps participants to understand better the overarching challenges being faced and the systematic programme and advocacy approaches that CBM, its partners and other similar organisations need to engage with.

This training package consists of the following booklets:

A Inclusive education and CBM

B Inclusive education and the community

C Participation and achievement for all learners

D Education system change

This report documents the experience of exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. These experiences reveal pre-existing structural inequalities that affected the lives of people with intellectual disabilities and their families before COVID-19, during the pandemic, and beyond, and this report raises up the voices of those most excluded in a time of global crisis and demands an inclusive COVID-19 recovery.

This report includes the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and families across eight different issue areas. Across these themes, we examined how and why people with intellectual disabilities were left out and excluded in pandemic responses, what pre-existing conditions and inequalities contributed to their vulnerability and exclusion, and how future policy structures could begin to address both this immediate and systemic exclusion.

Together, these experiences and policy solutions form our global agenda for inclusive COVID-19 recovery, an action plan to ensure that government efforts to ‘build back better’ are inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Inclusion International is often asked what we mean by “inclusive education”. Here are the most common questions from our members together with our responses. The responses are based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and General Comment 4 issued by the UN CRPD committee, which outlines the implications of the CRPD for inclusive education.

Questions:

• What is inclusive education?
• What are the differences between exclusion, segregation, integration and inclusion?
• What are the key ingredients of an inclusive education system?
• What are some of the steps toward achieving inclusive education?
• What is the difference between an inclusive education system, an inclusive school and inclusive classroom/practices?
• What is meant by the “twin–track” approach to funding inclusive education?
• What is the difference between accessibility and reasonable accommodation?
• How can teachers provide equal opportunities for all students within their allocated classrooms?
• Is transforming special schools into resource centres a good strategy for moving towards an inclusive system?
• What is sometimes called “inclusive education” but is not?
• What are the benefits of inclusive education for students with disabilities?
• Is inclusive education good only for students with disabilities?
• Is inclusive education more expensive than segregation?