Presented at ISEC 2000

Human Rights, Inclusion and the Voice of the Oppressed

Richard Rieser

We chose the word oppressed advisedly. Several speakers in the plenary have used the word. Certainly in the Disability Movement in Britain and in the Movement for Inclusion we see this as fighting an oppression, disablism, as pernicious as racism, imperialism, classism, sexism or homophobia and it is as deeply rooted in the culture of our country. I would suggest in many countries around the world.

I thought I would share with you some of the thinking that has gone into our Movement, which is now affecting Government decision making and the development of inclusion in our schools. Part of that Movement has been an Alliance of the Disabled People's Movement, parents of disabled young people, disabled young people themselves and non-disabled professionals. This is called the Alliance for Inclusive Education (details at the end). The Alliance is currently campaigning for there to be a right for every child to go to a mainstream school where that is their wish or their parent's. We haven't quite got that far yet. Margaret Hodge ( Under- Secretary of State for Education, Equal Opportunities) amongst others are still considering whether to move back on their segregationist position which they are currently espousing in a Bill that is to go through Parliament next year.

The training which we do through Disability Equality in Education is linked to that. We felt if we were going to campaign for inclusive education we also had to have a network of trainers who were putting the perspective of disabled people and inclusion. So we have trained about 140 disabled adults. Firstly, to make them come back to schools at all because their general experience was so bad that they didn't want to go anywhere near schools, so we had to spend the first morning saying "it is worth going back so that young disabled people don't have to go through the same things that you did". Then armed with some tools that we have developed in our movement, particularly moving from a medical to a social model analysis and then using some of the techniques that have been developed in North America such as the intentional building of relationships, circle time, circles of friends, maps, paths, we go in and train teachers. We preferably like to have all the teachers and all the staff who work in the school together for a whole day and we take them through a training. I am going to take you through some of what we do and then we also have another organisation called Parents for Inclusion which is part of the Alliance for Inclusive Education. The three of us are thinking of joining together because we think that being united is better. We have now a Centre for Inclusion in London which will be running for at least the next three years to be give training to parents, professionals, staff and to disabled people. So that is where we are coming from.

Out of the Alliance grew an organisation called Young and Powerful. We have eight representatives here. They are young people who believe that disabled and non disabled young people in mainstream schools needed to group together to fight for their views to be heard. You will hear those views later on. I do not apologise for the first part because I feel if you do not understand where we are coming from it is difficult to understand how our training works.

We start from the point of view that there is a real difference between our impairment and our disablement.

"Impairment is the loss or limitation of physical, mental or sensory function on a long term, or permanent basis".

"Disablement is the loss or limitation of opportunities to take part in the normal life of the community on an equal level with others due to physical and social barriers. " (Disabled People's International 1981)

Our impairment has got very little to do with our disablement. One of the things that many people still see, particularly when they misuse words like handicap which was happening from the platform quite a lot yesterday is that they confuse these two phrases. To give you an example. My impairment is that I had polio when I was nine months old fifty years ago now. It affected my left leg, back, right arm. I was brought up by my parents, as most parents did in the fifties, to overcome my impairment which took me thirty-five years of therapy and other things to sort out and to realise I am a disabled person and I am different and I am proud to be different but if you are brought up to overcome it you are brought up to be the same as everybody else which of course you are not and therefore we do a disservice to children not to recognise difference and to celebrate it. It was a shock to me when I used to see myself walking down the street with a lopsided gait in shop windows and I thought "who is that little boy?" and it was me, because I did not have an image of myself like that. When I wanted to go to mainstream primary school I was very shocked when the head teacher said he could not have me because I was a fire risk. This was built on one level and was a new school just opened. I think there were three steps. Well I used to climb trees and things so three steps were not a problem for me! I ended up being sent to a school for physically handicapped children which was one of the things we developed here in Britain which we then exported to many places around the world and everybody had to go there because they had a medical diagnosis that they had a physical impairment.

When I got there I was so shocked by the range of impairments there because of course I was not disabled, having been brought up not to be, that I had a tantrum and refused to go there and eventually I was taken to another school paid for by the local education authority which was called progressive. This was run by Freud's daughter and it was not very progressive actually. I was kicked down the stairs by a French teacher and various other things. I was labelled having a learning difficulty and emotional and behavioural difficulties so I had three labels that I carried around with me. After about seven years of messing around there I decided to leave and went to an ordinary mainstream school and just got on with my education so it did not really help me, all this labelling. The point was the disablement was people's response to me. It is not me, it is not my impairment and that is the principal of our training.

However, it is very difficult because people are surrounded with an image environment that is absolutely full of confusing stereotypes and with disabled people there is not one stereotype. There are at least ten and you can probably think of more. See Table 1

TABLE 1 "THERE ARE 10 MAIN STEREOTYPES OF DISABLED PEOPLE .
THE DISABLED PERSON AS:-

# PITIABLE AND PATHETIC-Charity adverts, Telethon, Children in Need, Tiny Tim in a 'Christmas Carol' or Porgy in Gershwin's 'Porgy and Bess'.

# AN OBJECT OF VIOLENCE-'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane' or 'Wait until Dark' set the style for countless TV films.

# SINISTER OR EVIL-Shakespeares 'Richard III', Stevenson's 'Treasure Island', 'Dr.Strangelove', 'Dr.No' ,Speilberg's 'Hook' or Freddy on 'Elm Street'.

# ATMOSPHERE-shown as curios or exotica 'freak shows', & in comics, horror movies and science fiction e.g 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' or ' X-Men'.

# 'SUPER CRIP' OR 'TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY'-'Reach for the Sky', the last item on the news, e.g.climbing a mountain .

# LAUGHABLE 'Mr.Magoo', being the butt of jokes or films like 'Hear No Evil, See No Evil' and 'Time Bandits'.

# HAVING A CHIP ON THEIR SHOULDER- Laura in the 'Glass Menagerie', often linked to a miracle cure as in 'Heidi' and the 'Secret Garden'.

# A BURDEN/OUTCAST- as in 'Beauty & the Beast' set in subterranean NewYork, the Morlocks in the 'X-Men' or in 'The Mask'.

# NON-SEXUAL OR INCAPABLE OF HAVING A WORTHWHILE RELATIONSHIP-Clifford Chatterley in 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' ,'Born on the Fourth of July' or O'Casey's 'Silver Tassie' to name but a few.

# INCAPABLE OF FULLY PARTICIPATING IN EVERYDAY LIFE-our absence from everyday situations, not being shown as integral and productive members of society. When we are shown the focus is on our impairments."

The problem then is people do not know how to relate to disabled people particularly as most non disabled adults went to school in segregated settings themselves where there were no disabled children. They have no experience of relating to people who are significantly different from the normal range. Therefore this is reinforced in the books we read from early on. This is from western culture, I apologise to other cultures. If you have examples I would welcome those being given to me later. In many cultures there are these children's stories which use these sort of archetypal ideas. This is one we have in Britain called "Hansel and Gretel". It is also from northern Europe. It is about child abuse. It is about children being abandoned in a forest, lured to a house made of sweets, meeting an evil person. Of course you can tell by looking at her because she is bent over, uses a crutch and is visually impaired and she wants to eat them and they burn her alive. Now this is the favourite story in Britain for three year olds so we are starting pretty early conditioning our children. You might remember this Swiss story called "Heidi". She has a friend called Cripple Clara. You do not hear much about Cripple Clara except she sits in the corner most of the time but eventually Heidi persuades her to come back to the Alps. I do not know whether it is the clean Alpine air or this naughty boy here who chucks her wheelchair away but suddenly she is walking. This is a stereotype that it is really all our own fault. If you just do enough you can get out of that chair. It is a favourite stereotype of physiotherapists I have to say.

Or take the Disney Corporation who three years ago gave us this. I suppose about half a billion children around the world must have seen this, maybe a billion by now. "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". The interesting thing about this is most children in this generation did not know what a hunchback was so it reintroduced the word as a negative word to our language. He is isolated, he is alone. When he does come down he is made the King of Fools, they throw vegetables at him and the only person who befriends him is someone called Esmeralda who is also an outcast as she is a traveller or a gypsy as they were known who are unfortunately in this country still being outcast as in other parts of Europe. Unlike Victor Hugo's book where she is hung by the people of Paris because she is associating with an evil person, a disabled person, here in the Disney version isn't it better, she goes off with a non disabled, upright, white, handsome bloke and Quasimodo has to go off with a little girl. Now I do this sort of work with children in my job. We look at these things and I get them to rewrite them. This is one where a group of six year olds rewrote the story and this is what they said.

"Once upon a time there was a man called Quasimodo. He was disabled. The king said you must go to the Festival of Fools. On his way he met three gargoyles. They are made of stone. They said, 'Go to the festival, it will be nice.' Quasimodo said, 'I will go.' He saw a beautiful girl called Esmeralda, she had black hair. The man loved her and they got married. In their wedding they kissed each other. One night the girl's tummy started to hurt because she was going to have a baby. They was twins. One night it was raining and the baby came out and they lived happily ever after."

Well, if six year olds can do that I think it is about time the Disney corporation gave up! They do go across different cultures. This is a bilingual book from Bengal called "Four Deaf Men" which is used in East London where we have a lot of Bengali students. It is really a story about laughing at four people who are deaf. That is the only point of this story. I think you will find in every culture we have these stereotypes.

There are also a huge range of films churned out by Hollywood but not exclusively. This one, a horror film called "Candyman", is about a guy with a hook who rips women up. So that is what you do with a prothesis. Think of any James Bond film that you have seen. The evil is signified in this one, "Dr No", by someone with a metal hand. This is one that came out a little while ago from America called "See no Evil, Hear no Evil" about a blind man and a deaf man. The whole point of this film is just to laugh at them. So it is not really very surprising when young people who have no other experience start to make fun of people who are different. This is in a Batman film, Freddie Twoface, one side good, one side bad. I am sure I have made my point by now. Occasionally we get a good film like this one you might have seen, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" where there is just a disabled guy in it who is not stereotyped and he is quite an important part of the film. He signs and that is very important for understanding the ending.

Where does all this come from? In the West it comes from a culture of oppression, as Joshua Malinga, Chair of Disabled International, said two thousand years at least. I would say four thousand years. If you go back to ancient Greece, they dominate the thinking with the idea of the body beautiful. In a couple of months in Sydney we are going to be celebrating the Olympic Games. Olympus was where super human Gods lived and the Olympic Games is trying to be like the Gods. Anyone who was less than perfect was less than God-like, so you get this move to rejection. Alongside we have the beginning of Eugenics with Aristotle determining who should live and who should die. That was a very strong idea which came through western culture to the Renaissance to Twentieth Century global culture. The body beautiful is now something that is stamped across the world in every fashion magazine. The people you see in these magazines are not the people we know. They are not the people who live in our streets they are not the people in our schools. This has a very big impact on whether people feel they are OK as a person or not, especially on young people as they are growing up.

There is another tradition that is from Jewish and Christian tradition and also in Islam which is that you need to be good to those less fortunate than yourself. The charity idea that you should give ten percent of your income. This is St Martin of Tours cutting one third of his cloak off to give to this disabled beggar who is outcast, who is outside the city wall. We are also characterised in history as evil. Richard III, a very well known Shakespeare play. There is no evidence that Richard was disabled. This picture was X-rayed in the National Portrait Gallery a few years ago, a picture painted at the time and they found this shoulder was raised sixty years after he died to give him a hunchback appearance. So it is an early form of propaganda and it continues to this day.

The witches we talked about were not just stories of witches. This was based on the history of medieval Europe. In the great witch hunts of 1480 to 1680 it was proof positive of witchcraft if you gave birth to a disabled child or were yourself disabled. You did not have to bring any other evidence to sign somebody's death warrant. This is a woodcut of a witch trial in Oxford in 1613. We can see that this culture embedded in much of western culture which is unfortunately dominating everyone else in many ways is ongoing. It got worse before it got better. In the last part of the 19th century with the rise of racism in the dash for Empire. If we were going to be a good colonial power that went out to dominate everybody else we had to send good strong healthy minded people out to do that job and therefore the secret side of that growth of racism and colonialism was locking away up to a million people in this country and France, Germany and America who were deemed mentally deficient.

This overhead shows Churchill's thoughts.

"The unnatural and increasingly rapid growth of the feebleminded classes, coupled with a steady restriction amongst all the thrifty, energetic and superior stocks constitutes a race danger. I feel that the source from which the stream of madness is fed should be cut off and sealed up before another year has passed."

Churchill was not alone in saying these things. It led to an Act of Parliament in Britain called the Mental Deficiency Act of 1913 which structured our schooling for the next century. This overhead shows the definitions in the Act which were: Idiots, Imbeciles, Feeble-minded, and Moral Defectives. That is where the idea that some children are ineducable came from.

Table 2 .Number of children in special schools in England and Wales 1887-1997

Source Cole 1989 based on Chief Medical Officer,Ministry of Education ,Dept. of Education and Science Annual Reports and DfEE Green Paper Oct 1997. @ Dfee Oct 1999 13/99 What we can see( Table 2) as we go through that last century is an inexorable rise of locking children away in separate institutions linked to ever more categories of impairment based education being operated. Note right here at the end of the century we are still at 106,42 children in England alone who are in separate special schools. Two fifths of those we know do not want to be there. It is not a matter of choice. There is no choice under the law in Britain at the moment of whether you can go to a mainstream school or not. Only in some local authorities will they try to meet that. The statute does not allow choice. It gives the final say to the local authority who can decide if it is efficient to do so, if it is not interfering with the education of other children and if it is appropriate for the child. Those are all subjective judgements, I would suggest, made by non disabled professionals based on IQ testing, psychometrics and other tests.

We are challenging that in quite a big way these days. We are not the first people to challenge it. The first disability movement in Britain started after the first world war when a lot of guys came home from war who were meant to be coming home to a land fit for heroes as they called it and they were dumped on the scrapheap. They formed a movement called the National League for the Blind and Disabled and they campaigned for disability rights. They occupied places like Downing Street in the 1930s and you did not hear much about it. Interestingly enough when another war came along they could not get anybody to fight without guaranteeing certain rights for disabled people. I think you find the same thing in America, Australia and other countries.

Out of the movement against the war in Vietnam, the veteran's movement in the United States led to the disability movement there and the upsurge in the civil rights for black people. There was also an upsurge in the 70s in Britain which formed the Disability Movement. Mike Oliver who talked yesterday was one of the founders of that and that UPIAS (Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation) document was very important. We have moved on since then. We have got nearly half a million disabled people organised in about 130 organisations that we run ourselves. I think that it is very important that the Disability Movement in this country is run by disabled people. It is not run by professionals, parents or anybody else. It is run by the people who are on the receiving end of the oppression. It is from that background we take those ideas into our schools.

The schools in England are very varied. In some places that you may have heard about like the London borough of Newham practically everybody now goes into mainstream schools. But there are other places like in the north east of England or up here in the north west, in a place called Knowlsey where there is thirteen times as much chance of being segregated in a separate school than if you live in Newham. It is an accident of geography very largely. You have the same impairment and you will have this much difference about where you are sent to school. You have the same group of children with impairments here as you do here (pointing to the different areas on the overhead) so it is not about the severity of their impairment or the resources they need because this (Newham) is not a very rich borough. It is about intention. It is about the intention to make the change and that is what a group of parents in Newham did and they said we want our children to go to ordinary schools and they took over the council and pushed that policy through and took people with them. Interestingly enough because we hear a lot about standards and that is obviously part of the agenda of the IMF and the globalised market, the standards in Newham have risen for the last four years faster than anywhere else in the country and that is to do with a change in the way teachers are having to do their job in meeting the needs of all pupils. I think we can find that in many other places.

Some of our thinking is to get away from this sort of model. (Shows overhead with disabled children and parents on one side, professionals on the other, pointing at each other saying "you are the problem!").

We try to get people in schools to understand that what we call the "Medical Model" is more than just what doctors do to us. It started from what doctors do to us because it was looking at our impairment. We were no more than our impairment. In fact many children are still labelled by their impairment. A Downs Syndrome child, a child with spina bifida. They are children first, we are people first. The focus is on the impairment and the cure or if we cannot get the cure we get shunted off to this "special land" which is different. In fact it is very similar. In "special land" you have hydrotherapy, in mainstream schools we have swimming. In "special land" you have Art Therapy, we just have Art in mainstream schools or Speech and Language Therapy. We call it development of literacy in the mainstream. Physiotherapy not PE. Once you are in "special land" you have few skills, you often have no qualifications, you have no self-esteem and no life skills so then you have to be looked after for the rest of your life. More than a million disabled people in the UK want work and cannot get it. In schools it has led to this geographic development (pointing to overhead).

Diagram 1 The Continuum of Provision

These are very rare conditions so we have to have schools that are very far spread apart where we send these children and that is where we put all our expertise and we spend a lot of money with psychologists and other people assessing the shape of the child to slot them into one of these pegs We want to get rid of that continuum. We want to get rid of putting the child who is different under the microscope asking "what can't he do?". We are saying in our training this is an oppression, it is just as bad as other forms of oppression which have been outlawed and it has to go. The barriers are what disable us not our impairment. It is the lack of access, the lack of communication, the lack of appropriate teaching methods, it is the way we reflect back to you what you do to us which leads us with no self esteem.

We have to start by building up the person, we have to start with a person centred approach which says that all children are valued in our schools and we are going to build it up from there.

Diagram 2 Empowering the Person

So we want to take all those resources that are out there in the Medical Model and reorganise them so they are all brought into the mainstream school to support the needs of each and every child with their peers. The interesting thing is that all of these resources come to quite a lot of money but they are not the best resource. The best and biggest resource is all the pupils in the school because they are the ones who can make inclusion work. So we have to do a lot of work with the teachers first of all and the young people to support this sort of model of empowering the young person. So in our training we say there is a choice, you can either stick with the old model which is faulty, where the child is faulty and spend a lot of money on this but at the bottom line there is no output for the child or for society. It is segregating and it is a denial of human rights. Or we can start by valuing the child, by developing the Social Model of Disability which includes them and using them and their peers to support that position.

I have put in the handout the checklist ( See Appendix 1) for inclusion and we get teachers to work through this once they have identified the barriers in their school. They can see how many of these things they are doing and what they need to do to make inclusion happen. For example whether they are going to have a bilingual school where deaf children can use their first language, sign language. We now have a number of schools which are bilingual in Britain where everybody is learning British Sign Language. Where they are not we would argue this is one exception where not all children should go to their local neighbourhood school. We see pre-lingually Deaf People who use sign language as a cultural minority so we believe they have the right to go to schools where there are sufficient people who use sign language so that they are not left out in the development of their culture. That means picking one or two schools in each area that you resource. We have found in these schools that we not only have teachers for the deaf who try to make sure the curriculum is appropriate, but we also have interpreters and most importantly deaf adults who are signing to develop the sign language of the young people. The teachers there will tell you there is no sign language for the new national curriculum. We have to develop that sign language there. You cannot do that in a separate special school because you do not have the stimulus of the whole range of the national curriculum. We think this is an important way forward.

We need to make sure that simple things like the language used in the playground is monitored. A lot of language that young people use towards each other, if they are not talked to about it, is very derogatory to disabled people. A lot of it is impairment derived such as "stupid", "cripple", "invalid", "idiot". In many schools in London where I teach the first person to be run down is your mother if they want to have a go at you in the playground. Then there may be racism if this has not been tackled but I must say in most British schools racism has been tackled to some extent. But disabilism has not been tackled and it is just as derogatory and used all the time. We are not helped by films such as "Dumb and Dumber" and others which use disabilist language and this is used commonly within our schools.

The other thing we have to do is build Circles of Support using these tools which have come from North America and we have been adapting for our own needs so that all the young people in the class are there to support each other. This intentional building of relationships is very important. Maresa is going to be one of the young people who talks to us in a minute. I was privileged to visit her and her circle up in Nottingham a few weeks ago. It was interesting that the non- disabled girls who joined that circle were now empowered themselves. Not just Maresa, but everybody was empowered by having this circle of support. The training we do then is about preparing all people who work in education for the future for inclusion, to identify barriers, preparing the whole school action plan to address these, developing an inclusive ethos as part of equal opportunities and developing inclusive teaching and learning. Last but not least working on the emotional intelligence of the school developing intentional building of relationships.

We believe that we have had an impact. In September of this year there is a new National Curriculum 2000 in schools in England and Wales. It has attached to it a general inclusion statement. It is on the internet (www.nc.uk.net) and I suggest people have a look at it. It is a very inclusive document. It makes it a requirement for every teacher in England and Wales to be personally responsible for the learning of every pupil in their class. That they have to get rid of certain barriers before they start identifying the needs of the individual child, such as making sure every child feels valued, feels secure, that there are no stereotypes in their class or in their teaching and that there is no bullying or harassment. These ideas have been around for a long time but they have never been a requirement for teachers in that way which can be inspected. Equally the new curriculum talks about all pupils and it really is the case that a child with a significant learning difficulty from September will for the first time have access to the full national curriculum. Up until 1973 a whole group of children were deemed ineducable. Up until 1988 they worked a separate curriculum which is about life skills like brushing their hair and tying up their shoe laces. From 1988 till now we have had a national curriculum but any child with a significant need could by disapplied from that curriculum. Only from this September will disapplication cease ( except for 14-16 year olds) and finally all children will have to have an access to a broad based entitlement curriculum at an appropriate level. It means you may have in many classrooms children working at many different key stage levels at the same time and that will be the ordinary teacher's responsibility. This takes us away from this idea of special teachers and mainstream teachers. The special has become mainstream through inclusion. There are problems that we still face but I think we have moved a long way in the last ten years that we have been campaigning on this issue. When the Alliance was first set up people used to look at us askance when we talked about the difference between inclusion and integration. They did not understand the difference. Now we have got the government talking about Inclusion. I think many of them are rubber ducks. It is our intention to make sure the reality of Inclusion happens. I am not just speaking for myself but a whole powerful array of people I am now about to introduce to you who will let you see why I am hopeful that the future is going to be an Inclusive future. Thanks.

Participants in the Symposium Top picture Left to Right Front Katie Caryer's PA, Katie Caryer, Katherine Kephalas, Santi Rieser, Anthony Ford. Back Row Judith Cefalas, and Katie Clarke. Bottom Pictiure Front Left-Right Richard Rieser, Liz Cefalas, Maresa MacKeith. Back Row Midge Caryer, Preethi Manuel and Caroline MacKeith.

What inclusion means to me Preethi Manuel mother of Zahrah

"I didn't know what it was called at first. It was I guess a gut feeling. A gut feeling that I loved my baby and wanted her home even though the medical advice was for her to continue to be looked after in hospital - there were debates on which NHS authority would pay the costs. And then by the time she was home I had learnt the nursing skills to have her at home. I knew this is what I wanted although life was incredibly demanding.

I went to look at special nurseries - that's what they were called. In one I saw a row of disabled children strapped to standing frames with little glistening toys in front of them no one was helping the children touch or play with them. I went to so called ordinary nurseries bustling with life. It seemed the right place for any Child. I asked very hesitantly 'Could Zahrah join here?' That's how inclusion started. All the nurseries she went to included her.

But it is when statutory provision began that the battles began, I'll show a few minutes from how we gained a primary school place for Zahrah. It took over 3 years trying to convince the local authority that Zahrah could go to a mainstream school. By this time we'd sold our flat and had used all the money from the sale of the flat towards educating Zahrah at home, we'd even gone to a tribunal and won but the tribunal decision was not legally binding so not much came of that. But see if you recognise anyone here.

Zahrah thrived at primary school. Children would warm towards her and children learnt to communicate with her. Zahrah uses switches to communicate. Nowhere was the difference more marked about the kind of inclusive education Zahrah was receiving than when I went to help out with swimming. I would see two buses arrive for the leisure centre. One was from the special school. Children would be taken out one by one in wheelchairs, there'd be a few remarks being made by their assistants. When the wheelchairs were parked, they'd be left facing no one in particular, sometimes they'll be facing the road. Children weren't communicating with each other, it was the adults communicating with them. And then they'd disappear into the leisure centre, I'd not see them, they'd go in through a different entrance, not the main entrance. And then I'd hear the chattering of schoolchildren and look and up the ramp will come a wheelchair with Zahrah in it pushed by two of her friends followed by an entire class of excited children. They'd go straight in through the main entrance as if it was the most normal thing to do. That was the difference of inclusion of one child but educating the whole school community. If it can be done for one like Zah, I knew it could be done for anyone.

Zahrah is a happy thriving child as a result of inclusion. We can go down the street and there'll be a child running up to her 'look there's Zah'. In the community where we live this is important because parents won't be turning their faces away, dousing their children's stares. We go on holidays, go to the local cinemas, we have a confidence that somehow we belong. Inclusion has made me proud of my daughter, not be ashamed of her. And Zahrah has contributed more than her fair share by growing up to be the gregarious, warm and giving person.

I'll say one thing, inclusion needs a lot of work on the part of all those who believe in it. Even organisations which are resourced for inclusion don't necessarily include. Recently we had a place for Zahrah at a school which was resourced for 3/4 million pounds to include physically disabled children but the school refused to admit Zahrah. We went to court and challenged them with a judicial review. Minutes before the hearing the school agreed to admit her.

I have learnt a lot about what inclusion is since my early days with Zahrah particularly from the members of the Alliance for Inclusive Education who have tirelessly supported our struggles. Fighting for inclusion never ends. It is about justice, equality, it is also about normal society, not one which is artificially segregated where certain sections of the community come out in the dark or are kept away from the buzz of life. Inclusion makes sense in rural communities in developing countries as much as it does amongst urban developed communities. An important lesson I've learnt is that creating inclusive Communities begins with making possible inclusive education - the process has top start early."

The following is an account written by Preethi of Battling for Inclusion.

"On 3rd September, with some trepidation and excitement, 1 took my daughter Zahrah to Whitefield Secondary School in Barnet. It was to be her first day there. That morning as I dressed her in her black and pink top with silver stars, teased her black tresses into a pony tail and told her how proud I was that she was my 12-year old, I could not have guessed for one moment how events that day would rip through our lives like a thunderbolt.

Standing there in that bustling school corridor on the first day of term beneath a sign which read 'Whitefield School for Respect and a Quality Education' and a noticeboard that, amongst a variety of international languages, proclaimed Vannakam' ('Welcome') in Tamil, my mother tongue, I could have been lulled into thinking that these declarations were from the heart and the head.

But within a few minutes I was hastily whisked into the headteacher's office and told, in a voice tinged with triumphalism, that Zahrah could not be in the school building. "Did you not receive the letter from the DFEE?". "No", I replied before a copy was placed in my hands. My eyes skimmed over words that seemed like a death penalty before I was interrupted. "Where's your daughter? Where's your daughter?" demanded the headteacher. I clutched onto my stomach as I could feel the free fall, not knowing when or where I was going to land. Surely my daughter has a statement naming the school I thought, and why, it's in the back of the car? Surely a statement was 'law'? And what threat was a child in a wheelchair accompanied by her own assistant? Please ... please. .." I heard myself plead with the head "You must allow me to break the news to her" How could I tell the head that this was Zahrah's birthday and in her bag she was carrying sweets for the new friends she would make at the school?

Out in that same bustling corridor I held my daughter's little hand over her grey plastic tray while my own were quivering. "I'll make it up to you my sweetheart" I said, "You must trust me. You do trust me, don't you?". Zahrah smiled, her 'yes' sign.

On the journey back not to my home but to the solicitor, I kept asking myself what words a mother would use to explain to her daughter why they did not want her at her school. Except that she was disabled. If my daughter had only been black, and not disabled too, would the school have been able to do the same? I know the school had shown considerable fear on Zahrah becoming a pupil there which is why I had had some misgivings but as a school that was specially resourced to accept physically disabled children, I had expected that they would move forward.

Instead they had appealed to the DFEE and the DFEE said that they would not do anything to direct the school to accept her. The same DFEE (Department for Education and Employment) which has created staff posts to promote inclusion around the country and produced the posters on billboards urging the public to "see the person, not the disability".

I spent a day with Zahrah and her best friend from school. We picnicked on the Heath, lay on a lilo bed, played scrabble and debated on how best to apply glitter nail varnish. The card that her friend gave Zahrah said "I'll miss you since you're moving to Whitefields Secondary. I'll miss you lots."

So now that thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money is being spent to contest Zahrah's exclusion from a mainstream school, I wondered what thoughts would go through the minds of so many professionals as they brace themselves, draw up argument after argument against the participation of a little 12-year old disabled girl in their school community. I wondered how as a mother 1 would withstand this trial. Would I clutch onto deeply painful parts of our history, our common history - of how disabled people were the first to go in the holocaust in Europe, of how every system in the land was set up to separate black people and deny them human rights in South Africa? Would I console myself by saying that we had moved on, now that we had a Disability Discrimination Act, signed up the United Nation's Salamanca Statement promoting inclusion, had a Disability Rights Task Force and an emerging Disability Rights Commission, a Special Education Consortium debating the removal of the three caveats under Section 316 of the 1996 Education Act, a Human Rights Bill, a Council for Disabled Children . . . Would I comfort myself that I had allies who had taken a stand against the segregation of disabled people - the Alliance for Inclusive Education, Direct Action Network (DAN), Parents for Inclusion ...

I wondered what a school would be teaching its pupils if on one hand they were saying that a disabled child is not welcome in a place that is suitable for everyone else. Or what my daughter's friends from primary school would infer from her rejection. I cannot help thinking that what has happened to our family amounts to cruelty because everyone in power in the three organisations that dealt with us - Camden LEA, Barnet LEA and the DFEE - could have predicted how devastating the effects of their decision would be on our lives. We had done nothing wrong except to follow the letter of the law. And now we stood accused. Our only crime was to say we wanted to belong, just like the rest.

I long for an end to this bitter and foolhardy battle - for the Court case, the Special Needs Tribunal and the Ombudsman complaint to be behind us. I long for the laughter again in my daughter's eyes as she plays with her school friends "Zahrah, Zahrah are you coming up with me?" "No, with me, Zahrah's coming up with me" "Zahrah, Zahrah . . "

I long for a future where no disabled child has to go through the life-sapping hoops that my daughter has had to go through - first for a mainstream primary school place, and now for a mainstream secondary school place. There really are no winners in this battle. Everytime we engage in such a process, we lose a chunk of our common humanity.

Zahrah

Katie Clarke Parent of Nadia

"I am a mum of 6 children - Sean is 9 years, Nadia is 8 years, Nikki is 6 years, Reay is 4 and the twins are 15 months.

I want all my children to go to the same local school within walking distance of where we live. I want them all to be part of the community; to develop friendships; have kids round for tea; go to birthday parties - and to be just like other families.

Nadia is bright, pretty, happy and included in all the family activities. But our lives are not so simple. She is labelled as severe cerebral palsy, is profoundly deaf and has communication difficulties. We believe in Nadia ...........

We lived in Northumberland until 2 years ago. Poor, sad Northumberland - you missed out on getting to know Nadia. Your schools did not want my daughter - although they did not know her. They had all read the reports written by professionals who did not know her. They said "attempts to meet her complex needs would be detrimental to the education of the other pupils."

She is just a little girl for gods sake - how can you say such a thing?

So, after 2 successful years in a mainstream nursery you find a special school that is a dumping ground attached to a deaf school in Newcastle. You send her early in the morning in taxi for an hours drive and she is back at 5pm - her siblings lose interest as they hardly see her.

She is in a room that is along a corridor, up a lift and down another corridor. In that room are just 2 other children - but there are plenty of adults.

You said "she will find mainstream education much more rewarding when she has learnt to communicate effectively" - but she does not see a speech therapist for a year. She has been toilet trained for 3 years - but starts wetting herself. She is good natured and loving - but begins to bite her helpers on several occasions in the hydro- therapy pool. She never gets to go out in the playground after lunch - the disabled kids rest on bean bags for 45 minutes instead. Nadia is profoundly deaf and uses BSL - so, for some reason, you give her an ex-high school Maths teacher who is only a beginner signer as her class teacher - and she has no experience of working with disabled children.

I want her to mix with the deaf children in the "other part of the school" - but you say that "Nadia is not ready to be integrated there yet". But it is you and the school that are not ready.

Meanwhile, we are going to tribunal. I am angry. Even friends do not understand. There is a narrow attitude that comes aong with a segregated system. I am hitting my head against a huge stone wall - it is called "society". It hurts.

So, I search for a school. For 2 years we write endless letters - most do not get replies. We make phone call after phone call. We go to visit schools. Nadia is either too deaf or too disabled. Won't someone out there just give her a chance - an opportunity to prove herself?

I try various other LEA's. No luck - until I meet a man called Bob Hayfield at Calderdale LEA. I am armed with Nadia's statement and reports that we are going to tribunal against - plus our own reports. He doesn't even have a look but says "Mrs Clarke, we need to find the best school for Nadia and her siblings to go to". Pardon - I reply. So, he says it again. It is like music to my ears.

We move over 100 miles and leave our white, middle class village to live within walking distance of a small, rundown, multi-ethnic school that has 9 other deaf children there plus it's own problems. They ramp it and build a disabled toilet. It is a big family upheaveal and a radical thing to have to do.

Each day I walk to school I glow with pride. It is something that most other families just do and take for granted. Everytime I see her in the playground surrounded by friends I know it was the right thing to do. Her own siblings feel proud of her too, they sign, communicate and include her. Kids know her in the area, wave and say "hi". She drives herself to Brownies in the barbie pink wheelchair. There is also a positive attitude towards deafness and disability in Calderdale - I feel that part of this is because of the inclusion in schools policy. Nadia's school is committed."

Caroline MacKeith Parent of Maresa
Why Inclusion is Important and what it has meant to Maresa

1. What is important is that Maresa experiences school life with children of different ages and abilities. It is often hard for children who can't talk to experience a mainstream education.

2. In mainstream school Maresa can get a general education appropriate to her.

3. Maresa will be sharing her school life with other children who live nearby and hopefully making friends.

4. It is important both for Maresa to be part of the school community and for the school community to have disabled young people in its midst.

5. In the long term it is more likely to lead to more opportunities after leaving school with the experience of making the relationships necessary to living a life Maresa is in control of.

Midge Caryer Parent

Hi, I'm the parent of Katie who's main special need, from an educational point of view, is her communication. She has no conventional speech but has a large repertoire of means of communication, including sign language, letter boards and an electronic communication aid.

It seems to me that children who use alternative communication are those that come up against the biggest resistance to mainstream education. When we embarked on our long battle to leave segregated special school, we were told, with typical LEA logic, that she could not be integrated into mainstream because they'd never done it before. However, we did win our battle and Katie did enter mainstream education, where her communication flourished.

Recently, she visited two special schools where she me other Liberator communication aid users. On the first occasion, when visiting her old special school as part of her work experience, she was asked to help and encourage a lad who was reluctant to use his liberator and it was hoped Katie's example would encourage him. Later, she attended a User Group meeting at another special school when I went along as her personal assistant. Katie was by far the most proficient user of her machine and, during the lunch break, the school's speech therapist was so impressed, she asked me what had motivated Katie to become such a competent user.

In the matter of Katie's communication, we took matters into our own hands, the special school and LEA having done nothing to give Katie useful communication. We selected and acquired the aid and arranged initial intensive sessions on the machine with a specialist speech therapist. Within about 6 months, Katie had functional language and basic knowledge of how to customise the machine which she continues to build on.

However, I am convinced the mainstream experience has provided the motivation needed to develop her use of the machine. Mainstream schools are made up of the usual mixture of people in both staff and pupils i.e. those who assume Katie will have nothing useful to say, those too rude and impatient to wait for her utterances and those who have the manners and intelligence to wait a while to hear what she has to say. Katie has learned how to cope with this and has devised various strategies to get people to listen to her. If a polite "excuse me I want to say something" doesn't work, saying something funny, outrageous or downright obscene will usually get the attention she needs to make her point. Most people soon realise she might be worth listening to.

Katie has received no support for her communication from the mainstream school and it's certainly not inclusive in the true sense of the word, but I am convinced that just the experience of being with people she wants to interact and have relationships with has motivated her to get to grips with her mode of communication - and also to pick up the current teenage vernacular - which is all pants as far as I can see. Had she remained in special school, I strongly suspect her communication would be limited to asking for the toilet or a drink. The assertion that special schools are the only places that can support children with communication impairments doesn't seem to be backed up by any evidence or research and is certainly discredited by our experience.

It is worrying that new parents are still being told that their non-verbal children can only have their needs met at special schools. Yes, they might have the gadgets and the therapists, but they can never provide 30 odd children of your age from your area who you want to talk to, so why bother talking?"

Judith Cefalas Parent

Richard has asked us to speak of our personal experience as parents who believe in and work for inclusion. I will do so confident in the knowledge that the girls can speak for themselves.

Inclusion and the social model of disability are regarded by too many people in the 'caring professions' as rhetoric, or mere rhetoric. But for us they are a lived reality, and the hope and promise of a better future. They give us an understanding of our oppression and a tool to combat it.

Lack of inclusion has led to many things in my life ; unemployment, benefits dependency, limits on opportunity in life generally, the writing off of a year's postgraduate conversion course in law and the loss of a place at Bar School and pupillage followed by a career at the Bar. In my civic life it has led to loss of tax to the government both from income and expenditure, loss of my expertise in the social and fiscal economy, a loss of return on education investment in me, and a loss of my professional input.

It has represented a denial of my human rights to a family life, which has been devastated by three years of full time unremitting caring as opposed to having a balanced family life, to privacy as we live in a two bedroom house which we cannot improve or leave, and much more.

I have had no voice as a parent and have had to work consistently at a personal, local and national level to try to address that silencing of my voice. I have become increasingly aware that as a society we do not value or listen to the voices of children, even more do we marginalise and trivialise the voice of the disabled child and adult. My life has become more of a crusade than a whole human experience.

I have only achieved a part of what was needed as a parent, carer and citizen because too many odds were stacked against me - no-one could have succeeded in the same circumstances. But that does not mean that I have been crushed. I know I have done as good a job as a parent as I could alone and unsupported by partner, family or community. I have given as much care in as positive a way as I had the power to do. I have continued to speak out in my community and country against the injustices we have experienced and that I have seen in the lives of others.

I have no idea whether any of this has made any difference to anyone else. But it has made a difference to me. I can respect my own efforts. I can value my own achievements. I can look forward to opportunities in the future to do more and better than I have done before. I have two daughters who have achieved great things in their young lives and have huge potential for the future. I can be proud of them. I can be proud of myself. I am able to accept the opportunities offered to me by Parents for Inclusion, The Alliance for Inclusive Education, and Disability Equality in Education and others to train and work, to develop skills and address issues effectively that will lead to a future where children do not experience exclusion - where the normative experience is full inclusion, by right, in a society that badly needs to accept all that all it's citizens have to offer."

Now we shall hear from the young people themselves.

WHY INCLUSION IS IMPORTANT; AND WHAT IT HAS MEANT TO ME
Maresa MacKeith

"The most important thing is that I want to be part of ordinary life, and I want the same experiences as other kids. Also I want to be allowed to learn things that need thinking about and are challenging. I want to be able to contribute, and to discuss things that are important to me and other kids. We need to be together to do that. When we experience things together, we can learn about what we are each interested in, and about each other's life. It is important to educate schools so they change to make things better for kids who need a lot of help or get very tired."

Santi Rieser Aged 12 non-disabled member of Young and Powerful

" I am Santi Rieser and I am a member of Young and Powerful which is a group of disabled and non disabled children working together. I've met all these children through my Dad and I have met hardly any disabled children in my school as they have been segregated. I feel I have had a great opportunity to get to know and be friends with disabled children, they have taught me a lot.

All children should be educated together or how will we understand each other. To put it bluntly I don't think there should be any special schools at all."

Liz Cefalas (aged 12) - what inclusion means in my life

I find that teachers have a go at you just because they are in a bad mood. One teacher even said to me 'sorry if I have a go at you, it's just that time of the month', mind you it was a woman!

When I went to a Tribunal thingy I was treated like I wasn't there and every time I spoke nobody listened so I kept my hand up until they listened to me. Even though my school was supposed to be "accessible to the disabled person" it wasn't. They had ledges on the ramps, they had a music block which had steps, the lift was too small and they had a slope that went into a wall. One time I fell down the slope and went head first onto the grass. Everyone helped me to get up and the teacher said "leave her to get up on her own. She's disabled, she doesn't need help". So I went to the headmaster to tell him what they had done and he said "oh, don't worry it won't happen again" and he was right because that was the last day I went there. My friend, Keira, was the only person who asked before she pushed me in my wheelchair. Loads of people used to come up behind me and just push me and one boy leant me back on my wheelchair and left me on my handles. As you can imagine even though I can walk I still couldn't get up so I had to ask a teacher to help me. It was so embarrassing and what people don't listen to is the voice that needs to be heard. When they do they hardly take it into consideration anyway.

I just want to be included in a mainstream school, not excluded in a mainstream school. I was given a 'wooly' statement and where did it get me - but nowhere. They put me in a school which they said would be inclusive and I was excluded. Teachers would sit me at the back and I would not learn as much as everyone else because I could not hear it. All my friends were in Yate, which is 9 miles away from my house, so I didn't get to see my friends all the time because they were so far away. I always felt that I was excluded from having a life in school so I found it very hard to keep friends but one of my friends always stuck by me. Without her I would have left a long time ago. Inclusion is important for everybody because you are not just depriving the disabled person of an education, you are depriving the able bodied person of an education because you do not get to see the lifestyle of anyone else and why other people do things. Exclusion sucks.

This was a presentation originally at a Conference in Autumn 1999 attended by the Secretary of State for Education David Blunkett MP, made by Anthony Ford and his friend Caitlin. Today as Caitlin is away on holiday her part is read by Anthony's Mum Cath Ford.

Anthony: November 3rd! What are we going to do?

Caitlin: Well, the audience won't know much about disability or inclusion-disabled kids going to ordinary schools.

Anthony: Like the lady in the shop asking "Ooh, how old is he?"

Caitlin: Or like my friend who when I told her that you use a wheelchair asked if you were "all there"!

Anthony: I suppose it's just that they didn't go to an ordinary school like Elmgrove with non-disabled and disabled pupils.

Caitlin: Well they've missed out on lots of possible friends.

Caitlin: Our school was real cool. It welcomed all children. All our friend lived near so we could meet after school as well.

Anthony: Do you remember when we first met at Elmgrove?

Caitlin: I was sitting in the playground and you came over and talked to me.

Anthony: Yeah, then we both started after school French club together. "Bonjour , Caitlin!"

Caitlin: Bonjour, Antoine!

Anthony: It was great because we could go home and do our homework together.

Caitlin: And you were a cool Antonio in "Much Ado About Nothing"

Caitlin: Do you remember our school trip to Franc?

Anthony: Oh yeah, the aquarium was wicked.

Caitlin: We all had to get up really early to meet at school at 5 o'clock in the morning.

Anthony: The coach was cool. It had a lift in the middle. I didn't have to be carried on like a sack of potatoes!

Caitlin: Did you like being in the school choir?

Anthony: Yeah. When we sang at the Barbican, we had a bigger audience than we'll get on November 3rd.

Caitlin: What about the time we chose our High Schools?

Anthony: CHOSE THEM??! That's a joke. There's only one accessible High School in the Borough . I was told it was Whitmore or nothing!

Caitlin: I had to choose between the school round the corner or going with you.

Anthony: We had to move house so I could get to school in my wheelchair instead of being taken to school in a horrid blue bus with Ambulance written on it. Yuck!

Caitlin: It's more difficult to meet up after school now that you have moved.

Caitlin: How are you getting on at Whitmore High? Do you get lots of homework?

Anthony: Tons! Our school has really listened to what David Blunkett said about the amount of homework that we should get!

Caitlin: I'd really like to have a word with David Blunkett!

Anthony: Did you have a good day at school today? Have you made new friends at Harrow High School?

Caitlin: Yeah Harrow High School is great.

Anthony: But it doesn't have any children who use wheelchairs does it?

Caitlin: No and there are even children there who have never spoken with a person in a wheelchair.

Anthony: Oh NO! So they'll be working in a shop in 6 years time saying………

Anthony and Caitlin: "Ooh, how old is he?"

Copy right Anthony Ford and Caitlin Rice. Not to be reprinted without permission.

Katherine Kephalas (aged 17)

My experience of education has been I attended a mainstream school until I was no longer able to. My school was not inclusive for me due to the fact that they were not able to be flexible and the school campus was not accessible. This has meant that I have two hours a week with a home tutor. I no longer have the social contact that school gives and I have only kept up with my very closest friends. Even if I had only been able to go for five minutes a week I would have felt included. Instead I am excluded. My name is not read out at registration. It is as if I was never there.

Even before I became disabled the invisibility of disabled children was apparent to me. I knew a boy whose sibling went to a 'special school'. That boy did not feel included. Non-disabled siblings feel excluded too. No worth is given to their family and ultimately to themselves. Even though we didn't have the words to say 'this is discrimination' we all knew it was not right. Disabled children do not exist in isolation, they exist as part of families and communities. If you exclude one part you exclude all the rest. It has made me come to the conclusion that we don't just experience segregated special schools, we experience segregated mainstream schools. All children are losing out through exclusion. The education system shows children a warped view of life - exclusion - which they then take into the adult world.

This Congress gives us all a chance to discuss what inclusion really is and what it really isn't. I am what I am despite my mainstream school experience. All the young people here today are not typical of the school systems they have experienced. If they were they wouldn't be here today. They would be too oppressed to know what inclusion really means. If we have experienced mainstream schools and are not prejudiced and unaware of the world we live in it is despite our education not because of it. If we have experienced special schools and view ourselves as equals and value what we have to say, it is despite our education, not because of it.

I look forward to seeing an inclusive educational system in which people can honestly say "I am all these good things because of my inclusive education".

Katie Caryer School Student. What Inclusion Means to Me

"Hello, my name is Katie Caryer. I am 16 and, in case you hadn't noticed, I am disabled. What disability? I hear you ask. My disabilities are steps, negative attitudes and low expectations. Get rid of them and I'm no longer disabled.

I am educated at my local comprehensive school. No way is it truly inclusive, but anything is better than the special school I attended for 5 years.

Well, what does inclusion mean to me? At the moment - nine months of hell, making what is in me come out. Work, work, work, work, no time for social life. That is inclusion for you folks!

Let me explain, I am just going into my exam year for my GCSEs - 8 of the rotters! Life would be so much easier at special school. Let me see, in maths I would be counting up to 100, none of these awful simultaneous equations; in art I would finger paint for 10 minutes, instead of the 10 hour art exam; in English I wouldn't have to get my mind round Shakespeare and I wouldn't have acquired my rich vocabulary of Anglo Saxon words. Oh, why did I take the hard way? Equal opportunities, that is why. And the tiny matter that I would get bored out of my pants.

If I was at special school, my friends would be countless. They would be countless because I wouldn't have any to count - and I probably wouldn't be very good at counting anyway. Now, in my local school, my friends are countless. But they are countless because I have so many. I do normal teenage stuff like going to the pub and, as my friends are mostly non-disabled they can hump me on and off public transport even when it's not accessible. I do have disabled friends too, but I chose them.

Inclusion is good for all because my classmates and teachers have learnt about disability and when I walk down my local high street and people stare at me I know it's because I've dyed my hair purple - not because I'm in a wheelchair.

Thank you for listening."

To speak for young people with learning difficulties here is a quote from Chloe McCollum ( aged 16).

"My name is Chloe McCollum. I am 16 years old and have Down's Syndrome. I love parties, having drinks going to the market, stories and E.T.

I went to Lucas Vale, an ordinary primary school. I liked it there. I had many friends especially Nejula, Siobahn and Ellie. When I left Lucas Vale ( after nine years) I wasn't allowed to go to ordinary secondary school with my friends. I campaigned to go, but the education authority said no. I stayed at home and my daddy taught me reading. He took me to museums and we had picnics together. I now go to Greenvale special school with kids my own age. I go to Deptford Green one day a week too.

Deptford Green is a mainstream secondary school with lots of children in it. I love it because it is good there. I like reading especially a book called 'Underground to Canada'. I like writing, Science, Maths, English and Humanities. I like the experiments best. I play with everyone in the playground. Its great to go to an ordinary school and I like both my schools.

I wish I went to Deptford Green after Lucas Vale and there wasn't such bother. I hope there won't be such bother for other children in the future" Nov '98.

Disability Equality in Education Provided training and consultancy Unit 4Q, Leroy House, 436 Essex Road, London N1 3QP
Tel 0207359 2855
Fax 0207 354 3372
e-mail r.rieser@btinternet.com

Alliance for Inclusive Education and Young and Powerful Unit 2 70 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL
Tel 0207 735 5277
Fax 0207 735 3828
e-mail ALFIE@btinternet.com

Parents for Inclusion Unit 2 , 70 South Lambeth Road, London SW8 1RL
Tel 0207 735 7872
Fax 0207 735 3828
e-mail pi1@btinternet.com

Appendix 1

CHECKLIST & NOTES ON WHAT A WHOLE SCHOOL POLICY ON DISABILITY EQUALITY AND INCLUSION SHOULD COVER.

Access Audit of the School Environment. Carry out a full access audit of your building .Involve pupils. Cost and set targets of major and minor works to be included in the School Development Plan.

Audit Access to the Learning Environment. Audit software and hardware suitable for supporting learning difficulty; maintain up-to-date information on adaptations e.g. brailling, vocalising, touch screen, laptops, switching.

Ensure Disability Issues are in the Curriculum. When planning curriculum unit, topic or module think of including a disability dimension. Build up resources and literature that are non-discriminatory. Promote the 'social model'.

Disabled people are positively portrayed- images. Ensure all children have access to positive images of disabled adults and children.

Diversify the curriculum-use a variety of approaches. Use a wide variety of approaches when planning the curriculum to draw on different strengths and aptitudes of the pupils. Build up a resource bank of ideas and lessons allowing time for joint planning and review.

Develop collaborative learning and peer tutoring. The biggest learning resource in any school are the pupils. Involve them in pairing with children of different abilities and groups. All benefit.

Effective team approach for learning support and curriculum planning. Ensure that learning support is effectively co-ordinated throughout the school by allowing time for joint planning in school day involving teams of teachers and welfare assistants.

British Sign Language taught and used. When a school includes deaf children, make use of British Sign Language translators and teachers. Offer deaf children the chance to work with native signers. Offer hearing children the chance to study sign language as part of the curriculum.

Accessible communication in school/to parents. Recognise that not everyone communicates by written or spoken English. Audit the communication needs within the school and of parents and provide notices, reports, information and directions in the relevant format, e.g. large print, Braille, tape, videos in BSL, computer disk and pictograms.

Be critical of disablist language used. Examine language used to describe pupils, in teaching and by pupils. Much of it is disablist and impairment derived. Develop a critical reappraisal through Disability Equality Training, assemblies and in class.

Challenge impairment derived abuse, name calling and bullying as part of school behaviour policy. Introduce effective policy to prevent abuse, name calling and bullying because of physical, mental or sensory differences.

Involve all pupils in developing behaviour policy. Intentionally build relationships. Policies devised by pupil involvement and based on principles of self-regulation and mutual respect are the most effective. Sometimes it is necessary for adults to take a lead in setting up circles of friends and buddy systems. All children should remain on role even if for some time they are out of class. Devise systems where distressed children can take 'time-out'.

Develop a whole-school ethos on accepting difference.

Develop empowerment and self-representation of disabled pupils. Set up structures through which disabled pupils/those with SEN can express their views, develop self-esteem, and have some influence on school policies. Involve disabled adults in this process.

Physical Education. Ensure P.E. and sporting activities involve all pupils, developing collaboration, and encourage all pupils to improve their personal performance. Use adaptation and creative imagination to succeed in this.

Transport and having a school trips policy that includes all. Ensure transport to and from the school for disabled pupils fit in with the school day and allow for attendance at after school activities. Allow friends and siblings to use to break down isolation. Ensure no pupil is excluded from a trip or visit because their access or other needs are not met. This means careful advanced planning and pre-visits.

Have an increasing inclusion ethos in school development plan. The school should examine every aspect of its activity for barriers to inclusion and then set a series of targets for their eradication describing how this is to be achieved.

Include Outside Specialist Support. Plan the work of speech, physio and occupational therapists in a co-ordinated way which best supports pupils' curriculum needs and reduces disruption to their learning and social needs .

Have policy on Administering Medication and Personal Assistance. Devise a policy on administering routine medication which is easy for pupils to use and develop systems that maintain their dignity on personal hygiene issues. Have a system for handling medical emergencies which is easy for everyone to use.

Maintain Equipment. Ensure that specialist equipment is properly maintained, stored and replaced when necessary; mobility aids, e.g. wheelchairs and walking frames, are regularly checked; and that staff are trained in their proper use.

Increase the employment of disabled staff. The Disability Discrimination Act now applies to employment in most schools. Revise your equal opportunity employment policy to increase the employment of disabled teaching and no-teaching staff. There is Access to Work money available. All children need disabled adult role models.

Disability Equality Training and ongoing INSET for staff and Governors. Organise a programme of in-service training for teachers, support staff and governors to help them move towards inclusion and disability equality. Ensure all staff are involved in and understand the process of inclusion.

Governing Body representation. Appoint a governor to have a brief for special educational needs, with the whole governing body involved in developing inclusion policy. Try to get disabled governors.

Consultation with and involvement of parents. Ensure there are effective arrangements for involving parents in all parts of their child's school life and decisions that have to be made. These arrangements should involve counselling and support in helping a child towards independence. With their permission, maintain information about parents who are themselves disabled so their access and other needs can be met.

© R.Rieser Feb. 97

Index