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Alex Wicks (26011565) 1

EDF1039 Denise Chapman 9am Wednesday


Assignment 1
Accessibility and inclusion for children with disability attending mainstream
schools
Introduction
Accessibility in the mainstream schools is one of the most critical issues facing
children with disabilities in inclusive education programs. With the ongoing debate of
whether or not children with disabilities should be attending mainstream schools or
special education schools, special needs educators have never reached to an
agreement on the extent and nature of including students with disabilities in
mainstream schools (Anati & Ain, 2012, p.75). This has reared the issue of creating
accessibility in mainstream classrooms for children with special needs as a debate
rather than creating partnerships and providing the correct facilities for special needs
students attending mainstream schools. As reported by the AIHW, the vast majority
of students with disability attended mainstream schools, 127 730 or 84.8 per cent.
(Commonwealth of Australia, 2011)
The purpose of this paper is to explore and analyse how mainstream schools struggle
to have the correct resources to allow accessibility for children with special needs.
Students with disability will require additional needs in regular classrooms. A
considerable effort on the teachers part, and pre service teachers, teachers and
principals often worry that they will not have the teaching competencies or physical
resources needed to include students with disability needs in their classes (Forman
and Arthur-Kelly, 2014, p.31). This paper will investigate the issues arising from
children with additional needs attending mainstream schools and the unpreparedness
of the schools to accommodate the childs needs. This includes lack of educators
professional development and experience, absence of resources to allow physical
accessibility and the need for more specialised education professionals and personnel
to build appropriate partnerships to benefit the student.
One reason for the lack of partnership and accessibility for children with special needs
in mainstream classrooms is the lacklimited of knowledge and experience by theof
general educators in the classroom. Teaching a child with special needs can be
challenging. Many general educators feel they are not qualified to teach a child with

additional needs and believe the common myth among many educators that only
special educators have the expertise or knowledge of disability to teach children with
disabilities (Myhill, Hill, Link, Small and Bunch, 2012, p. 201). This myth began due
to many education courses at university not addressing teaching children with special
needs. The units addressed inclusion more generally and students with disabilities
were only one of a number of aspects of diversity that were covered (Stephenson,
ONeill and Carter, 2012). The article by Stephenson et al (2012) found that only
thirteen percent of sixty-one units on inclusion in education focused on developing
positive attitudes towards people with disabilities and special needs. With only
thirteen percent of inclusion in education units focusing on how to teach a child with
special needs in the classroom, lack of knowledge by teachers in mainstream
classrooms may be accounted for. One of my friends has a physical disability and
when in high school, one of her teachers would speak to her in a very condescending
way, always asking her Do you understand?. My friend had nothing wrong with her
intellectually but the teacher would always single her out just because of her physical
difference. This example shows the lack of knowledge some educators obtain and the
lack of understanding of inclusion and having positive attitudes towards people with
additional needs. Stephenson et al. (2012) believed that pre service teachers today are
being less well prepared to teach students with disabilities and special needs than they
were in 1993 (p. 21).
Schools and teachers are expected to cater for their communities, and communities
include people with and without disabilities, students who learn easily, and those who
need much assistance (Forman and Arthur-Kelly, 2014, p.31). For inclusion in
mainstream classrooms to occur, all individuals involved in the students education
should be appropriately trained, skilled and experienced (Forman and Arthur-Kelly,
2014, p.104). Although special educators have two degrees compared to general
educators with only, (which does not specialize in special needs), this does not mean
that mainstream general educators are not capable of teaching students with additional
needs, as expertise in the medical model of disability is not required for educators to
effectively teach students with disabilities, and it is often irrelevant to real life
experience (Brantlinger, 2006 as cited in Myhill et al., 2012, p. 202). General
educators need to be prepared to alter their classroom and lessons to meet the needs of
the child, despite classroom management being harder because of the addition of

Alex Wicks (26011565) 3


EDF1039 Denise Chapman 9am Wednesday
more students, students with disabilities (Anati and Ain, 2012, p. 76) and teachers
time is taken away from the other students in the inclusive classroom (Anai and Ain,
2012, p. 76). General educators assisting students with special needs in the classroom
will acquire knowledge and professional development of inclusion of children with
disability and how to help them meet their needs in the classroom. This will gain
access for success (McDonald, 2014) for the students placed in the mainstream
school.
Environmental modifications in a mainstream school are essential for the inclusion of
students with special needs. Some students have significant fine and gross motor
impairments, sensory impairments, physical disabilities and mobility problems.
Barriers to access can occur getting to and from school, moving around the classroom
and school, using facilities and when using specialist equipment. (Forman and
Arthur-Kelly, 2014, p.103) Anati and Ain (2012) found that teachers reported there
was a lack of accommodation in schools made for the inclusion of students with
special needs. The only accommodation that was reported by the participants in this
sample was ramps for wheel chairs. No other accommodations or services were
described by the respondents (Anati and Ain, 2012 p. 83). Although, funding is often
a crucial component of any resource package for supporting the inclusion of students
with additional needs. (Foreman and Arthur-Kelly, 2014, p.98) it is essential for
schools to provide more than wheelchair access for children with additional needs in
their classroom and at their school as improving the physical environment of the
school in order to increase the extent to which pupils with a disability can take
advantage of education (Woolfson, Harker, Lowe, Sheilds and Makintosh, 2007, p.
40)
A students physical accessibility in the classroom and around the school is essential
for a childs inclusion and education in a school setting. The United Nations
convention of rights, article nine accessibility states To enable persons with
disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, States
Parties shall take appropriate measures to ensure to persons with disabilities access,
on an equal basis with others, to the physical environment (United Nations, 2007) To
be able to follow the UNs convention of rights, it is essential for schools to physically
modify the physical environment to increase the extent to which pupils with a

disability can participate in the schools curriculum (Woolfson et al., 2007, p. 40).
A child with a disability may require expertise in the classroom that the general
educator may not be qualified for. This is why working together, often referred to as
working collaboratively, is a team process. It promotes a shared responsibility for
discussing and supporting students with additional needs (Forman and Arthur-Kelly,
2014, p.58). As McDonald (2014) expressed, Special schools hold a wealth of
information with special education professionals such as occupational therapist,
speech pathologists and physical therapists employed at the schools where as
mainstream schools often lack these professionals on a day to day basis, as found by
Anati and Ain (2012). Their study revealed participant teachers reporting that their
schools lacked special education professionals and personnel. Many educators
questioned the belief that students who needed extra services should routinely be
pulled out to receive them in a separate environment such as a resource room or a
special education classroom (Anati and Ain, 2012, p. 75). The idea of pulling
students out of their classroom is socially isolating the student from the rest of the
class. To reduce this social isolation for the student with additional needs, some
schools are given the funding from the government for an educational aid in the
classroom. The issue is that the amount of funding allocated for the student may not
be enough for a child to have an educational aid with them all the time. In my
personal experience, I have observed a child with special needs (autism) receiving
government funding for a educational aid but the funding is only enough for three
days a week instead of the five days he attends school. The Australian national
disability policy strategy 2010-2020 outcome 5 states, people with disability achieve
their full potential through their participation in an inclusive high quality education
system that is responsive to their needs(Commonwealth of Australia, 2011). If a
student is not receiving enough support in the mainstream education system through
an educational aid or special education professionals, how can it be expected for them
to meet their educational needs? Friend and Bursuck believe students with
disabilities should be fully integrated into general education classrooms as long as
they are making progress toward the achievement of IEP goals, even if they cannot
meet classroom or content demands (Friend and Bursuck, 2002 as cited in Anati and
Ain, 2012, p. 75) This demonstrates the essential need for mainstream schools to have
the resources of special education professionals to create a collaborative working

Alex Wicks (26011565) 5


EDF1039 Denise Chapman 9am Wednesday
environment between professionals. This will allow the childs IEP goals to be met
and cater for all of their learning needs.
During this paper, I have outlined the need for three issues in mainstream schools, in
allowing accessibility and inclusion for students with disabilities. I have spoken about
the absence of knowledge and experience of mainstream teachers in regard to
inclusion of children with special needs. In order to solve this issue, professional
development on teaching and inclusion with children with disabilities, will need to
increase as will gaining experience in the classroom with a child with additional
needs. The physical accessibility of mainstream school and classroom for children
with additional needs has been identified as essential for inclusion in mainstream
schools. There has also been a focus on the lack of additional access other than ramps
in mainstream schools. The importance and absence of special education professionals
in mainstream schools has been identified. This paper explored the need for adequate
partnerships between professionals to be made in order for a child with disability to
meet their needs.
References
Stephenson, J., O'Neill, S., & Carter, M. (2012). Teaching Students with
Disabilities: A Web-Based Examination of Preparation of Preservice Primary School
Teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(5), 13-23.
Woolfson, R. C., Harker, M., Lowe, D., Sheilds, M., & Mackintosh, H. (2007).
Consulting with children and young people who have disabilities: views of
accessibility to education. British Journal of Special Education, 34(1), 40-49.
Anati, N. M., & Ain, A. (2012). Including Students with Disabilities in UAE
Schools: A Descriptive Study. International Journal of Special Education, 27(2), 7585.
Myhill, W. N., Hill, R. F., Link, K., Small, R. V., & Bunch, K. (2012).
Developing the capacity of teacherlibrarians to meet the diverse needs of all
schoolchildren: Project ENABLE. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs,
12(4), 201-216.

Foreman, P. & Arthur-Kelly. (2014). Inclusion in action. (4ed). Cengage


Learning EMEA.
Commonwealth of Australia. (2011). National Disability Strategy 20102020.
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, opened for signature 30
March 2007.

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