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issue 2 january-february 2005
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The path to inclusion

Whether it’s lack of access to education or, at best, segregation in ‘special’ schools, children with disabilities have got the short end of the learning straw. An inclusive system of education, long overdue, will help assimilate them into the mainstream with benefits to the economy and to society in the long run, writes Anand V. Taneja

The Preamble of the Indian Constitution assures all the citizens of India 'Equality of Status and Opportunity.' Strange then, that the findings of an NCPEDP (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People) survey find that only 0.1% of students enrolled in schools and colleges are disabled, whereas the disabled population of the country is between 8 to 10 per cent. When the statistics are this skewed, they have to be pointing to something deeply, terribly wrong in the way the education system functions.

To use a cruel metaphor, what is wrong is the 'blindness of the sighted'. A blindness which is far more of a disability than the loss of sight, because it is an absence of vision. It is a blindness which refuses to see differently abled people as part of society.

The education system in the country is designed by and large for people without any disabilities. As are most other goods and services in the country. For disabled people, there has been an attempt to create a parallel system of education, 'special schools', which do play a role in rehabilitation, but also unfortunately keep people with disabilities away from the mainstream, and the mainstream away from people with disabilities. Out of sight, out of mind.

But the picture is not as bleak as the last few paragraphs have painted – for there has been a gradual but certain shift in the way many people think about education, about designing public utilities and about many other issues. A way of thinking that brings us closer to the Constitution's spirit of equality of opportunity for all. A philosophy which can be embodied best in a design approach developed in recent years for the design of public spaces – Universal Design.

Universal Design is different from Accessible Design

"Accessible design means products and buildings that are accessible and usable by people with disabilities. Universal design means products and buildings that are accessible and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities,” Prof. Singapalli Balaram of the National Institute of Design has written in a research study. “Although these different definitions appear to be simply semantic, they actually have significant differences in meaning.”

He adds, “Accessible design has a tendency to lead to separate facilities for people with disabilities, for example, a ramp set off to the side of a stairway at an entrance or a wheelchair accessible toilet stall. Universal design, on the other hand, provides one solution that can accommodate people with disabilities as well as the rest of the population. Moreover, universal design means giving attention to the needs of older people as well as young, women as well as men, left handed persons as well as right handed persons.”

One solution that can accommodate people with disabilities as well as the rest of the population – the basic concept of Universal Design is important beyond architecture and the design of buildings. One system, one solution that accommodates everyone, gives everyone equal opportunity and a level playing field, without barriers. What if the principles that inform Universal Design are applied to education?

Already, the Delhi Government has made the significant move of making mainstream private schools in Delhi admit students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and removing one set of barriers. The government has also instructed all CBSE schools to make the necessary changes in infrastructure that would make education truly inclusive – a pathbreaking initiative if it is carried through with commitment. (See story ‘HC prod works, Govt orders disabled-friendly schools’, Indian Express)

These are admirable initiatives, and show the way forward, but what is needed is a comprehensive policy that insures that these initiative do not remain isolated, but become part of a holistic change in the primary education infrastructure of the country. Considering the money that the present government is raising for the education sector through the 'education cess', now is the time to demand, and get these policies considered and implemented.

Accessing mainstream education

For inclusive education, as for Universal Design, what is required is, first, belief that disabled people have as much of a right to access to mainstream education as anyone else. From there it would follow naturally that for inclusive education to truly work, the system should be able to deal with any kind of need. All teachers should be trained to work with and be sensitive to the needs of disabled students. All B.Ed. programmes which train future teachers should be changed to include in the course how to use diverse teaching aids to help students with different forms of disability (reading and writing Braille, for example).

Accessible infrastructure

For inclusive education to work, the access to the physical sites of such education, the schools, has to be universalised. For that, we have to apply the principles of Universal Design. This will benefit everyone, and not just disabled people. The transport system needs to be accessible. The school should be a barrier-free environment. To aid visually impaired students, walls should have different tactile textures and contrasting colours, to indicate different areas – like stairs, classrooms, laboratories, etc. This would certainly be an improvement on the drab, dark corridors which characterise a majority of schools today!

Classrooms need to have colourful desks and chairs separated by wide aisles. There is also a need for uniform lighting and cutting down on glare and extreme contrasts within the built environment. Individual tables could be fitted with reading lamps, which would help all children, with or without vision impairment. All of which makes sense for all students, and not just on aesthetic grounds!

St. Mary’s school had a lift installed to make the upper floors accessible to students with motor disabilities. Ms. Annie Koshi, Principal, said, ‘I wouldn’t even accept that inclusive education costs anything at all. For it’s not just the atypical students who use the lift. When teachers have sciatica, or elderly guests come to visit, they use it. And someone or the other is always breaking a leg… How do you calculate costs, when the best part of inclusive education is that innovations introduced for atypical students end up being useful for all?

Teaching material and aids

Within, and outside the environs of the school, visually impaired students need teaching material and teaching aids. Printing presses should be able to print not only conventional books but Braille textbooks as well. There should be a centralised body made responsible for printing textbooks and talking books, and to treat them at par with conventional textbooks. Schools need to put screen reading software such as 'Jaws' into the school computers, to make them equally accessible to blind students. Computers could also come useful during the writing of exams.

One-time expense equals long-lasting benefits

The detractors of inclusive education say that inclusive education is costly, that it slows down the process of education for all. And sometimes teachers do not punish visually impaired students for not doing their homework. This is a specious mindset and completely misplaced pity in any truly inclusive classroom, as is illustrated by the example given by Ashwini Agarwal, former director of the National Association for Blind, of two classes, of a very similar profile, one of which had some visually impaired students. When the two classes were compared, it was found that non-disabled students in the class with visually impaired students were faring better than the students in the other class. It turned out that the teachers in that class relied much more on talking in the classroom than using the blackboard, so the non-disabled students were actually getting the benefits of both audio and visual input. And of course, whoever doesn't do their homework deserves to be punished!

This is not to say that inclusive education will happen without any hiccups. In inclusive schools, visually impaired students are often initially teased about their disabilities by other children, they often have to struggle to find acceptance. Visually impaired children often have problems where no one gives them notes. But that does not damn inclusive education, because one of the most important outcomes of inclusion is that 'normal' students learn not to define people by their (dis)abilities, and learn to be sensitive to the needs of those around them.

The importance of inclusive education for those without disabilities is poignantly expressed by Agarwal narrating a true story that has the quality of a fable. "Two doctors travelling together had an accident and lost their sight. While one became very depressed; the other one was relatively cheerful and got back to his life and his activities. It turned out that while in school, this doctor had a visually impaired friend, and hence knew that blindness would not stop him from leading a full and happy life."

Of course, many doubts will be raised at the expense that all of this will incur. Of course, there will be many expenses, but these will be largely one time expenses to create an infrastructure that will last for years to come. At the same time will be eliminated the expenses that go with the creation of two parallel systems schools for non-disabled and disabled students.

However, special schools are engaged in bringing disabled students into the mainstream. To that end, AADI (the erstwhile Spastics Society), and The Blind School, no longer function as special schools, but as facilitators, as centres where disabled children can get support outside of the conventional schools they attend. The National Association for Blind offers children skills in Braille and computer usage from pre-school days to enable them to have their own resources to tackle school-work. They also act as a resource centre for parents.

The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, holds the State responsible for the education of disabled persons till the age of 18, and stipulates a 3 per cent reservation for them in all government educational institutions, or in institutions supported by the government. Government schools are bound by law to give admission to disabled students. But if the state truly lives up to the spirit of the law, rather than just defending the letter, then it should go beyond the hollow numbers generated by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and truly commit itself to inclusive education and the infrastructure it involves. In a notification issued this month, the Government has also made it obligatory for all schools to set up special forums for redressal of grievances for parents with disabled children. If along with the law, the government pays attention to its implementation -- if this involves concessions and incentives to private schools that become inclusive; as well as putting money into the redevelopment of government schools -- then it would certainly be money well spent.

It is a difficult task to achieve, but by no means impossible. Campaigning and lobbying with the government, with the PWD ACT, 1995 giving great legal support, and with the government now paying attention to educational infrastructure by levying an 'education cess', now is the time to hope, and dream and work for truly inclusive education.

The time has come.

Related stories:
Teaching teachers
Intangible benefits

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