How do we account for learning disabled researchers? Many people who are not adaptable to conventional education may have great research input if only given the effective medium. For instance, many disabled writers may be savants in research areas but lack a means to popularize their works.
The matter is complex. Kurt Kuban once said "Came as you are". For students and scientists the motto should be"Learn as you are", "Work as you are" and "Publish as you are". But we cannot take this attitude for granted. There is still a widespread exclusionary, normalizing mind set, which hinders an emancipatory, inclusive coexistence.
The European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (2013, 2015) emphasizes the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) for the implementation of inclusive teaching/ learning settings. UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education and European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (2011) identify four functions of ICT in the school context:
- Supporting opportunities for participation through access to digital media;
- Supporting teaching and learning situations;
- Support for educational administrative processes; and
- Support of personal communication and interaction.
In recent years, more and more stationary and mobile hardware and software solutions have been innovated in order to offer suitable assistive and rehabilitative media and tools (Assistive Technology, AT) to learners with different handicaps: Starting with the use of laptops or pen-based notebooks for mentally handicapped students, to working with talkers (speech computers) of communication-impaired children and adolescents, to blended learning, a combination of face-to-face instruction and distributed media-based learning (e-learning), for chronically ill students. Above all, the use of tablet PCs, touch pads or touch screens is considered particularly promising.This is because these small, very light devices are ideally suited for people with motor disabilities, who need to be able to work in a mobile environment:
But the crucial point is: We must not narrow the discussion instructionally or instrumentally. Ultimately, it depends on personal and institutional attitudes.
Anita Z Goldschmied Hello Doctor and Professor Goldschmied, I am actually one of the disabled people described in the question. I think I should just cut to the chase. We are on ResearchGate, therefore, having maybe seen some of my works, how do you feel about awarding me a doctorate?
Dear Anita
Thank you for your thoughtful and corrective comments and elaborations on the research discourse.
In a way, you have already mentioned another important distinction. I agree with you that we should be more careful to speak of 'inclusive education' in a broader sense, i.e. anticipating multiple forms of social heterogeneity such as disability, migration, gender, age, language, sexual orientation, social class or socio-cultural background.
We should also critically examine the implicit background assumptions of the prevailing educational concept. In many cases, an outdated hierarchical model of education in the sense of instruction is still assumed, where a deficit orientation is processed. In contrast, a democratic approach to education postulates that everyone has something to contribute, i.e. it assumes an orientation towards potential.
Much would be achieved in theory and practice if we worked more consistently on this paradigm shift.
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