A Narrative Account: Graduate Students and Disability

Abstract

Only around a century ago, globally most children with disabilities were unschooled (Robinson, 2015). In the beginning when they started receiving education, they attended isolated schools and learned in separate classes (Torreno, 2012). Today, because of inclusive education, it is common in all developed countries to have students with disabilities learning with other students in inclusive classrooms. In recent years, the growing number of graduate students with disabilities has also become a focus of specialists and teachers and society in general. The integration of students with different kinds of disabilities into regular classrooms goes back to the 20th century when some educators argued that deaf and blind students could make more progress in ordinary schools. For instance, in the United Kingdom (UK), building on the idea that inclusion is possible, the Warnock Report (1978) promoted the “integration” of children into mainstream school communities. Later, Warnock’s recommendations and the ‘Warnock report on Special Educational Needs’ were placed into the legislative framework of the UK. In an international context, policy has been moving towards inclusive education since the 1990s and the Salamanca Statement (1994).