DR RADICA MAHASE

Maya Angelou, “If we want to include everyone, we have to help everyone develop their talents and use their gifts for the good of the community. That’s what inclusion means – everyone contributes.”

Usually when we talk about inclusion, we think about accommodating people with disabilities and other special needs, ensuring that they have some access to opportunities as their neurotypical counterparts and how this will be beneficial to them.

Too often we interpret inclusion as creating opportunities separate from those available to neurotypical people. For example, in education we often think about establishing special schools especially for children with disabilities, as opposed to including them in a regular classroom setting with their neurotypical peers.

However, inclusion goes beyond this: the intrinsic idea of inclusion is that people with disabilities should be allowed to participate on all levels, alongside neurotypical people. Inclusion is based on integration as opposed to segregation. Real inclusion goes beyond accommodation.

Richard Woodley, in his book Understanding Inclusion noted that, “Being inclusive requires openness to the differences found in others, and indeed to recognising the differences within oneself. We are all unique and therefore all different. If we could only develop a society and a wider world that appreciated that difference as the norm, and not the exception, surely the world would be a better place. We are not naturally homogeneous: heterogeneity is the norm.”

Everyone can benefit from inclusion. When we allow neurotypical children to interact with children with disabilities, in the same classroom and school environment, everyone gets an opportunity to learn. When we allow children with disabilities into spaces that are typically for neurotypical people, everyone can benefit.

Inclusion would mean that the children with disabilities have an equal seat at the table, with access to the tools needed for their development, but it would also give neurotypical children the opportunity to learn about and accept differences.

According to writer Erin Aguilar, “Children learn from each other. With inclusion in place, children with special needs are provided equal opportunity to participate in the same types of programmes and activities as children without special needs. Some of the benefits of inclusion for children with (or without) disabilities are friendship skills, peer models, problem solving skills, positive self-image, and respect for others. This can trickle down to their families as well, teaching parents and families to be more accepting of differences.”

To achieve this, as a society, we need to get pass the fears and misconceptions that exist about people with disabilities. Too often parents keep their neurotypical children away from children with disabilities because they are afraid, and that fear comes from the fact that they just don’t understand.

One mother said she was always afraid her son would be attacked by an autistic boy in his class