Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all children with disabilities “Education – we still hear the term special education. I say there is nothing special about being special. When special is used in the everyday world it is a term of endearment, when it is used in the intellectual disability world it means segregation and it is disrespectful and makes us feel inferior to other people. What happens when you leave school? Well, there are no special jobs and there is no special communities or societies. I say let us get rid of special once and for all.

The objective of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is to achieve “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” including those with disabilities. Children with disabilities face two major issues: a schooling crisis and a learning crisis. As many as 93 million children with disabilities are among the most likely to be left behind. In low and middleincome countries, half of the estimated 65 million primary and lower secondary school-aged children with disabilities are out-of-school. This makes up one third of the total out-of-school children. Therefore, it is recognized that children with disabilities continue to be amongst the most excluded. At school, their enrollment records are lower and dropout rates higher, with poor levels of attendance, progression and learning. Very few young people with disabilities transition into higher levels of training and education. Only 5-15% of children who need assistive devices have access to them. Less than 1% of materials are available in accessible formats for blind or partially sighted readers, but when they are provided a 20% increase in student achievement is possible. Educating students with disabilities in inclusive settings has the potential for economic, social and health benefits for them and their families, as well as the national GDP. It opens the door to greater civic engagement and participation in broader community activities and builds relationships with peers without disabilities.

Girls and boys with disabilities often face barriers to their education due to discriminatory social attitudes, physical and communication barriers, resource constraints and lack of support in classrooms and the wider community. Removing these barriers requires targeted strategies that also address other dimensions that compound exclusion, such as gender, poverty, language, including sign language, and location in line with United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the SDGs. For deaf children, inclusive education means bilingual education in both national sign language(s) and national written language(s) by qualified teachers surrounded by their signing peers and support for developing their own identity and culture.

In order to address the current challenges of the many children with disabilities out of school, in separate or regular education settings, consideration must be given to the following:

1. Inclusive education means having one inclusive system of education for all students, at all levels, (early childhood, primary, secondary and post-secondary) with the provision of supports to accommodate students with disabilities and the existence of quality bilingual schools in national sign language and national written language. Particular attention needs to be made to include learners most likely to be excluded, such as children with learning, psychosocial or multiple disabilities, children with deaf blindness, those living in remote areas, or from language and cultural minorities among others.
2. Young children with disabilities are among the most marginalized, often invisible in household surveys and administrative data, as well as excluded from national and global strategies that target out-of-school children. Yet, we know that when boys and girls with disabilities have access to early interventions and early year’s education, this leads to better educational outcomes.
3. Inclusion involves a profound cultural shift to ensure that all children, as well as staff, parents and other members of the school community, feel valued, welcomed and respected. In addition, it is the right of children with disabilities to socialize with their peers, including those that have the same lived experiences and face similar issues. It requires a process of systemic reform with changes and modifications in content, curriculum, individualized considerations, accessibility, particularly to sign language, assistive aids and devices, teaching methods, approaches, structures and strategies. Placement in regular classes is not sufficient; participation requires a paradigm shift. Placing students with disabilities within mainstream classes without accompanying structural changes to, for example, organization, curriculum and teaching and learning strategies, does not constitute inclusion. Ensuring that children have equal opportunities to learn and socialize with their peers, using the same language such as sign language, is an integral part of an inclusive education system.