Rights of People with Disabilities

An Introduction for Teachers

Rights of People with Disabilities

An Introduction for Teachers

Agenda

Facts regarding people with disabilities

Overview of Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities

Teachers’ obligations under the Convention

Inclusive Education

Exercise

How many children with disabilities have you taught? What disabilities did they have?

What barriers did those children face?

“Children with disabilities are among the most stigmatized and excluded of all the world’s children.  Misunderstanding and fear of children with disabilities result in their marginalization within their family, community, at school, and in the wider society. The discrimination they suffer leads to poor health, affects their self-esteem, limits their access to education and puts them at higher risk for violence, abuse and neglect.” UNICEF

Research indicates that violence against children with disabilities occurs at annual rates at least 1.7 times greater than for their non-disabled peers.

90% of children with disabilities worldwide don’t go to school.

There are no accurate statistics for South Africa, but we do know that most public schools aren’t set up to handle children with disabilities but only 1 in 13 children with disabilities are in special schools.

According to a study by Disability KAR, in South Africa, “black children with disabilities primarily due to poverty and discrimination can not participate in education.”

Many children with disabilities don’t get the education that they need to be successful in the job market.

It is estimated that 18.6% of people with disabilities are working, compared to 35% of the general population.

Social Welfare Approach

According to the United Nations, “being denied the opportunities that would enable them to be self-sufficient, most persons with disabilities resort to the kindness or charity of others.”

The traditional “social welfare” approach to disability, which viewed the needs of people with disabilities as a problem for charities and government aid.

Rights-based Approach

“Many societies have moved away from considering persons with disabilities as objects of charity and pity, by acknowledging that society itself is disabling.”

In other words, the problem is not with the individual, it is with the society that is set up so that the individual cannot be successful.

We now recognize that people with disabilities have the right to live in a world that accommodates their differences.

Defining “Disability”

The UN Convention uses the rights-based approach to disability.

It defines persons with disabilities as persons who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

The Convention was adopted on 31 December, 2006.

South Africa signed the Convention on 30 March, 2007 – the first day that the Convention was open for signature

South Africa signed the Optional Protocol, which provides certain enforcement and monitoring mechanisms.

The Convention will enter into force when it has been ratified by 20 countries.

Exercise

What rights do people with disabilities have?

UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006) Education Accessibility Life Equal recognition before the law Access to justice Liberty and security of person Freedom from torture or cruel,

inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment

Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse

The integrity of the person Liberty of movement Nationality Living independently

Inclusion in the community Personal mobility Freedom of expression and opinion Access to information Privacy Respect for home and the family Equal access to health and health care Habilitation and rehabilitation Work and employment Adequate standard of living and social

protection Participation in political and public life Participation in cultural life, recreation,

leisure and sport

UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (2006) These rights are not unique to people with

disabilities. Everyone has them. Many are already guaranteed by the South African Constitution and by other human rights treaties.

There is a separate treaty because the needs of people with disabilities are different, even though the rights are the same.

The rights are indivisible and interconnected. Each right facilitates the exercise of other rights.

Teachers’ obligations

There are two areas of the Convention for which teachers are primarily responsibleArticle 8(2)(b) – Teach respect for the rights of

people with disabilities.Article 24 – The right to education.

Exercise

What rights do people with disabilities have that are easier to for them to exercise if the right to education is respected?

What rights do people with disabilities have that are easier to exercise if all students are taught to respect people with disabilities and the rights of people with disabilities?

Teaching Respect

Article 8(2)(b) requires “Fostering at all levels of the education system, including in all children from an early age, an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities”

What to do

Games and exercises for the class. There are many available.

When a disabled student joins your class, talk to the class about the student and his or her needs. Some NGOs offer training on how to do this.

Make sure your class knows that bullying is not acceptable.

Right to Education (Art. 24)

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education. With a view to realizing this right without discrimination and on the basis of equal opportunity, States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and life long learning directed to:

(a) The full development of human potential and sense of dignity and self-worth, and the strengthening of respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and human diversity;

(b) The development by persons with disabilities of their personality, talents and creativity, as well as their mental and physical abilities, to their fullest potential;

(c) Enabling persons with disabilities to participate effectively in a free society.

Right to Education (Art. 24)

2. In realizing this right, States Parties shall ensure that:(a) Persons with disabilities are not excluded from the general education

system on the basis of disability, and that children with disabilities are not excluded from free and compulsory primary education, or from secondary education, on the basis of disability;

(b) Persons with disabilities can access an inclusive, quality and free primary education and secondary education on an equal basis with others in the communities in which they live;

(c) Reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements is provided;

(d) Persons with disabilities receive the support required, within the general education system, to facilitate their effective education;

(e) Effective individualized support measures are provided in environments that maximize academic and social development, consistent with the goal of full inclusion.

Right to Education (Art. 24)

3. States Parties shall enable persons with disabilities to learn life and social development skills to facilitate their full and equal participation in education and as members of the community. To this end, States Parties shall take appropriate measures, including:

(a) Facilitating the learning of Braille, alternative script, augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication and orientation and mobility skills, and facilitating peer support and mentoring;

(b) Facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community;

(c) Ensuring that the education of persons, and in particular children, who are blind, deaf or deafblind, is delivered in the most appropriate languages and modes and means of communication for the individual, and in environments which maximize academic and social development.

Right to Education (Art. 24)

4. In order to help ensure the realization of this right, States Parties shall take appropriate measures to employ teachers, including teachers with disabilities, who are qualified in sign language and/or Braille, and to train professionals and staff who work at all levels of education. Such training shall incorporate disability awareness and the use of appropriate augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, educational techniques and materials to support persons with disabilities.

5. States Parties shall ensure that persons with disabilities are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training, adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, States Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disabilities.

South African Constitution

“Everyone has the right to a basic education.”

Exercise

How can you and your class benefit from the inclusion of children with disabilities?

Inclusive Education

Under the Convention, children with disabilities have a right to inclusive education. “What we have accomplished in human rights … is the

complete conceptual switch stating that no child should be forced to adapt to education. The principle requires compete reversal. Education should adapt to the best interests of each child.” Dr. Katarina Tomasevski, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, May 2004

White Paper 6 on Education also mandates inclusive education for about 70% of children with disabilities.

Inclusive Education

The right to inclusive education means that children with disabilities have the right to go to “normal” schools.

Inclusive education means more than mainstreaming. It means creating a system that focuses on ensuring that every learner’s needs are met, instead of focusing on fitting the learner into the system.

We don’t have “normal” kids and “special” kids. We have a diverse population of learners who learn in various ways.

Inclusion v. Mainstreaming Mainstreaming or Integration Inclusion

Mainstreaming is about getting learners to ‘fit into’ a particular kind of system or integrating them into this existing system.

Inclusion is about recognising and respecting the differences among all learners and building on the similarities.

Mainstreaming is about giving some learners extra support so that they can ‘fit in’ or be integrated into the ‘normal’ classroom routine. Learners are assessed by specialists who diagnose and prescribe technical interventions, such as the placement of learners and learning in programmes.

Inclusion is about supporting all learners, educators and the system as a whole so that the full range of learning needs can be met. The focus is on teaching and learning actors, with the emphasis on the development of good teaching strategies that will be of benefit to all learners.

Mainstreaming and Integration focus on changes that need to take place in learners so that they can 'fit in'. Here the focus in on the learner.

Inclusion focuses on overcoming barriers in the system that prevent it from meeting the full range of learning needs. The focus is on the adaptation of and support systems available in the classrooms.

Exercise

Think about the barriers at your school. In an ideal world, what changes would you make to accommodate a student with a visual disability?

With a hearing disability? With a physical disability? With a developmental disability? With a mental illness? What additional considerations are there when

accommodating a student with multiple disabilities?

Rights of People with Disabilities

An Introduction for Teachers