The Importance Of Disabilities In Education

Recently in June of 2013, the Internet went crazy about a second grade class photo. In it, “a teacher with a warm smile stood beside twenty-two students sitting neatly on a set of bleachers. Off to the far right of this particular picture, it what could be considered “the Siberia of the frame”, was a boy in a wheelchair sitting separated from the rest of his peers. He was beaming ear to ear and trying to crane his is neck towards his classmates, as if he was trying to ensure he makes it into the picture. This boy was Miles Belanger in which he has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord. He has never been able to walk, but the disability he has endured has not made any impact what so ever on his …show more content…
According to Child Action Incorporated, inclusion is a simple principle that states that children with special needs and or disabilities should partake in regular classes and activities at school. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act the definition of disabilities is a person with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, special needs are the individual requirement (as for education) of a person with a disadvantaged background or a mental, emotional, or physical disability or a high risk of developing one. According to the Australian Human Rights Commissions under the Disability Discrimination Act, disability discrimination means to treat a person less favorably, because of his or her disability, than a person without that disability would be treated in the same or similar circumstances. According to Google’s Dictionary, cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the …show more content…
By giving a child a chance to be in a regular classroom with children who do not have behavioral issues are able to develop better social skills from learning a more proper example of behavior in social interaction amongst other people (Griffin). When children are included with other students without disabilities, they tend to perform better academically, as well. A special needs child attending regular classes and spending time in a standardized classroom, as for a student being restricted to becoming accustomed to a restricted and isolated environment, even if they do not do it full time, can help the children with special needs better adapt to the rest of the world. The advantages of inclusions in the classroom by mixing students with special needs, regardless of the severity of a student’s disability or socio-economical status, has been found to have great and positive feedback and with a profound amount of evidence, whereas children with special needs who are retained in segregated classrooms at school fall further behind academically and socially. All in all, students who are taught in an inclusion setting are more likely able to build a society that is accepting of a person’s differences and able to respect people from a diversity of