How do we think about disability-inclusive education? From what perspective do we approach that which deviates from “normality”? How does it influence our way of educating?
According to World Bank statistics, 15% of the world's population - that is, about 1,000 million people - have some type of disability. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) defined this population in 2006 as “those 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.” Persons with disabilities inhabit spaces in which they constantly interact with people without disabilities. Those spaces are characterized by the barriers mentioned in the CRPD definition, and it is here that the question arises as to the conditions that have to be facilitated and built in order to ensure equality. Among these spaces is the school. If all people, regardless of their abilities, have a right to education, how can this right be guaranteed at school?
A comfort zone
The colorful butterflies that adorn the entrance to the Shalva Center (the Association for Care and the Inclusion of Persons with Disability in Jerusalem) symbolize these difficult beginnings that all people can have and that makes us feel vulnerable, even when we manage to fly. The center started operating in 1990, with only 6 children attending extracurricular activities. Today, Shalva provides thousands of persons with disabilities (children and adults) with a great variety of services and programs, including advanced therapies; educational, social, and recreational frameworks; training; housing; and emotional and psychological support. Visiting the center is a truly inspiring experience: “You can see that there is dedication and much love, because there is thought behind every detail. There I was able to get some ideas for my own classes,” says Yanina Grinberg, a student in our Masters degree program, who is a Jewish Education teacher at Ort School, in Argentina, as well as at Colegio Estado de Israel, in Paraguay, where she teaches Tanach and Fundamentals of Jewish Thought. She and her fellow students visited the Center within the framework of the summer semester program. Daniela Rigon Godoi, a primary school teacher and tutor at the Colegio Brasileño Israelita in Porto Alegre, who also visited the Center, notes that “at Shalva everyone has a difficulty, because of which they conquer themselves all the time, and nobody has to win.” Daniela worked for 11 years in a similar institution in Brazil, her country of origin. For her, the participation of children with disabilities in an environment like this is important to provide them with a comfort zone, where they can participate among equals and where evolution is nurtured. In addition, she notes the benefits to family members, who are also included in the scope of the institution’s activities, providing them with support and a support group.
Inclusive education
Currently, Daniela has two students in her class with different degrees of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and a student with a still-inconclusive diagnosis of dyslexia, as well as difficulties in some aspects of cognition and memory. She is in charge of adapting the curricular objectives to the abilities of each student. “Out of everything that is planned for the whole class, I analyze what I can work with for these students. The challenge is adapted to each one individually. Perhaps for others, it is important to know that a word is written with two R's or with one. But for him, that’s not a relevant objective; the important thing is to write. For him, the challenge will be to build a sentence,” she explains.
In relation to the culture of her country and the idea of "normality", Daniela says that, although there is an adaptation of the curriculum and there are teaching assistants (psychologists or educators) that the State demands that schools hire for each child who presents a diagnosis, “We no longer use the concept of ‘normal’ because that doesn't exist; nobody is ‘normal’”. With the adaptation of the curriculum, in Brazil, students with disabilities are integrated into regular classes. “Although sometimes, I observe that the families of these children are regarded with pity,” she maintains. That is why spaces like Shalva, for her, play a very important role for these families: there they do not need to prove themselves all the time; they have stability and can talk about their feelings on equal terms. Such spaces are complemented by the schools that these children attend: one depends on the other. “In this place where I worked, there were children who did not attend school; they were only at this institution and these children did not evolve. Why? Because they were not challenged to overcome themselves. Vygotsky already said it, and Piaget already said it; we need to disengage and get out of our place of comfort in order to evolve, learn, and want to learn more. So these spaces complement each other because the child will be constantly evolving and feeling good, evolving and feeling good,” she explains.
The focus on the community
Psychologist and teacher Natalia Roisman has been working for years to promote the inclusion of persons with disability in Jewish community institutions and various educational spaces. She is the co-founder of Otzma, a therapeutic cultural center for children; an institutional psychologist at Ory, and the general coordinator of Inclusive Taglit (Birthright). Regarding the challenges faced by persons with disability in Jewish institutions, Natalia mentions a lack of information, which leads to prejudice and often results in unintended exclusion, and argues that Jewish institutions have similar challenges to non-Jewish ones on this issue. However, she believes that the socio-cultural specificities of each institution need to be taken into consideration in order to adapt inclusion strategies accordingly. “Accessibility in every sense is often complex, over and above teaching methods and curricular adaptations, especially in non-formal education,” she adds.
Inclusive Taglit emerged in 2018. It was a long and transformative process, says Natalia, which sought to ensure that all Jewish youth have the opportunity to participate in Taglit, with the understanding that some participants required different timeframes, support, and adaptation of the program. “Youngsters with developmental delays or Down’s syndrome and wheelchair users had already traveled in Taglit groups where the majority of the group did not have any type of disability, in cases where the organizers had evaluated that the individual with the disability could cope with the pace without needing significant external support”, explains Natalia. In this sense, "the difference between integrating and including has to do with evaluating whether people without disabilities are really going to be able to enjoy the program, and the same for people with disabilities," she adds. This is how Argentina managed to do exactly the same program that all the Taglit participants do.
Strategies for inclusion
In order to successfully integrate people with disabilities in institutions that have other students without disabilities, Natalia recommends addressing the following aspects:
a) Sensitization and training: provide training to principals, security personnel, teachers, and students on disability and the importance of inclusion. This will help create a better understanding of and empathy for each individual's needs.
b) Adaptations and supports: identify the specific needs of each student, and provide adequate adaptations and supports so that he/she can actively participate in educational, recreational, and social activities.
c) Foster respect and empathy: promote a culture of respect and empathy in the institution, where individual differences are valued and collaboration and support among all is encouraged.
d) Teamwork: involve families and specialized professionals in the inclusion process, working as a team to guarantee the well-being and integral development of each member of the community.
Whether for the purposes of educational trips, activities in non-formal settings, or within the school itself, it is essential that teachers and authorities receive training in inclusion and diversity practices. In this sense, we at the Melton Center celebrate the visit of our students to Shalva and feel confident that they will embrace the strategies they learned there, with a view to "putting prophetic values and tikun olam into practice in educational spaces", as the students themselves put it so eloquently at the end of the visit.
Sources consulted
http://www.bnm.me.gov.ar/giga1/documentos/EL004887.pdf
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7autNrTfj027bwiQID0F8d?si=kFnNzcCfQpeLU...
https://www.bancomundial.org/es/topic/disability#:~:text=La%20inclusi%C3..., suffer%20alg%C3%BAn%20tipo%20de%20discapacidad.
https://prizmah.org/hayidion/pluralism/rival-versions-pluralistic-jewish...