Disability-inclusive education
Disability-inclusive education refers to efforts that relate specifically to ensuring the inclusion of children (or adults) with disabilities in education. Disability-inclusive education enables people with disabilities to access education within mainstream schools and learning settings alongside peers without disabilities, in the classrooms they would be attending if they did not have a disability, or within environments that best correspond to their requirements and preferences.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Article 24 on Education requires States to ensure that 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. From a rights perspective, disability-inclusive education is accepted as the most suitable approach to guarantee universality and non-discrimination, as attending mainstream schooling offers opportunities for children with disabilities to learn skills, knowledge, and connectedness that can open gateways to social and economic participation later, reducing the likelihood of poverty.
Additionally, the attendance of children with disabilities in a school environment challenges societal misconceptions about the capacity of children with disabilities to participate and learn, which in turn contributes to inclusive communities, enabling participation of people with disabilities in economic and social life.
Resources in this section include evidence, policy commitments, and guidance to implement disability-inclusive education programs, to ensure children with disabilities can access their right to an education in mainstream schools.
CBM-Nossal (2024) Disability Equity and Rights Essay: Disability-Inclusive and Resilient Education
This ‘Disability equity and rights: Challenges, opportunities, and ways forward for inclusive development’ publication was prepared under the DFAT – CBM Inclusion Advisory Group Disability Inclusion Technical Partnership, an Australian aid initiative implemented by CBM Inclusion Advisory Group and the Nossal Institute for Global Health at the University of Melbourne.
DFAT (2023) Disability-Inclusive Education: Policy Guidance
This Policy Guidance Document provides introductory information regarding inclusive education, to assist DFAT in supporting the design, implementation, and monitoring of inclusive education initiatives.
Humanity & Inclusion (2021) Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Inclusive Education
Conducted a study to: i) identify existing ICTs that can support the educational inclusion of children with disabilities; ii) identify the challenges to the implementation of these ICTs.
UNESCO (2023) Technology in education: A tool on whose terms?
Chapter 2 of this report focuses on inclusion in education and assistive technology.
All Children Reading (2023) Child Functioning Module-Teacher Version (CFM-TV) Validity Study
The CFM-TV Validity Study in Nepal will explore how the CFM-TV performs when implemented by teachers.
Girls’ Education Challenge (2023) Towards Equity in Assessment: Making Standardized Learning Assessments more accessible for Learners with Disabilities
The purpose of this brief is to share lessons that implementers, assessment designers and researchers have learned by including learners with disabilities in standardized summative learning assessments.
USAID (2019)Universal Design for Learning to Help All Children Read
This toolkit is aligned with the CRPD and supporting inclusive education as the most appropriate educational setting for students with disabilities.
OHCHR (2020) Article 24: Illustrative indicators on education
The right to education applies to all children. Article 24 describes what is needed to ensure that children with disabilities are able to realize this right.
OHCHR (2020) Policy Guidelines for Inclusive Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education
Provides detailed guidance for policymakers on measures that are required to implement the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on Quality Education which ensure the inclusion of persons with disabilities.
International Labour Organization (2008) Recognizing ability: The skills and productivity of persons with disabilities: Literature review
This paper reviews evidence regarding the impact of policies and practices designed to support persons with disabilities in the achievement of their productivity potential in the formal and informal economies through skills training and workplace accommodations.
International Labour Organization (2017) Including persons with disabilities in technical and vocational education and training: A guide for administrators and instructors to disability inclusion
A guideline on disability inclusive technical and vocational education and training based on pilot programs in Bangladesh.
GIZ (2020) Guideline on how to mainstream inclusion of marginalised people in vocational education and training
This resource on holistic inclusive vocational and educational training has been developed by GIZ. This includes guidance around broad inclusion, of which disability inclusion is one area of focus.
UNICEF (2021) Mapping of Disability-Inclusive Education Practices in South Asia
This regional mapping report and its country profiles across South Asia highlights the main gaps and challenges of education practices, across six areas.
Various (2017) Strengthening Inclusive Education in Fiji – Lessons Learned from AQEP: Changing attitudes about disability
This policy brief discusses attitudinal barriers in children with disabilities in accessing education.
Monash University (2016) Pacific Indicators for Inclusive Education (Pacific-INDIE): Case Studies
There are four case studies presented from Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Solomon Islands, the four key countries involved in the development of the Pacific INDIE final set of indicators.
CBM Australia (2023) Supporting Children with Disabilities in the Philippines
CBM Australia supported NORFIL Foundation to implement the Enable Communities for Inclusion of Children and Youth with Disabilities project from 2020 to 2022.
Chata Male & Quentin T. Wodon (2017) Disability gaps in educational attainment and literacy (English)
This note provides an analysis of gaps in educational opportunities for children with disabilities.
DFAT (2019) Disability Inclusive Education: Practitioner Level course
This module is designed to inform those who engage with and lead policy dialogue with international and domestic partners of diverse implementation strategies and key priorities in disability-inclusive education.
UNESCO (2020) Global Education Monitoring Report 2020, Inclusion in education: All means ALL
This report is pivotal in highlighting the inequalities in educational opportunities and barriers, which have been compounded by COVID-19.
IDA (2020). “What an inclusive, equitable, quality education means to us”. IDA Report on Inclusive Education Launched
The IDA Global Report aims to inform education sector stakeholders on the priorities agreed by the disability rights movement, and to equip disability activists and their allies with essential messages and recommendations to unify and strengthen advocacy towards effective and accelerated reforms of the education sector.
World Bank Group (2019). Equity and Inclusion in Education in World Bank Projects: Persons with Disabilities, Indigenous Peoples, and Sexual and Gender Minorities.
This paper focuses on three groups who experience deeply entrenched disadvantages, inequity, exclusion, and discrimination in education.
