The recession is posing a threat to the education of children with disabilities but any investment made now will pay dividends in years to come
EDUCATION FOR children with disabilities is not charity, it is not something we do only in the good times, it is vital to the Irish economy and its future.
Students with disabilities have already proven their considerable ability in State examinations, and this year there has been a surge in the numbers getting a place in third-level institutions.
In fact, this year there are more than 5,000 students with disabilities in higher education.
This success is significant as 10 years ago there were only 400 students with disabilities in higher education, and many bright students were deprived of the opportunity because of their disability.
Times have indeed changed and significant supports have been put in place in secondary schools, in particular special needs assistants and the use of technology. These supports are not a luxury but are absolutely vital to the inclusion of children with disabilities.
Supports such as technology means that students who are blind or deaf will have their learning needs addressed, allowing them to operate effectively in a text-based system.
Mainstream education will not work for children who can learn, but who cannot see or hear or interpret written text, without additional supports in the classroom.
Simply putting a child with a disability into a large classroom of 29 other children means the child will be a problem – it will not work no matter how qualified the teacher.
Yes, it can be argued that this system is far from perfect, that these supports are just bolted on, and it would be better to radically change the whole system.
But change takes time and until there is curriculum reform and broader teaching and assessment methods introduced, then we have to work with what is there.
According to the National Council for Special Education, there are more than 190,300 children with disabilities between the ages of four and 18 in the State.
The recession is threatening the education of these children by reducing the supports to the teacher in the classroom with the proposed cutbacks to special needs assistants.
In addition, there has been a 25 per cent reduction of real funding available to individual students in higher education which is affecting the capacity of the colleges to ensure they have the books and other supports they need to do the work of the course.
The shame is that we know the value of education, not only for individuals but for organisations and society. Any investment we make now in education for disabled children will pay dividends in the near future.
In the past, people with disabilities lost out on education, with only 54 per cent of adults with disabilities completing secondary education. Furthermore, according to research by the National Disabilities Authority, up to 80 per cent of adults with disability are unemployed.
It does not require the skills of an economist to work out an economic argument for ensuring that students with disabilities receive the education they are entitled to.
Yes, of course there is an additional cost for the provision of supports, but long-term costs of not providing them will be a far greater burden on the taxpayer – the costs of unemployment, disability benefit, housing and healthcare will be enormous.
But the greatest cost would be the significant talent, ability and creative thinking lost to the economy.
This does not have to be the case. International and national research clearly indicates that graduates with disabilities are just as likely to be employed as other non-disabled graduates.
The combination of technology and the knowledge-based economy have completely changed the working environment, making disability irrelevant to an employer who needs creative thinking and problem- solving technology-savvy employees.
It would be simply inexcusable to reduce the funding for supports for children with disabilities in education and go back to the past, depriving another generation of a future simply because they learn differently.
- Ann Heelan is executive director of Ahead, the Association for Higher Education Access and Disability. It is an independent non-profit organisation which promotes full access to and participation in further and higher education for students with disabilities
