Children and disability: Special or included

Abstract

Children with disabilities are often seen as different from other children and in need of a special education. The idea that disability involves a personal deficit requiring treatment in separate settings is challenged by the New Zealand Disability Strategy. The Strategy sees disability resulting from environments that are designed to meet the needs and wishes of a non-disabled majority and that may, therefore, exclude the disabled. To create a more inclusive and socially just education system requires schools that understand the rights of all children to fairness and justice and that have the cultural and material resources to cater for diversity.