Disability- Concepts and Classification | Crash Course for UGC NET Education PDF Download

Disability: Concepts and Classification

Classification of Disability

There is probably no society in which the disabled have not been discriminated against positively or negatively in one or more areas. Such persons often are the targets of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory practices. In many instances they hamper their chance of becoming fully functioning members of the society. It is seen that in the last decade of the 20th century many changes have taken place for the growth and development of the disabled people.

For the appropriate use of these terms, The World Health Organisation (WHO), provided the following definitions in their International Classification of Impairment, Disability and Handicap (1980)

Impairment Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological or an anatomical structure of function.

Disability Any restriction or lack of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range, considered normal for a human being.

Handicap The result when an individual with impairment, cannot fulfil a normal life role.

Impairment

It refers to the loss or reduced functioning of a particular body part or organ. e.g. a missing limb. Identifying impairments that contribute to disabilities is a functional problem for a patient and a key factor for a health professional to determine an appropriate treatment. Significantly, the impact of impairment on learning will vary, according to the nature and extent of impairment.

Types of Impairment

The various types of impairment are from

Physical/Orthopaedic lmpainnent

By virtue of its definition, it may be understood as a certain type of dysfunctions or disturbances in the body, resulting into its malfunctioning and thereby making one physically disabled or handicapped, on one account or the other.

In this way, physical impairment represents a condition of such a child who is physically impaired that interferes with his/her ability to participate in many activities like daily routine school, home or community activities.

Generally, it constitutes as one of the most common or prevalent physical impairments in human beings.

According to Hunt & Marshall (2002), "It refers to a condition that incapacitates the skeletal, muscular or neurological system of the body to some degree".

Visual Impairment

Senses are said to be the gateway of knowledge but from five sense organs, the sense of sight possesses the most unique place of providing knowledge and information of the environment suffering us in a most comprehensive and stable way that is why the knowledge gained through a picture of the object, person or an event is said to be 100 times better, than its mere description in words.

It, as an umbrella term, includes all levels of vision and thus, may represents a continum from individuals with poor vision, to individuals who can see light but not shapes, to individuals who have no perception of light at all. We can use a number of terms interchangeably, to describe children with visual impairment such as visually impaired, visually disabled, visually handicapped, partially sighted children, legally blind and totally blind, etc. Visually impaired children are those children who have such marked visual difficulties that even with the best medical and optical care, they cannot see well enough to profit from the education facilities that are provided for children with normal vision.

According the Barraga (1983), "A visually impaired child is one whose visual impairment interferes with his optimal learning and achievement, unless adaptations are made in the methods of presenting learning experiences, the nature of materials used or in the learning environment".

Hearing lmpainnent

Hearing is the ability to perceive sound. A person suffering from hearing impairment, has difficulty in perceiving or identifying sound clearly due to auditory problems. Hearing impairment refers to a defect or damage in the hearing mechanism. This damage or defect may occur in any part of the ear i.e. outer or the middle or the inner ear. It leads to hearing loss.

Hearing disability or hearing loss may range in severity mild to moderate to profound. A person may become deaf or hard of hearing, depending upon the nature of impairment and the degree of hearing loss.

A child may be born with some impairment in the hearing mechanism or the impairment may occur after birth, due to some infection and obstruction or damage due to an accident.

According to Brill (1986), "Hearing impairment is a generic term used for indicating a hearing disability, which may range from mild to profound".

Central Deafness

When the sound vibrations reach the inner ear, the inner ear transforms these vibrations and sends them to the auditory centre in the brain. Meaningfully, the brain perceives these sounds and understands the message, if there is any defect in the auditory centre of the brain, we cannot hear anything. This type of hearing is known as central deafness.

Disability

The World Health Organisation (2012) defines disability as, "Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Impairment is a problem in body function or structure. An activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus, disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person's body and features of the society in which he or she lives".

Historically, people with disabilities subjected to prejudice and discrimination, have suffered exclusion and a significantly reduced quality of life. Societies where 'normalcy' and 'functionality', have been defined rather narrowly, persons with disabilities have little access to social, political and economic structures. Such a state of art with felt exclusion and discrimination makes the challenged more vulnerable and alienated from the mainstream.

Disability is an impairment that may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, etc. It may be present in an individual from birth or occur during one's lifetime. Disability conditions can cause educational barriers in a student's learning process.

Disability is a human right issue because people with disabilities are subject to violations of dignity. For example, when they are subjected to violence, abuse and prejudice because of their disability Some people with disability are denied autonomy. As regards disability, the National Policy for Persons with Disabilities (2006) stressed the need for mainstreaming of persons with disabilities in the general education system through inclusive education, identification of children with disabilities through regular surveys, enrollment in appropriate and disabled friendly Schools till successful completion of education.

There are several conceptual models of disability that suggests significant changes in the way disability is explained. There are four models of disability i.e. Moral model, Charity model, Medical model and Social model. (Bowe, 1978).

They can be understood as follows

The Moral model refers to the attitude that people are responsible for their own disability, which is often seen as a result of bad actions of parents if congenital, or as a result of practicing witchcraft if the disability is not congenital. This attitude can be seen as a religious fundamentalist offshoot of the original animal roots of human beings, to a time when humans killed any baby that could not survive on its own in the wild.

The Charity model depicts disabled people as victims of circumstance, deserving of pity and compassion. This and Medical models are probably the ones most used by non-disabled people to define and explain disability.

The Medical model of disability looks at the disabled person as the problem. It addresses disability as a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals.

The Social model upholds that the disabled people regardless of their particular impairments are subjected to a common oppression by the non-disabled world. As a disabled person, one is often made to feel his/her own fault that he/she is different. In this model, disability is not an attribute of

Ł---------------------------·······-·······-·······----------Ł an individual, but rather a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment.

Hence, the management of the problem requires social action and it is the collective responsibility of the society at large to make environmental modifications, necessary for the full participation of people with disability in all areas of social life. Therefore, the issue is an attitudinal or ideological one which requires social change, which at the political level becomes a question of human rights.

Types of Disabilities

They can be explained in the following ways

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Blindness It refers to a condition where a person suffers, from any of the following conditions, i.e

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total absence of sight or

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visual acuity, not exceeding 6160 or 201200 (snellen) in the better eye with correcting lenses, or

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limitation of the field or vision subtending an angle of 20 degree or worse.

Person with Low Vision It means a person with an impairment of visual functioning, even after treatment or standard refractive correction, but who uses or is potentially capable of using vision for the planning or execution of a task appropriate with an assistive device.

Leprosy Cured Person It means any person who has been cured of leprosy, but is suffering from:

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loss of sensation in hands or feet, as well as loss of sensation and paresis in the eye and eyelid, but with no manifest deformity.

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manifest deformity and paresis, but having sufficient mobility in their hands and feet, to enable them to engage in normal economical activities.

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extreme physical deformity as well as advanced age, which prevents him/her from undertaking any gainful occupation and the expression 'leprosy cured shall be construed accordingly.

Hearing Impairment It means loss of 60 decibels or more in the better ear, in the conversational range of frequencies.

Locomotor Disability It means disability of the joints of bones and muscles, leading to substantial restriction of the movement of the limbs or any form of cerebral palsy.

Mental Illness It means any mental disorder, other than mental retardation.

Mental Retardation It means a condition of arrest or an incomplete development of the mind of a person, which is characterised by sub-normality of intelligence.

Disability has also been defined in the ICF, 2001. The definitions are based on a Bio-Psycho­social Approach that has resulted from the combination of both Medical and Social Models. The approach was adopted by the ICF, provides a coherent view of different perspectives of health from a biological, individual and social perspective. According to ICF (2001 ), "An individual's functioning in a specific domain is an interaction or a complex relationship between the health conditions and contextual factors (i.e. environment and personal factors) There is a dynamic interaction among these entities i.e. an intervention in one entity has the potential to modify one or more other entities".

Handicap

A handicapped person is one who deviates from normal health status, either physically, mentally or socially and needs special care, treatment and education.

The types of handicap are discussed below

Physically Handicapped person who have a disability of locomotor and neurological origin which constitutes a disadvantage or restriction in one or more aspects of daily living activities, including work. However, from the educational point of view, not all pupils with physical disabilities require special school provisions. There are variations in duration and severity among physical disabilities.

In other words, handicap conditions may be temporary or permanent and mild severe Physically handicapped children may be multiple handicapped with mental handicap, visual or hearing impairment. Mentally Handicapped A mental handicap is an impairment in an individual's ability to function cognitively, emotionally or physically due to the presence of psychiatric conditions. This condition hinders someone's ability to perform a task or presents that person from engaging in an activity without assistance.

Socially Handicapped Person whose opportunity for a healthy personality development and full unfolding of potentialities are hampered in certain elements in his social environment, such as parental inadequacy, environmental deprivation and emotional disturbance. Socially handicapped children are orphan, neglected and delinquent children.

Effects of Handicap on Education

Mobility and Physical Fitness It may cause various degrees of weaknesses and incordination of the limbs, which may affect mobility, posture and manual dexterity. Other physical problems such as heart diseases may cause poor exercise tolerance and a low level of physical fitness. All these may directly result in pupil's difficulty to cope with an ordinary school routine and to exceed their ability in exploring and understanding the environment.

Perception and Concentration Besides the above mentioned motor problems, neurological impairment may also cause sensory deficiency or over stimulation, which may disturb perception and concentration, inducing specific learning difficulties for the pupils.

Intelligence Most common disability among physically handicapped children is cerebral palsy. As cited in the report of a survey that 56% of the pupils intake in schools for the physically handicapped are mentally handicapped.

Emotion It is the disadvantageous position in which physically handicapped pupils are placed may cause them some of the emotional problems i.e. low self-esteem, lack of self-confidence, fear of changes in environment, low level of aspiration, anxiety and frustration.

Classification of Disabilities Based on ICF Model

The International Classification of Functioning (ICF) universal model and applies to all people, irrespective of their culture, health, gender and age. Instead of making disability a distinguishing mark of a discrete minority group, the ICF describes all the domains of functioning and disability that are applicable to everyone. The International Classification of Impairments. Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) was published by WHO in 1980. The original model of ICIDH included conceptual model in which diseases and disorders were linked to their possible consequences, specifically impairments, disabilities and handicaps. The model is described below.

Disease Ł Impairments Ł Disabilities Ł Handicaps/Disorder

As time went on, it became more clear that disability was far more complex, a new model of human functioning and disability was presented. The model is given below.

1 I Ł Activities < participation="" body="" ł="" function="" and="" structure="" environmental="" factors="" personal="" factors="" />

The ICF Framework consists of two parts i.e. functioning and disability and contextual factors. These parts are further broken down in the following manner Functioning and disability includes

►

Body Functioning and Structures It describes actual anatomy and psychology of the human body.

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Activity and Participation It describes the person's functional status, including communication, mobility, interpersonal interaction, self-care, learning, applying knowledge, etc.

Contextual factor includes

Ł

Environmental Factors -Factors that are not within the person's control, such as family, work, government agencies, laws and cultural beliefs.

►

Personal Factors It includes race, gender, age, educational level, etc. These are not specifically coded in the ICF, because of the wide variability among cultures.

The two major conceptual models of disability have been proposed

Medical Model of Disability

It views disability as a feature of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma or other health condition, which requires medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals. Disability, on this model, calls for medical or other treatment or intervention, to correct the problem with the individual.

Social Model of Disability

The Social model of disability views disability as a socially created problem.

For example, if the child with a disability, having problems gaining access to the school and participates in the classroom then it is not because of her disability but because of the school system that has failed to fulfil its obligation to be accessible.

According to International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF, 2001), disability under the Social Model is not an attribute of an individual, but rather a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment.

A better model of disability, in short, is one that synthesizes what is true in the medical and social models, without making the mistake each makes in reducing the whole, complex notion of disability to one of its aspects.

Uses of ICF

Policy Development

ICF plays an important role, whether it is devising eligibility criteria for disability pensions, developing regulations for access to assistive technology or mandating transportation policy that accommodates individuals with mobility, sensory or intellectual disability, ICF can provide a framework for comprehensive and coherent disability related social policy.

Economic Analysis

Most applications of ICF lend themselves to economic analysis. Determining whether resources are effectively used in health care and other social services requires a consistent and standard classification of health and health related outcomes that can be costed and compared internationally. We need information on the disability burden of various diseases and health conditions. ICF makes those tasks possible.

Research Uses

ICF assists in scientific research by providing a framework or structure for interdisciplinary research in disability and for making results of research comparable. Traditionally, scientists have measured the outcomes of health conditions by relying or mortality data. But recently, the international concern about health care outcomes has shifted to the assessment of functioning at the level of the whole human being in day to day life. This is what ICF provides and makes possible.

Uses of Environment Factors

One of the major innovation in ICF is he presence of an environmental factor classification that makes is possible for the identification of environmental barriers and facilitators for both capacity and performance of actions and tasks in daily living. With this classification scheme, which can be used either on an individual basis or for the population wide data collection, it may be possible to create instruments that assess environments in terms of their level of facilitation for different kinds and levels of disability.

Underlying Principles

Four general principles guided the development of the ICF and are essential to its application. They are

Universality -A classification of functioning and disability should be applicable to all people irrespective of health condition and in all physical, social and cultural contexts. The ICF achieves this and acknowledges that anyone can experience some disability. It concerns everyone's functioning and disability and was not designed, nor should be used, to label persons with disabilities as a separate social group.

Parity and Aetiological Neutrality In classifying functioning and disability, there is not an explicit or implicit distinction between different health conditions, whether mental or physical. In other words, disability is not differentiated by aetiology. By shifting the focus from health condition to functioning, it places all health conditions on an equal footing, allowing them to be compared using a common metric. Further, it clarifies that we cannot infer participation in everyday life from diagnosis alone.

Neutrality Domain definitions are worded in neutral language, wherever possible, so that the classification can be used to record both the positive and negative aspects of functioning and disability.

Environmental Influence The ICF includes environmental factors in recognition of the important role of the environment in people's functioning. These factors range from physical factors (such as climate, terrain and building design) to social factors (such as attitudes, institutions and laws). Interaction with environmental factors is an essential aspect of the scientific understanding of functioning and disability.

Conclusion

ICF offers an international, scientific tool for the paradigm shift from the purely medical model to an integrated Bio-Psycho-Social Model of human functioning and disability. It is a valuable tool in research into disability, in all its dimensions i.e. impairments at the body and body part level, person level activity limitations and societal level restrictions of participation. ICF also provides the Conceptual Model and classification required for instruments to assess the social and built environment.

ICF will be an essential basis for the standardization of data concerning all aspects of human functioning and disability around the world.

ICF will be used by persons with disabilities and professionals, alike to evaluate health care settings that deal with chronic illness and disability, such as rehabilitation centres, nursing homes, psychiatric institutions and community services.

ICF will be useful for persons with all forms of disabilities, not only for identifying their health care and rehabilitative needs, but also in identifying and measuring the effect of the physical and social environment the disadvantages that they experience in their lives. on

From the viewpoint of health economics, ICF will help, monitor and explain health care and other disability costs. Measuring functioning and disabilities will make it possible to quantify the productivity loss and its impact on the lives of the people in each society. The classification will also be of great use in the evaluation of intervention programmes.

In sum, ICF is WHO's Framework for health and disability. It is the conceptual basis for the definition, measurement and policy formulations for health and disability. It is a universal classification of disability and health for use in health and health related sectors.

School Readiness

It is an interactive process and a set of relationships, in which the child, his/her family and the school interact in different ways that support the overall development of a child including physical, mental, psychological and emotional aspects. It is not easy to assess , whether a child is ready for school or not.

It becomes more complicated, when the system of school operations and guidelines are put before him.

Its It has two separate concepts

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School Readiness

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Readiness to learn

Readiness to learn is a level of development at which a child is able to learn. Readiness for school is rather different in terms of earlier one. It indicates that the child will be able to be successful in a typical school context. School readiness is the involvement of both concepts. It is defined as a quality that renders the child's ability to adapt the school's environment and curriculum.

Definition of School Readiness

According to the National Educational Goals Panel school readiness covers three key areas i.e.

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Child's readiness for school.

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School's readiness for children.

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Family and community's support and services that contribute to a child's readiness for school.

Factors Affecting School Readiness

Following are the factors affecting school readiness learning

Family Background It plays a vital role in a child's process. It supports child at different levels of learning. It provides a healthy and supportive environment to the child. It encourages a child at each step, whether he experiences success or failure.

Child's Health It is an important factor in school readiness. The children with mild disabilities can be sent to the school. It can affect a child's school readiness both directly and indirectly. Children learn better when they are healthy.

Socio-Economic Status of Family The socio-economic condition of a family plays a significant role in student's education and schooling. Among all students with disabilities, 50% are diagnosed with disability related problems that starts at the age of 6 years, these disabilities arise due to the poor social and economical conditions of family and lacking proper nutrition and care.

Types of Services Provided in Schools The child's readiness to school also depends upon the types of services provided in school. If quality services are provided, the child will feel like home in school. The facilities provided for special children in an inclusive school should be effective and child-centered.

Classroom Environment In an inclusive setting, it plays a major role in school readiness of a child. If the classroom environment is supportive, the school readiness will be high. It becomes the duty of the teacher to generate a conductive environment in the classroom.

Role of Teacher in School Readiness

School readiness is a state, when the child responds appropriately to the environment of th school. Child's readiness for school is made of multiple components and shaped by various factors. Teachers may need to make few adaptations to the classroom environment. The teacher plays a significant role in creating a conducive and friendly environment in class. The following points highlights the role of teacher, in school readiness:

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By promoting the adjustment of the child in the educational setting.

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By enhancing the participation of children in classroom activities.

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By making the classroom environment least restrictive for the children with disabilities.

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By organising different types of activities in the classroom, to enhance learning of the children.

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Attitude and friendly gestures of the teacher also motivates the children to be ready for school.

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By empowering family as an equal partner in school readiness of the child.

Models of Inclusion

Models are instructional designs or teaching strategies which guide the teacher in planning, implementing and evaluating educational activities. In other words, a teaching model is a plan, specimen or guideline which helps teacher in creating and managing educational activities and environment to achieve goals of education. Some models are necessary to ensure the success of proper inclusion in education.

These are as follows

Strategies Intervention Model

It was developed at the University of Kansas, center for research on learning. This benefits that instruction in strategy intervention does indeed, improves the chances of success of special education in general educational classes. It is also based on that all students should develop their potential, independently. Their domain may be social or motivational.

It has a three step strategy intervention curriculum. It serves in the transition of the students with disabilities into the general education environment. This transition is a directional process in which combined assistance of general education teacher and special education teacher is required.

They are

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First, while responding to the expectations and demands, the students are made to learn properly the steps and strategies for getting, storing and expressing the things having particular aims. This also enables a student to copy the content matter and prepare a ground to meet the special needs.

Ł----------------------------·······-·······-·······----------Ł • The second step is aimed at enhancing the teaching routine in general education classroom. It is done on the basis of aids i.e. the teaching aids which are related to the previous knowledge of the students.

•

The third step to the strategy intervention is designed to teach the special social skills and motivational techniques. Here, an environment is created for the purpose of developing shared behaviour, which signifies commonness in behaviour of all. It helps easy involvement in team meetings and conferences. This model is widely appreciated. It needs criteria for its implementation.

Some terms of criteria centered to the teachers are as under

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The teachers must have time to plan and think about the needs of diverse learners.

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They should apply the teaching strategies, which must be incorporated into instructional program.

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They must collaborate with special education teachers, for performance assessment of all aspects of the students with SEN.

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They must be committed to meet the needs of the students in the general classroom.

Team Teaching Model

It is a model, in which two teaching polarities are joined together. The special education teacher and the regular classroom teacher work together and teach the students in one classroom. The students must be include in one single classroom, in order to reduce the higher level of stress.

For making teaching effective, the teachers have to work together in collaboration with one another. They will have to work in team and consider the others equal.

By working together in team, they are required to meet the goals and to complete the class's tasks. For this, an effective planning and systematic working is required i.e., when the plan and the system is formulated, the implementation begins which needs a well-defined support of the team.

The team works in the following manner

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The teachers must be willing to teach together. The teaching tasks should be divided among all team members. For example, regular teacher may teach content while special teacher may provide student information, possible instructional strategies and modification ideas for assignments, tests, etc. There should be no communication gap among the team members.

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Inclusion needs a great deal of various types of elements. They may differ to each other. But, the important point is that all these elements should lay focus on teaching. It includes all issues related with the development of learners. It requires support, conducive leadership, spirit of cooperation, etc.

The Team Teaching model helps in building self-esteem, self-confidence and self-reliance among children with disabilities. They start considering themselves, equal to their peers without disabilities. They get motivation and inspiration to develop their potentials. They feel new energy in themselves and learn various skills. On the other hand, teachers also get satisfaction and a feeling of dutifulness in a real sense.

Full Inclusion Model

It is also known as the Push In model. It is the most worthy model in an inclusive education, when the teacher enters into the classroom for instructional purpose, he supports the children. He uses the material which he has already arranged to make the instruction process effective. He uses all relevant methods, materials and assistive technologies in his teaching. In this model, the special teacher/special education staff provides support to the general teacher by team teaching or collaboration. Support in discovering the comprehensive curriculum is also provided to students through accommodations.

In collaborative co-teaching, there is shared responsibility between the regular and special education teacher. Teachers may organise a class into groups and teach students, simultaneously. One teacher may lead an enrichment activity while the other teacher works with a small group on difficult content areas. Students receive age appropriate academics, support services and necessary modified instruction

Accommodation is a technique or a support that alters the academic setting or an environment to help a student to access the curriculum. It changes how students learn and the way students demonstrate what they have learned.

Special education teacher identifies the needs of students and provides accommodation, accordingly. The ultimate goal is that all students learn to make their own accommodations and become independent learners.

The following ways help a teacher to identify whether an accommodation is effective or not

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It helps the individual compensate for intellectual changes.

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It allows the students to use current skills, while promoting ways to learn new ones.

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It reduces the level of abstract information, to make content relevant for the student's current and future life.

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It creates a balance between the student's learning style and the teacher's teaching style.

Resource Model

Although law requires that students' disabilities should be placed in a least restrictive environment, it is not necessary that students shall always be in a full inclusion setting. For example, a Full Inclusion Model may be restrictive for a student that requires intense remediation in reading. It is for this reason that a variety of services options must be made available to disabled students. The

special education staff may provide instruction and support to the student on one to one basis, outside the regular education classroom for not more than 40% of the instructional day. This small group would be directed towards the student's individualised educational plan. This model is supported by the inclusion teachers to meet the academic gaps of students during regular class with normal students. The primary goal of this is to address the comprehensive curriculum. The parents must be involved in this decision. The school has the responsibility to provide inclusion opportunities for students with disabilities.

Social Mainstreaming Model

In this model, the student with disabilities is included during regular classroom instruction to provide him/her with an appropriate interaction with non-disabled peers. The disabled students may have shortened assignments. Leaming material may be adopted for this. This model provides an opportunity for the disabled children to develop their social, emotional and interpersonal skills. The students are encouraged to work together. They are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of one another in the classroom.

Normal students become actively involved with disabled students and teaching in groups can develop an appreciation for optimising the abilities of children with special educational needs. Frequent meetings with parents, students and teachers and special educational professionals are held to check and evaluate the progress and needs of the students. The outcomes of the meetings may be helpful in implementing individualised educational plan for these children.

Non-Academic Model

In this model, the students with disabilities participate only in non-academic class activities, such as art, music, physical education and other activities. It is more appropriate for our lower functioning, alternate assessment of students.

Prevalence

It means the proportion of individuals in a population having a disease or characteristic. Prevalence is a statistical concept referring to the number of cases of a disease that are present in a particular population at a given time.

In low income countries, prevalence is often recorded very low as a result of the use of weak methodologies. The World Report on Disability, 2011 finds that there are over a billion people, about 15% of the world's population, who have some form of disability.

In India, according to the census 2011, 2.2% of the population had some form of disability. The prevalence of disability was found to be more in rural areas as compared to urban areas and more among males than females. The proportion of different types of disability among people with disability as reported in seeing 18.8%, hearing 18.9%, speech 7.5%, movement 20.3%, mental retardation 7.6%, mental illness 2.7%, multiple disabilities 7.9% and any other 18.4%.

The disability prevalence is likely to rise as a result of ageing populations and the higher risk of disability. In older people as well as the global, increase in chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cardio-vascular disease, cancer and mental disorders.

Types and Characteristics of Diverse Learners

The types and characteristics of diverse learners are explained below

Multiple Disabled Children

The children with multiple disabilities do not demonstrate a precise set of common characteristics. They may exhibit a range of characteristics, depending on the combination and severity of disabilities and the person's age. However, some general characteristics are given below

Cognitive Abilities It depends upon their particular disability and impairment, that they suffer from. For e.g. the child who has mental retardation will be very poor in cognitive skills, while a child who has an orthopaedic impairment may exhibit good cognitive abilities.

Physical Characteristics They may suffer from chronic illness, pain in any part of the body and lack of proper coordination of muscles. But, it does not mean that their whole body is weak. A person in a wheelchair may be very strong, by his upper body.

Communicative Abilities Many children with cerebral palsy have little language problems. If the problem of cerebral palsy is very severe, language development will be affected.

Behavioural Characteristics Generally, the suffering from multiple disabilities show deviant behaviour. Negative social stimuli is the main cause behind their deviant nature of behaviour. Limited motor skill and self-help skill also limit social interaction of these children.

Academic Achievement Poor academic achievement students with multiple disabilities is a common phenomenon.

The reason may be due to behaviour problems and poor school attendance, due to musculo­skeletal disorder, poor mental and physical health, etc.

Children with Autism

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Children perform obsessively repetitive activities and stereotyped movements.

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For instance, a child with autism may back and forth exhibits rhythmic head and foot movements.

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Children with autism can be self-abusive, banging their heads, slapping, poking or biting themselves.

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Some students with autism are extremely withdrawn and do not communicate at all.

Ł---------------------------·······-·······-·······----------Ł • Children with autism exhibit a wide range of intellectual and behavioural differences. They may also exhibit periodic emotional outbursts.

Children with Intellectual Disability

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May initiate negative, physical or verbal contact with other students, such as poking, slapping, teasing, etc.

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Their behaviour may be due to communication issue (not being able to communicate) and cognitive issue.

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Some teenagers with intellectual disability may have a hard time controlling physical affection and people surrounding them should be sensitive and cautious towards them.

Children with Physical Disabilities

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A physical disability can hamper a student's mobility, coordination, stamina, communication and learning abilities, to such an extent that educational objectives are difficult to accomplish and special education intervention is required.

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Children with cerebral palsy typically have deficits in gross and fine motor development skills as well as speech and communication problems.

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Some children have extremely debilitating physical conditions that result in low intellectual functioning, serious limitations in activities and multiple primary handicaps.

Educational Needs of Diverse Learners

When working with students of diverse learners, it is important to treat each student as an unique individual.

There are some educational needs of children, who may have a disability

Individualised Educational Plan (IEP)

For these learners, Individualised Educational Plan is designed to meet the unique educational needs of one child, who may have a disability as defined by federal regulations. An IEP is intended to help children, reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would.

Inclusion Model

It allows students with special needs to spend most of their time with non-disabled students. Implementation of these practices may vary. Schools most frequently use them for selected students with mild to severe special needs. The practice of inclusion is designed to have every student with a disability spend as much time in a Traditional or general classroom as possible.

Model of Educational Intervention

In assessment procedures, an IEP team must also discuss specific information about the child. This includes

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The child's strengths

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The parent's ideas of enhancing a child's education.

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The results of recent evaluations and

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How the child has done on state and district-wide tests.

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Most common accommodation is to provide more time to the students with disability and other accommodations includes different test question formats, verbal tests, large print, one on one instruction, etc.

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Another aspect is creating the least restrictive environment that means quiet and engaging for children. Basically, it depends on the student's specific needs as to what environment will be beneficial to them.

Applications of Assistive Technology

In 1994, Lahm and Morissette identified areas of instruction in which assistive technology can assist students.

Six of these are described here

Organisation Software based organisation outlines functions and internet for collaboration and feedback.

Note-taking Video-taking class sessions, translating point to voice, using potable word processing technology, to help students to learn how to note-take.

Writing Word processing software, grammar and spell checkers and word prediction software, publishing software for students to interact and to create their work.

Academic Productivity Calculations, internet, computers and instant messaging will help in increasing academic productivity.

Access to Reference and General Educational Materials Internet, communication, images, videos, e-books and multimedia can be used for reference.

Cognitive Assistance POAs, computers and the internet are helpful for assistance.

Causes of Disability

Most often international agencies and governmental and non-governmental sources, mentioned the causes of disability are heredity,birth defects, lack of care during pregnancy and child birth, insalubrious housing, natural disasters, illiteracy and the resulting lack of information available on health services, poor sanitation and hygiene, congenital diseases, malnutrition, traffic accidents, work-related accidents and illness, sports accidents, the so called diseases of civilization (cardio-

vascular disease, mental and nervous disorders, the use of certain chemicals, change of diet and lifestyle, etc), marriage between close relatives, accidents at home, respiratory diseases, metabolic diseases (diabetes, kidney failure, etc), drugs, alcohol, smoking, high blood pressure, old age, chagas disease, poliomyelitis, measles, etc.

Non-governmental sources also place particular emphasis on factors related to the environment, air and water pollution, scientific experiments conducted without the informed consent of the victims, terrorists, violence, wars, intentional physical mutilations carried out by the authorities and other attacks on the physical and mental integrity of persons as well as violations of human rights and humanitarian law in general.

The causes of disabilities vary according to different age groups (younger, working age and older ages population), although there are differences between males and females. It is also important to note that the causes of disability differ according to the type of disability, regions and other background characteristics a person belongs to.

Prevention of Disabilities

Prevention of disabilities are explained below

Primary Prevention

Primary prevention aims to prevent disease or injury before it ever occurs. This is done by preventing exposures to hazards that cause disease or injury, altering unhealthy or unsafe behaviours that can lead to disease at injury and increasing resistance to disease or injury should exposure occur. Examples include legislation and enforcement to ban or control the use of hazardous products (e.g. asbestos) or to mandate safe and healthy practices (e.g. use of seatbelts and bike helmets), education about healthy and safe habits (e.g. eating well, exercising regularly and not smoking) and immunization against infectious diseases.

Secondary Prevention

Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury that has already occurred. This is done by detecting and treating disease or injury as soon as possible to hault or slow its progress, encouraging personal strategies to prevent reinjury or reocurrence and implementing programs to return people to their original health and function to prevent long term problems. Examples include regular exams and screening tests to detect disease in its earliest stages (e.g. mammograms to detect breast cancer). Daily, low dose aspirins and/or diet and exercise programs to prevent further heart attacks or strokes and suitably modified work so injured or ill workers can return safely to their jobs.

Tertiary Prevention

Tertiary prevention aims to soften the impact of an ongoing illness or injury that has lasting effects. This is done by helping people manage long term, often complex health problems and injuries (e.g. chronic diseases, permanent impairments) in order to improve as much as possible, their ability to function, their quality of life and their life expectancy. Examples include cardiac and stroke rehabilitation programs and chronic disease management programs (e.g. for diabetes, arthritis, depression, etc). Support groups that allow members to share strategies for living well­vocational rehabilitation programs to retrain workers for new jobs, when they have recovered as much as possible.

It is extremely important that the women undertakes adequate and effective preventive measures during their pregnancy and immediate postnatal period and also for their children especially during the early childhood period, in order to significantly reduce the incidence of impairment and disabilities in them.

Identification of Diverse Learners for Inclusion

The process of identifying students with disabilities and determining their eligibility for inclusive education, typically involves three steps i.e. referral, evaluation and placement.

Referral is the primary method, through which children begin to be considered for a disability diagnosis. If both, disability diagnosis and special educational needs are confirmed, then the student has the right to the Individualised Education Programme (IEP), designed to improve educational performance and to expand opportunities.

Evaluation results are used to develop an IEP that specifies the general goals and particular instructional objectives for the child, results are also used to design instruction and related services and to monitor the child's progress towards objectives and goals.

Students must be placed as per the disability and teachers must use assistive technology and adaptive methods for the children. Reflecting the national policy, tend towards the greater integration of students with disabilities, into the least restrictive environment. Placement in the regular education classrooms increased between 1985-86 and 1989-90, for almost all disabilities and placements in resource rooms declined. Placement of children in separate classrooms, in regular school buildings remained essentially unchanged.

Educational Evaluation Methods

Shertzer and Stone view evaluation as necessary to provide for the effectiveness of achieving programme goals, in relation to specific standards. The effectiveness of any programme can be sustained through continuous evaluation and practitioners need to carry it out properly.

The methods of evaluation in education are discussed below

Before and After Method This is when the programme process is checked, after a given period of time and it checks the results of specific programme activities. For example, if students are introduced to a computer awareness programme, an evaluation of how much has been covered is carried out by the end of the year.

Comparison Method This is when the groups are compared, after different techniques have been used to achieve a goal. The comparative method may be used to judge the results in groups, like checking the impact of a programme on boys and girls. It may also be used to compare the effects of teacher-pupil ratios, on the attainment of goals.

How Do We Stand Method It helps to identify desirable programme's outcomes. Various techniques are used to check how the programme has progressed in terms of goal attainment. It compares programmes with generally accepted standards and offers an opportunity to make comparisons.

Educational Evaluation Tools

It may be defined as an instrument, to collect evidence of the student's achievement. Achievement test, anecdotal record, cumulative record, checklist, rating list, questionnaire, etc, are the main tools of evaluation in education

Achievement Test In the Evaluation Approach, the word 'achievement' has to be understood in relation to the objectives of instruction that are translated into behavioural changes. The teacher is interested in knowing the level of achievement of each student in each of the learning points and evaluates these on the basis of pre-determined instructional objectives. This is known as an achievement test.

Anecdotal Record These are reports of informal teacher's observations, regarding his pupils. A teacher will have the opportunity to observe certain behaviours of his students during specific occasions that reveal their attitude or personality traits. It should be recorded accurately and objectively. It should have two columns, one for the description of the incident and other for the interpretation of the incidents.

Cumulative Record The progress in the developmental pattern of each student is recorded cumulatively from period to period, in a comprehensive record designed for the purpose. Such a record is known as a cumulative record. It will have the provision, after recording the details of a variety of dimensions like physical development, health conditions, level of attainment in various subjects, participation in co-curricular activities, etc.

Checklist The checklist is a simple list of devices, consisting of a prepared list of items. It is easy to construct and use. It is a two dimensional chart, in which the traits measured are noted on one side and the names of examinees on the other side. The results can be recorded by putting a tick mark against the item.

Rating Scale It simply records the presence of the particular variable. There is no provision for expressing how much that variable is found. In order to overcome this limitation, each trait can be score on any number of convenient point, each point represents a particular degree such as good, average and poor.

Questionnaire It is a flexible tool for gathering quantitative information It is very easy to collect the responses, using a questionnaire on a broad parameter. But inadequate coverage, misinterpretation of questions and individual understanding of respondents, are the major limitations of this tool.

Educational Evaluation Technique

Some are discussed below

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Observation Continuously observing an individual and thereby measuring different dimensions of his behaviour, relevant to the teacher, is one of the most effective techniques used for evaluation.

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Interview The teacher tries to observe the child's behaviour, directly and gathers information, orally. There are several types of interviews like survey interview is used to gather information and diagnostic interview is used to understand a child's problems.

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Therapeutic interviews are used to plan suitable therapy and counselling interviews are used to solve personal, educational and vocational problems.

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Case Study The most reliable method of studying a single child in the totality, leads the case study method. In this method, the teacher collects data, relating to the individual's socio-economic status, family conditions, study habits, health and mental conditions, etc. Case study attempts to synthesise and interpret the data, collected from several sources using various methods in order to study the problems of the child.

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Sociometry It is a method which was developed by JL Moreno, for assessing social relationships among members in a social group.

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Projective Techniques Abnormal cases, whose behaviours are often controlled by the unconscious mind, are especially not susceptible to such direct techniques. In such cases, what is possible is to provide the students with some stimulus that might make them respond in such a way as to project their inner-self in an unconscious manner. Then, these responses may be interpreted. Rorschach lnkBlot Test. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), etc are some examples of projective techniques.