Student Attitudes Toward Impairment and Accessibility: an Evaluation of Awareness Training for Urban Planning Students

Within the urban planning profession, designing for the needs of people with impairments has rarely been a significant feature of planning theory and instruction. Given the role of urban planners in affecting the opinions of policy-makers and the public, the prevalence of negative and misinformed attitudes among planning professionals toward impaired populations has been highlighted as requiring study. This paper reports on the effectiveness of awareness training with regard to its influence on the attitudes of urban planning students toward the needs of people with impairments and accessible design. Using an established attitude assessment instrument (the Attitudes Towards Disablement Scale), pre and post-awareness training data were collected from 112 urban planning students. Results from the present study suggest that awareness training can result in significant attitude changes, independent of the student’s gender or prior familiarity with impairment. The paper concludes with recommendations and caveats for planning education and research.

Using activity theory to understand prospective teachers' attitudes to and construction of special educational needs and/or disabilities

Appropriate professional development, including that initial teacher training, is regarded as a cornerstone of the development of inclusive education. This research is concerned with prospective teachers' conceptualisations of terms such as ‘disability’ and ‘special education’. Activity theory is proposed as a lens through which to consider the complexities involved. In the context of the English systems, this research, using data collected through word association and analysed using activity theory, explored the trainees' conceptualisations. The findings highlight both heterogeneity and homogeneity within a cohort of students, changes over time and implications for those involved in teacher education.     

Authentic school partnerships for enabling inclusive education in Hong Kong

Education reform towards a whole school approach to catering for diversity within Hong Kong government schools has seen the initiation of several strategies to support mainstream schools in this transition. One of these approaches is the use of a resource school model. Special and mainstream schools in Hong Kong are being invited to establish themselves as resource support hubs for partner mainstream schools. This paper investigates how this model is being implemented by considering one of each type of resource school. Three broad themes have emerged that relate to the type of support being offered and sought: the school ethos and culture of the partner schools; and management issues. The effectiveness of a resource model is evaluated for its use in Hong Kong.     

An analysis of the cultural representation of disability in school textbooks in Iran and England

The paper details the findings of a study which focused on the analysis of the cultural representation of disability in school textbooks in Iran and England. The paper argues that whilst inclusive education could facilitate the incorporating of disabled pupils into mainstream schools, there needs to be deeper examination as to how this transition should take place for children aged 3–13. The paper suggests that in such examinations, school textbooks might be of significance in familiarising non-disabled pupils, teachers and authorities with the issues related to disability and disabled pupils.     

Evaluating the perception of disability and the inclusive education of teachers: the Italian validation of the Sacie-R (Sentiments,Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education – Revised Scale)

This study aimed to verify the factorial structure, internal validity, reliability, and criterion validity of The Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised Scale (SACIE-R) in an Italian sample. The SACIE-R is a useful tool to measure three aspects of teachers’ perceptions about inclusion, which are Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns, providing valuable information to address the needs of teachers working with special students. A measure of this construct is currently not available in Italian, and a validation process is required. In order to provide an initial psychometric evaluation of the Italian adaptation, the SACIE-R was translated for use in Italian-speaking populations. Four hundred Italian teachers enrolled in educational teaching courses completed the SACIE-R. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated a good fit to the hypothesised 3-factor model, and adequate internal consistency for the scale was evidenced. A confirmatory factor analysis showed the same factor structural validity as the original instrument (although some items in the original version were deleted). Furthermore, taken together, the results showed a good level of reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, the Italian version of the SACIE-R has good psychometric characteristics that can make it a useful measure of teacher attitude toward inclusion in the Italian educational context.     

Let's Talk About Sex … Education

An important goal of any sexuality education program is to support youth and young adults to develop a positive self-image and develop competence and confidence in skills needed to express sexuality and develop positive relationships. For youth and young adults with disabilities, sexuality education is offered far less often than for their same aged peers without disabilities. This article describes a three-step process for developing specially designed instruction in sexuality education using principles of instructional design to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.     

Parents’ views of an optimal school life: using Social Role Valorization to explore differences in parental perspectives when children have intellectual disability

Children with disability continue to experience disadvantage in their school lives; thus, the question of what makes up an optimal school life, and whether this is different for children with disability, becomes critical. This paper reports on research into parental views about an optimal school life and the usefulness of Social Role Valorization theory as a framework for exploring this issue. Six focus group interviews were used to collect data from 30 parents. Children of a variety of ages, with and without disability, were represented. All groups were similar in the aspects they regarded as optimal in a child’s school life. These fell into five categories: being connected, growth, personhood, basic needs, and happiness. Despite this similarity across groups, there were some notable differences in the detail; for example, parents of children with disability had a stronger focus on children being wanted, high expectations, and being seen as an individual.     

We Are People First: Framing Organizational Assimilation Experiences of the Physically Disabled Using Co-Cultural Theory

This study explores how organizational members with disabilities experience and manage organizational assimilation in the workplace. The organizational socialization model was used to initially analyze participants' assimilation experiences and co-cultural theory was used as a framework for examining how participants negotiate assimilation. Interviews with 24 participants with physical disabilities were analyzed. Results illustrate a dynamic and difficult process of managing and negotiating assimilation, using a variety of communication strategies such as accommodation (attempts to keep some cultural identity) and assimilation (attempts to conform), as opposed to separation (rejecting common connection with dominant members and bonding only with co-cultural members).     

Reading disability in boys and girls: No evidence for a differential genetic etiology

In order to test the hypothesis that genetic influences are moreimportant as a cause of reading disability in girls than in boys,composite reading performance data from identical and fraternal twinpairs were analyzed using both concordance and multiple regressionmethods. The sample included 206 identical (99 male, 107 female), 159same-sex fraternal (90 male, 69 female), and 117 opposite-sex fraternaltwin pairs, in which at least one member of each pair had readingdifficulties. Although the difference between the concordance rates forreading disabilities in female identical and same-sex fraternal twinpairs was somewhat greater (65% for identical twins vs.32% for fraternal twins) than the difference in concordance ratesfor boys (68% vs. 39%), loglinear analysis of thesecategorical data revealed that the interaction between sex, zygosity,and concordance was not significant (p > 0.70). Moreover,the heritability of reading disability(h ² _g) estimated from regression analysisof the reading performance data in males was nearly identical to that infemales (h ² _g = 0.58 and 0.59,respectively; p > 0.90). Thus, results of this studyprovide little or no evidence for the hypothesis of greater geneticinfluence on reading difficulties in girls than in boys.     

‘It's the best job in the world,but one of the hardest,loneliest, most misunderstood roles in a school.’ Understanding the complexity of the SENCO role post-SEND reform

In schools, the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) could be considered a key policy implementer of special educational needs and inclusive policy. Issues related to time, status and the effective facilitation of the SENCO role have been reported on extensively, yet literature has predominantly focused on the role prior to the introduction of the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms in 2014. This paper reports on research which explored the SENCO role post-reform. The research aimed to understand how widely the role varied across differing educational settings and phases, whilst also exploring the breadth and depth of the role, post-SEND reform. The research design was mixed methods and had two phases: online focus groups (n = 15), followed by a national online survey (n = 1903). The findings suggest that the facilitation of the SENCO role remains problematic post-reform. Constraints include the time to undertake responsibilities, the increasing breadth of the role and how the role is understood by others. This combined with increased external bureaucracy, budgetary constraints and a lack of consistency nationally has led to a situation where only approximately one-third of SENCOs intend to remain in the role in five years’ time.