Empowering Children with Disability Through Education

Children from all over the globe are protected by various laws to ensure they can access quality education regardless of race, gender, status, and disability. Besides, most countries worldwide regard learning as a fundamental human right. Therefore, children irrespective of their disability, are entitled to quality education which is often subsidized or offered for free. Disabled children should not be discriminated against or denied their fundamental right to quality education.

Education is often regarded as the key to success as well as an empowerment tool for society, and it should be accessible to all children to ensure equal access to education, thus resulting in sustainable community development. However, it is a sad reality that most of the children who are denied access to education are children living with disabilities. These disabilities may be characterized as physical, mental retardation, cognitive, intellectual, developmental deformations, or sensory-related deficiencies.

However, despite their disability, it should not be a reason to deny them access to education, especially in today’s technologically advanced and civilized nations. Today education should be open to all children regardless of their disability, mainly because of the different forms of learning that can be modified to suit any student’s needs.

It has already been proven that providing education to challenged children has many benefits, such as the case of Stephen Hawking, who at the time of his passing was the University of Cambridge’s Lucasian Chair of Mathematics, which has been the topic of many essay writing assignments. If Hawkins was denied the opportunity to learn, some of his achievements would have been lost. As such, some more benefits of allowing equal access to education for disabled children include:

•      Equipping children with sufficient knowledge and skills

This does not only benefit them but also the society as it ensures that disabled children have enough resources to help improve their lives rather than being dependent on others for support.

•      Provides a firm foundation of self-reliance

Education empowers students to depend and rely on himself or herself in the future. This gives them a sense of independence and accomplishment, which in turn increases their self-confidence.

•      Ability to effectively use technology

Disabled students are also able to appreciate and enjoy the benefits technology has to offer either as a benefit to them or society as a whole.

•      Able to effectively cope with prejudice and stigmatization

Disabled children seek out education for different motives, but the most common reason is to be able to fit in the society, which in turn leads to less stigmatization and discrimination

Some of the most famous and wealthy individuals got to where they are now with the help of education. Regardless of the level of education, it provides you with the tools necessary to identify and take advantage of different opportunities aimed at improving your life. Therefore, providing disabled children with an inclusive and high-quality form of education is equipping them with the most powerful tool for success.

Comparison of an Inclusive and Exclusive Education System for the Disabled

An all-inclusive education system is one where a disabled child is given equal learning opportunities as other children. The training entails integrating all the students in the same class regardless of their disability or the inclusion of specialized and disability-friendly equipment and structures. On the other hand, an exclusive mode of learning is characterized by the segregation of disabled students from their peers, where they attend specialized institutions that are designed to meet their individual needs. The benefits of an inclusive setup education over exclusive education include:

•      Promote integration and interaction

Children can integrate and interact with their peers establishing positive relationships and networks.

•      Equal opportunity to learn

All children are given a fair chance at standard education without discrimination because of their disability.

•      Encourages healthy competition

Since disability is not inability, competitiveness is encouraged for all children. A child may be physically challenged but possess a high intellectual capacity.

•      Promote diversity

Children can appreciate others’ differences and uniqueness, thus reducing cases of discrimination in the future.

•      Extensive support for both disabled and non-disabled students

Peers can help one another without focusing on their differences and embrace togetherness.

•      Cost-effective

Institutions can save on the cost by converting existing learning spaces to be disability-friendly rather than building new structures to accommodate disabled children.

However, regardless of the benefits of this mode of learning, there are still some constraints, especially the availability of resources. As such, as a disabled student, when enrolling in a school, you should ensure that it can facilitate effective learning that will cater to all your needs.