Addis Ababa University

College of Education and Behavioral

Studies
Department of Special Needs Education
freshman course

Inclusiveness
Rift Valley University
 Course Title : INCLUSIVENESS

Course Code: SNIE 1012

Target group: All undergraduate students

Instructor: Demekech Erbelo (MA)

•

2
 Chapter 1
Understanding Disability and
Vulnerability
Chapter objectives

•At the end of completing this chapter, the students will be able to:
•Define disability and vulnerability
•Discuss models of disability
•List different types of disabilities and vulnerabilities
•Explain brief causes of disability and vulnerability
•Describe the brief historical movements from segregation to inclusion
•Describe the effect of attitude on the move towards inclusion
1.1. Definitions of disability and vulnerability
• Disability is not uncommon and it is part of human diversity.
• It is estimated that 15 % of the world’s population has a disability, a
percentage that is expected to grow because of poor health care and nutrition
early in life, growing elderly populations and violent civil conflicts.
• Among the population of people with disabilities, approximately 80 % live
in developing countries and are disproportionately represented among the
poor.
• For instance, of the total population of Ethiopia, 17.6% are estimated to live
with some sort of impairment (WHO and World Bank, 2011, p. 272).
• Understanding the concept of disability varies between cultures and
evolves with in a culture over time.
• People are using the two key terms, impairments and disability
interchangeably but there is a visible conceptual distinction between these
terms as described below:
1.1.1. Impairment
• Impairment is the “purely factual absence of or loss of functioning in a
body part.” it can be anatomical, psychological or physiological part of
body.
• Hence, the term impairment is used to notify the physical condition of a
person such as visual, physical, hearing, and intellectual disabilities.
• It may result in activity limitation based on the degree/ severity, type and
onset of the impairment.
•
 Impairment
 Impairments represent a deviation from certain
generally accepted population standards.
The presence of impairments do not necessarily
indicate that a disease is present or that the individual
should be regarded as sick.
Impairments can be temporary or permanent;
progressive, regressive or static; intermittent or
continuous.
 1.1.2. Disability
• The concept of disability is defined as “the interaction between persons with
impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full
and effective participation in a society on an equal basis with others” (UN
CRPD, 2006).
• Disability is, therefore, a negative reaction of people towards persons with
impairments that results in “participation restriction.”
• Disability, as a concept is referred: as an umbrella term that include
impairment, activity limitation and participation restriction.
• Hence, Article 1 of the CRPD describes persons with disabilities as “those
who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual, or sensory impairments
which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective
participation in society on an equal basis with others.”
Cont……
One may have an impairment which results in disability but the disability only becomes a
handicap in terms of architectural, legal, social and political barriers in the environment.
A disability exists when an impairment limits a person’s ability to perform certain tasks Example: inability
to read, see, put on ones clothes, hear, etc… It can be also be defined as a functional limitation
Handicap: any disadvantage for a given individual, resulting from impairment or a
disability that limits or prevents the fulfilment of a role that is normal for that individual.

 So the full inclusion of people with impairments in society can be inhibited by:

Attitudinal (societal barriers, such as stigma)

Physical barriers (environmental barriers, such as absence of stairs), and

Policy barriers (systemic barriers),

• cont.
8 cont.
 1.1.3. Vulnerability
• On the other hand, the term vulnerability refers to state of
being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or
harmed, either physically or emotionally.
• Accordingly, vulnerable groups belong to the people who
are physically and emotionally hurt and attacked as a result
of various forms of social injustice and malpractices.
cont.
Vulnerability is classified into four categories as described below:
[Link] Vulnerability:
• The physical vulnerability of an area also depends on its
geographic proximity to the source and origin of the disasters e.g. if
an area lies near the coast lines, fault lines, unstable hills etc.
B. Economic Vulnerability:
• Economic vulnerability of a community can be assessed by
determining how varied its sources of income are, the ease of
access and control over means of production (e.g. farmland,
livestock, irrigation, capital etc.), adequacy of economic fall back
mechanisms and the availability of natural resources in the area.
•
C. Social Vulnerability:
• A socially vulnerable community has weak family structures, lack of
leadership for decision making and conflict resolution, unequal
participation in decision making, weak or no community organizations,
and the one in which people are discriminated on racial, ethnic, linguistic
or religious basis.
D. Attitudinal Vulnerability:
• A community which has negative attitude towards change and lacks
initiative in life resultantly become more and more dependent on external
support.
• This brings about disunity and individualism in the society. Thus, they
become victims of conflicts, hopelessness and pessimism which reduce
their capacity of coping with a disaster.
•
1.2. Causes of impairments and vulnerability
• The issue of disability/impairment is not yet being scientifically
understood and treated by the society particularly in the low-
income countries including Ethiopia.
• As a result, the cause of impairment is not appropriately
comprehended due to the reason that people still believe that
impairment is caused by curse, sin and wrath of God.
• However, even though some causes of impairment are unknown,
scientific research conducted on the issue confirmed that the
cause of impairment is classified into 2 major categories as
described hereunder:
1.2.1. Biological
• Under this category of the cause of impairment, genetically induced
factors are commonly known reasons.
• These include:
- Abnormalities in genes and genetic inheritance that may cause
intellectual disability, down syndrome and other multiple
impairments on children.
- Sometimes, diseases, illnesses, and over-exposure to x-rays can
cause a genetic disorder.
- Pre-term and underweight birth also may result in different forms
of impairment.
 1.2.2. Environmental
• The adverse effect of poverty and starvation such malnutrition, lack of
access to health care and treatment etc. may cause impairment to the child
during pre- and- postnatal period.
• The use of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, the exposure to certain toxic chemicals
and illnesses, toxoplasmosis, cytomegalovirus, rubella and syphilis by a
pregnant mother can cause intellectual and other types of disability to the
child.
• Childhood diseases such as a whooping cough, measles, and chicken pox
may lead to meningitis and encephalitis.
• This can cause damage to the brain of the child.
• Toxic material such as lead and mercury can damage the brain too.
• Unfortunate life accident such as drowning, car accidents, falls,
landmines, war, etc. can result in people losing their sight, hearing,
limbs and other vital parts of their body.
• As in the case of impairment, among several examples of causes of
vulnerability, the following are the most known contributing factors to
vulnerability:
- Poor governance;
- Poverty;
- Discrimination;
- Inequality and inadequate access to resource and livelihood.

•
 Causes of Vulnerability
•Vulnerability may be caused by:-
Rapid population growth,
Poverty and hunger,
Poor health,
Low levels of education,
• Gender inequality,
• Fragile and hazardous location,
• Lack of access to resources and services,
• Disintegration of social patterns (social vulnerability)
• Lack of access to information and knowledge,
Lack of public awareness,
Limited access to political power and
representation
16
 Characteristics of Vulnerable People
 Less physically or mentally capable (infants, older adults, people

with disabilities)

 Fewer material and/or financial resources (low-income

households, homeless)

Less knowledge or experience (children, illiterate, foreigners,

tourists) 17
 1.3. Types of impairments and vulnerable groups
• Regardless of the existence of a number of types of impairments, the
commonly known and major kinds of impairments are listed below
•
Visual impairment (Generic terminology for blindness and low vision
.

• Blindness: refers to vision loss that is not correctable with eyeglasses or contact lenses.
• A person is blind if he/she uses other senses like touching or auditory, other than vision, to learn and to get
information.
• Low vision/partially sighted : a person is said to be low vision/partially sighted if he/she uses magnifying glasses or
other adaptations to learn using his/her vision.

• 1.3.2. Hearing Impairment (Generic terminology for deafness and hard of

hearing) a) Hard of Hearing: is a term to describe persons with enough residual hearing, to use hearing
(usually with a hearing aid) as a primary modality for acquisition of language and in communication with others.
cont.
b) Deaf: is a term used to describe persons whose sense of hearing is non-functional for ordinary use in communication, with or
without hearing aid.
•A person is unable to understand speech even in the presence of amplification.
Those who have difficulty understanding speech, even with hearing aids but can successfully communicate in sign language.

1. 3.3. Specific Learning Disability

It is a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or
written, that may manifest Itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical
calculations.
Types of Specific Learning Disabilities
A. Dyscalculia: is a specific learning disability that affects a person‘s ability to understand numbers and learn math.
B. Dysgraphia : is a specific learning disability that affects a person‘s handwriting ability and fine motor skills.

•
 continue

C. Dyslexia: is a specific learning disability that affects reading

and related language-based processing skills.
•D
Language Processing Disorder: is a specific type of Auditory
Processing Disorder (APD) in which there is difficulty attaching
meaning to sound groups
•that form words, sentences and stories.
1.3.4. Speech and Language Impairments
• Speech and Language are tools used for communication.
Communication is the process of an exchanging knowledge, idea,
opinion and feeling. it requires encoding (sending in understandable
form)and decoding (receiving and understanding messages).
Speech and Language Impairment has two sub classifications.
I. Speech Impairments : is an impairment of voice, articulation of
speech sounds, or fluency.
A. Voice disorders are problems with the quality or use of one's voice
resulting from disorders in the larynx.
Voice disorders are characterized by abnormal production and/or
absences of vocal quality, pitch, loudness, and/or duration.
Cont…

B. Articulation disorders are errors in the production of speech sounds

that may be related to anatomical or physiological limitations in the
skeletal, muscular, or neuromuscular support for speech production.
• These disorders include:
• Omissions: (bo for boat) = Substitutions: (wabbit for rabbit) =
Distortions: (shlip for sip) = Addition
C. Fluency disorders are difficulties with the rhythm and timing of
speech characterized by hesitations, repetitions, or prolongations of
sounds, syllables, words, or phrases. Common fluency disorders
include:
Cont…
•
Stuttering: rapid-fire repetitions of consonant or vowel sounds
especially at the beginning of words, prolongations, hesitations,
interjections, and complete verbal blocks.
•
Cluttering: excessively fast and jerky speech.
II. Language Impairments:
it is the impairment or deviant development of comprehension and use
of spoken, written, or other symbol systems. There are five basic areas
of language impairments:
• Phonological disorders are the abnormal organization of the
phonological system, or a significant deficit in speech production or
perception.
Cont…
• Morphological disorders are difficulties with morphological inflections
(inflections on nouns, verbs, and adjectives that create different kinds of meanings).
• Semantic disorders are problems characterized by poor vocabulary development,
inappropriate use of word meanings, and/or inability to comprehend word
meanings.
• Syntactic deficits are abnormalities characterized by difficulty in acquiring the
rules that govern word order and others aspects of grammar such as subject-verb
agreement.
• Pragmatic difficulties are characterized as problems in understanding and using
language in different social contexts.
1.3.5. Autism
It Is a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and
nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before
age three that adversely affects a child‘s educational performance.
• Is also a neurodevelopment disorder defined by impairments in social and
communication development, accompanied by stereotyped patterns of
behavior and interest.
• Is pervasive developmental disorder characterized by lack of normal sociability
• , impaired communication and repetitive obsessive behavior.

•
•1.6. Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
•EBD is a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a
long period of time:-

An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health
factors;

An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers
and teachers;

Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;

A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or

A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or
school problems.
• 26
•Classification of behavioral and emotional disorders
•Conduct disorder: individuals may seek attention, are disruptive and act out.
The disorder is classified by type: overt (with violence or tantrums) versus
covert (with lying, stealing, and/or drug use).
•Socialized aggression: individuals join subculture group of peers who are
openly disrespectful to their peers, teachers, and parents.
•Attention problems- These individuals may have attention deficit, are easily
destructible and have poor concentration.
•Anxiety/Withdrawn- These individuals are self-conscious, reserved, and
unsure of themselves. They typically have low self-esteem and withdraw from
immediate activities.
•Psychotic behavior: These individuals show more bizarre behavior. They may
hallucinate, deal in a fantasy world and may even talk in gibberish.
•Motor excess: These people are hyperactive. They cannot sit nor listen to
others nor keep their attention focused.
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 •Causes of emotional and behavioral disorders
•EBD result from many causes such as
•Biological- includes genetic disorders, brain damage, and malnutrition,
allergies, temperament and damage to the central nervous system.
•Family factors- include family interactions, family influence, child abuse,
neglect, and poor disciplinary practices at home.
•Cultural factors- include some traditional and cultural negative practices, for
example watching violence and sexually oriented movies and TV programs.
•Environmental factors- include peer pressure, living in impoverished areas,
and schooling practices that are unresponsive to individual needs.
•

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1.7. Intellectual Disability
• Is a disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and
in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills.

• An individual is considered to have an intellectual disability based on the following

three criteria:
[Link] average intellectual functioning: It refers to general mental capacity, such as
learning, reasoning, problem solving, and so on.
II. Significant limitations exist in two or more adaptive skill areas: It is the collection of
conceptual, social, and practical skills that are learned and performed by people in their
everyday lives.
III. Manifestation during developmental period
• It states that intellectual disability must manifest before the age of 18. Thus, the
disability must have arisen sometime between conception and adulthood.

29
I.
•Motivation: People with intellectual disabilities are often described as lacking
motivation, or outer-directed behavior. Past experiences of failure and the
anxiety generated by those failures may make them appear to be fewer goals
directed and lacking in motivation.
•Academic Achievement: The cognitive difficulties of children with mild to
moderate intellectual disabilities lead to persistent problems in academic
achievement unless intensive and extensive supports are provided.
•Physical characteristics: Children with intellectual disabilities with differing
biological etiologies, may exhibit coexisting problems, such as physical, motor,
orthopedic, visual and auditory impairments, and health problems.
30
 •1.8. Physical disability/Orthopedic Impairment and Health
impairment
•Physical disability is a condition that interferes with the individual‘s ability to use
his or her body.
•Classification and Characteristics
•Based on the impact of physical disability on mobility and motor skills, it is
divided into three.
A. Mild physical disability:- these individuals are able to walk without aids and may
make normal developmental progress.
B. Moderate physical disability:- individuals can walk with braces and
crutches and may have difficulty with fine-motor skills and speech production.
C. Severe physical disability:- these are individuals who are wheel-chair
dependent and may need special help to achieve regular development.31
• The physical disability could be broadly classified in to two
I. The neurological system (the brain ,spinal cord & nerve) related problems.
II. Musculo skeletal system ( are deficits on the muscles, bones and joints).

[Link] neurological system (the brain ,spinal cord & nerve) related problems.
Epilepsy:-is disorder that occurs when the brain cells are not working properly
and is often called a seizure disorder.
Spinal bifida and spinal cord injury:- damage to the spinal cord leads to
paralysis and loss of sensation in the affected areas of the body.
It is a birth defect of the backbone (spinal column).
The cause is unknown but it usually occurs in the first twenty-six days of
pregnancy.
32
II. Musculo skeletal system ( the muscles, bones and joints) are deficient due to
various causes.

The list of the impairment and associated with musculoskeletal malformation are
the following:
•Muscular dystrophy:- is an inherited condition accruing mainly in males, in
which the muscles weaken and deteriorate.
•Arthritis:-is an inflammation of the joints. Symptoms include swollen and stiff
joints, fever, and pain in the joints during acute periods.
•Amputation:- is missing limbs because of congenital abnormalities or injury or
disease (malignant bone tumors in the limbs).
•Marfan syndrome is a genetic disorder in which the muscles are poorly
developed and the spine is curved. Individuals with marfan syndrome may have
either long, thin limbs, prominent shoulder blades, spinal curvature, flat feet, or
long fingers & thumbs.

33

Achondroplasis:- is a genetic disorder. Children with this disorder usually
develop a normal torso but have a straight upper back and a curved lower back
(sway back).
• Polio:- is viral disease that invade the brain and cause severe paralysis of the
total body system.
• Club foot:- is a major orthopedic problem affecting infants each year. This term
is used to describe various ankle or foot deformities.
• Cleft lip and cleft palate:- are openings in the lip or roof of the mouth,
respectively, that fail to close before birth, the cause is unknown.
• Most cleft problems can be repaired through surgery. 34
1.9 Health Impairments
•Health impairment is any disease that interferes with learning can make
students eligible for special services.
• it is a condition that requires ongoing medical attention.
•These problems can be classified as follow.
1. Heart disease:- is common among young people caused by improper circulation of blood
by the heart. Some of the disorders are congenital (present at birth) others are the product of
inflammatory heart disease.
2. Cystic fibrosis:- is a hereditary disease that affects the lungs and pancreas. It leads to
recurrent respiratory and digestive problems including abnormal amounts of thick mucus,
sweet and saliva.
3. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS):- is a very severe disease caused by
human immuno deficiency virus (HIV).
• 35
4. Hemophilia:- is a hereditary disease in which the blood clots very slowly or not all.

The disorder is transmitted by sex-linked recessive gene and nearly always occurs in males.
5. Asthma: is a chronic respiratory condition characterized by difficulties of breathing
especially while exhaling.
6. Diabetes: Developmental or hereditary disorder characterized by inadequate secretion or use
of insulin .
7. Nephrosis & Nephritis: are Kidney disorders or diseases caused by infections,
poisoning, burns, accidents or other diseases
8. Sickle-cell anemia Hereditary and chronic blood disease characterized by red blood cells
that are distorted and that do not circulate properly.

36
9. Leukemia: Disease characterized by excessive production of white blood Cells
10. Lead poisoning : Disorder caused by ingesting lead-based paint chips or other
substances containing lead.
11. Rheumatic fever: Disease characterized by painful swelling and inflammation of
the joints that can spread to the ear and central nervous system.
12. Tuberculosis: Infectious disease that commonly affects the lungs and may
affect other tissues of the body.

13. Cancer: Abnormal growth of cells that can affect any organ system in our body.
•

37
 1.10. Gifted and Talentedness: It encompasses two terms:
• Gifted is usually used to refer to people with superior intellectual or cognitive performance such
as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and so on.

• Talented is usually used to refer to people who show outstanding performance in a specific area
such as music, gymnastic, drawing arts skills.
The term gifted and talented refers people those who are intellectually, creatively, academically
superior, outstanding abilities, and are capable of high performance to a comparison group of
peers or older age mates.

How gifted and talented children are vulnerable for socio-emotional developments?
Due to lack of psychological support they may feel isolation as they are pulled from their regular
classrooms and given instruction in separate settings and due to myths and expectations of
38
themselves and the public.
1.11. Multiple Impairment:

•
• It is a person with double impairment
• Example: Deaf blindness who are with hearing and visual impairment.
• Those children require extensive support.
 1.4. Historical background of modalities moving towards
inclusion
• In the post industrial period legislations and litigations created opportunities
for children with disabilities to access education in public schools.
• The following modalities were applied to teach children with disabilities.
1.4.1. Specialized and or residential schools
• These schools were established with an intention to provide educational
services in specialized approach only for children with disabilities.
• Consequently, schools for the deaf, schools for the blind etc. came into
being as separate institutions throughout 19 th and 20th century.
 1.4.2. Mainstreaming
• In the 1960 and 70s special needs education classes were established in
public schools with an intention to create least restrictive environment for
children with disabilities.
1.4.3. Integration
• The approach was introduced and applied in 1970s with an objective to
integrating students with disabilities in general class setting without the
change of regular school/education system.
• In this situation, students with disabilities are required to fit the system.
• This approach is characterized by the following realities:
- System stays the same;
- Round pegs for round holes;
- Change the child to fit the system;
- Make the square peg round;
- Child must adapt or fail.
Integration
 [Link] Education
• This approach was applied as of the last quarter of 20 th century
focusing on regular education system change to fit the special
educational needs of students with disabilities as discussed in the
next section in detail.
• This approach is characterized by the following factors.
- Flexible system;
- Children are different;
- All children can learn: (Different abilities, Ethnic Groups, Size,
Age, Background, Gender, Persons with disabilities);
- Change the system to fit the child.
Inclusive
 1.5. Evolution of the concept of disability
• In order to understand how disability is currently viewed, it is
helpful to look at the way the concept of disability has evolved
over time as described below.
[Link]/Charity Model
• Historically, disability was largely understood in mythological or
religious terms, e.g. people with disabilities were considered to
be possessed by devils or spirits; disability was also often seen as
a punishment for past wrong doing.
• These views are still present today in many traditional societies.
 [Link]/Medical Model
• In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, developments in
science and medicine helped to create an understanding that
disability has a biological or medical basis, with impairments in
body function and structure being associated with different health
conditions.
• This medical model views disability as a problem of the
individual and is primarily focused on cure and the provision of
medical care by professionals.
 [Link] Model/Human Rights-Based
Model
• In the 1960s and 1970s, the individual and medical view of
disability was challenged and a range of social approaches were
developed, e.g. the social model of disability.
• These approaches shifted attention away from the medical aspects
of disability and instead focused on the social barriers and
discrimination that people with disabilities face.
• Disability was redefined as a societal problem rather than an
individual problem and solutions became focused on removing
barriers and social change, not just medical cure.
 Medical model: Social model:
Child is faulty Child is valued

Diagnosis and labeling Strengths and needs identified

Impairment is focus of attention Barriers identified and solutions

developed
Segregation and alternative services Resources made available

Re-entry if normal enough or Diversity welcomed; child is welcomed

permanent exclusion
Society remains unchanged Society evolves

48
 Activities

[Link] the following short story and identify the phrase that clearly shows the
meaning of impairment and disability.

Ten-year-old Mesfin’s eyes are damaged = ________________ due to an

eye disease, and he develops difficulties in seeing =
_________________________. His school refuses to take him back as they don’t
have the resources to support a child with visual impairment
=_______________. There are no other schools in his community and
therefore Mesfin cannot go to school = ______________________.
2. Which modality applied to teach children with disabilities isolated
children with disabilities from their non disabled peers? Why?
3. What factors make inclusive education as a modality to teach children
with disabilities and other vulnerable groups different from
integration?
4. Who are exposed to vulnerability? Why?
5. What are the major and common characteristics of vulnerable groups?