MODELS OF DISABILITY

A. The Moral/Religious Model

The Medieval Age is said to have started from AD 476, the year the Western Roman
Empire fell, ended toward the early 1800s, eventually ushering in the Renaissance Age and Age
of Discovery. This period saw the church as one of the most influential figures in Europe. The
idea of God s all-powerful being was so strong in human consciousness that it affected the war
society treated the PWDs at that time.
Such perspectives are rooted in a moral or religious model of disability, which sees
disability as either a blessing or a curse.

B. The Biomedical/Individual Model

Here, PWDs are seen as persons who are ill and meant to be treated r “made more
normal”. Olkin (1999 as cited in Retrief & Lersosa 2018: 2-3). Persons with disabilities
are expected to avail themselves of the variety of services offered to them and to spend
time in their role of patient or learner being helped by trained professionals.

C. The Functional/Rehabilitation Model

The functional/Rehabilitation Model is quite similar to the biomedical in that it sees the
PWD as having deficits. These deficits then justify the need to undergo rehabilitative intervention
such as therapies, counselling, and the like in the aim of reintegrating the disabled society.

D. The Social Model

What we need to understand about models and frameworks is that they have a strong
yet subtle way of influencing a person’s, beliefs, behaviors, and values systems.

E. Rights-Based Model and Twin Track Approach

It is a framework that bears similarities with the social model. It ensures that all energies
are devoted to the realization of each learner’s right to education. It is built on the
principle that education is a basic human right and therefore all must have access to it.

WHAT IS SPECIAL NEEDS EDUCATION?

- The action or process of teaching someone especially in school, college or university.

- The real goal of education is becoming – becoming a “good person” and becoming a more
capable person than when you started. Prensky (2014)
WHY INCLUSION?

Inclusive education is an educational practice that places students with disabilities in the general
education classroom along with typically developing children under the supervision and guidance of
general education teacher (Del Corro-Tiangco 2014). It takes root in special needs education and is
anchored on the philosophy that every child has an inherent right to be educated equally with peers, no
matter how different he or she may appear to society.

INCLUSION OF EDUCATION INVOLVES:

A. Valuing all students and staff equally.

B. Increasing the participation of students in; and reducing their exclusion from, the cultures.
Curricula, and communities of local schools.
C. Restructuring the cultures, policies, and practices in schools so they respond to the diversity of
students in the locality.
D. Reducing barriers to learning and participation for all students, not only those with impairments
or those who are categorized as having special educational needs.
E. Learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of particular
students to make changes for the benefit of students more widely.
F. Viewing the difference between students as resources to support learning, rather than problems
to overcome.
G. Acknowledging the right of students to an education in their locality.
H. Improving schools for staff as well as for students.
I. Emphasizing the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as in
increasing achievement.
J. Fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities.
K. Recognizing that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.
THE 2030 AGENDA

The goal of inclusion is for every fabric of society to embrace diversity. It is for this reason that
all these treaties state the need for a paradigm shift to address the issues of inclusion in education.
Inclusive education is not merely a call toward educational reform for those with additional needs. It
is simply a call to improve the quality of education for all learners, because “every learner matters
and matters equally” (UNESCO 2017:12,2005). This is also reflected in the current framework being
followed for the implementation of inclusive practices, which is the sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs).

The SDGs are considered road maps or blueprints that were developed by the united nations to
ensure a better and sustainable future for everyone. It consists of 17 global goals set by the united
nations for the year 2030, each addressing one specific area of development of particular interests
to the global education community, however, is SDG 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (United Nations General Assembly).
Therefore, the need to remove all barriers to inclusion by addressing all forms of exclusion and
marginalization is of utmost importance.

“Philippine Laws of PWDs” (Pangalangan & Litong, 2014)

 BP 344 (1983) – Accessibility Law

 RA 7277 (1992) – Magna Carta for Disabled Persons
-Equal rights and privileges of PWDs on employment, education, health,
telecommunications, auxiliary social services, accessibility, political, and civil rights.
- Penalties for violation law.
 Administrative Order 35 (2002) – National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation
(NPDR Week) every 3rdweek of july
 Guidelines in the Admission of students with Disabilities in Higher Education and Post-
Secondary Institutions in the Philipppines (2004)
 RA 9442 (2007) –Amendment of RA 7277 (Privileges to PWDs)
- 20% discount privileges to PWDs
- Change name from “Magna Carta for Disabled Persons” to “Magna Carta for PWDs”

Added a clause on deliverance from public ridicule and vilification.

 NCDA Administrative Order No. 001, s 2008 –Guidelines on the issuance of PWD ID
Cards relative to RA 9442
 RA 10070 (2010) – Amendment of RA 7277 ( Implementation of Programs and Services
for PWDs in every province, city, and municipality-PDAO Law)
 RA 10366 (2013) –Accessible Polling Places for PWDs and Senior Citizens
 Proclamation No. 688, S. 2013 – declaring the period of 2013-2022 as the Philippines
Decade of “Make the Right Real” for PWDs
 RA 10524 (2013) – amendment of RA 7277 ( Expanding the Positions Reserved for
PWDs)
- 1% of all government agencies, offices, corps shall be reserved for PWDs
 - Private companies with over 100 employees are encouraged to reserved at least 1%
for PWDs
 RA 10754 (2016) – An Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of PWDs
- Exemption of VAT on the following sale of goods and services
- Inclusion of funeral services
 Civil Service Commission MC No. 20, s. 2017 – express lanes for PWDs in all commercial
and government establishments.
 RA 11228 (2019) – Amendment of RA 7277

All PWDs shall be automatically covered by the National Health Insurance Program
(NHIP) of the PhilHealth and that the PhilHealth shall develop exclusive packages for
PWDs that will address their specific health and development needs.

MAKING SCHOOLS INCLUSIVE

1. Inclusion is as much the responsibility of society as it is the responsibility of schools.
We realized from the previous chapter that the key to successful inclusive practices
are merging of frameworks and aligning of definitions of disability. In this chapter,
we shall learn that inclusive education is an ongoing collaborative process that
needs to dynamically revisited. For it to truly work, its essence ha resonate to all
stakeholders of education.

In educational reform, stakeholders are those who are “invested in the welfare and
success of a school and its students” (www.edglossary.org). In other words these
are the teachers, administrators, school staffs, officials and other workers, the
parents and their families, the community, the government. They may also be
collective entities like local businesses, advocacy groups, the media, socio cultural
institutions, and other organizations that maybe directly or indirectly involved in
education. Stakeholders are important because they play a major role in “
connecting what is being taught in a school to its surrounding community “
www.edglossary.org).

In 2017, UNESCO reported that there has been significant global improvement in
accessing education, specifically in the primary level for the last 15years. However,
its 2016 global education monitoring report reveals that there are still an estimated
263 million children and youth aged 6 to 17 all around the world, who are still not in
school at this time. The report also confirmed the continuous plight of women
against gender discriminations, among others. With increasing globalization and
international migration, the problem pertaining to inclusive education and how it
affects PWDs could not be more real.
II. PRODUCING INCLUSIVE POLICIES
As reiterated in the previous chapters, the premise of inclusion starts with an
acceptance and embracing of diversity. It is difficult to start movement if this
practice is not rooted on a culture that assumes the right perspectives and values.
For simultaneous paradigm shifts to happen among its education stakeholder,
school must first create a new culture.

UNESCO (2005) realistically acknowledges that a societal change in attitude need

not be initially present in a community before inclusion can be fully practiced.
Rather, it must be viewed as a perspective or an ideal to work toward. Without this
realization, differences in standard and quality of education may surface as potential
problems. Just very recently, the pre service education curriculum was restructured
so that special need education units are not only given to special need education
major but to other education major as well. This is a huge step for teachers and nod
to inclusive education. The following is a list of other possible steps that educators
can do to facilitate the much- needed societal shift and inform policy:

 Involve other sectors of society. Current training and awareness campaigns

seem to limit the movement of inclusion to a mere home- school
relationship. At most, these are extended to the departments of social
welfare and health. However, for an inclusive set- up to truly be successful,
active involvement of the entire community must be ensured. For instance,
those in the business, commercial, security, and religious sectors must also
be given representation in trainings. These campaigns must be wide enough
in scope as to cover supermarkets, restaurants, malls, public and
government agencies not directly associated with social welfare or health,
transportation, land, airline and maritime companies, the media, and even
the research teams of our policy makers. At the same time, they must be
specific enough to reach the local churches, the subdivision playgrounds,
and the village stores. In recent years, students in the tertiary level from
various programs have been showing growing interest in the PWD
community. For instance, students belonging to architectural and interior
design programs have been working on theses and capstone projects
wherein their main clients have additional needs. The idea for every one-
regardless of their training or exposure- to become more sensitive and
aware of the PWD population. The more aware a community is, the more it
will be able to help.
 Collaborate. Whether creating an academic program specific to a child with
additional needs or creating a new legislative bill for the PWD community,
collaboration is crucial. Each member of the inclusive education team would
have their own strength and weaknesses, and these have to be used wisely
to benefit the child with additional needs. Del Corro-Tiangco (2004) states
that general education teachers are trained in the general curriculum but
would not know how to teach and manage children with additional needs;
 while a special needs education teacher would be equipped to handle a
typical behavior but would not no much about the general education
curriculum. True collaboration would guarantee an inclusive program that
would cover as many years as possible.
 Recognize the Shift in roles of the Teachers. With the shift to inclusive
education, the role of the specialeducation (SPED) teachers suddenly seems
to be reduced to only “ as needed.” As a result, the SPED teachers role no
longer becomes that of an implementer but that of a consultative nature
instead. It also becomes the responsibility of the general education teacher
to know what to do when faced with a learner educational needs in his or
her classroom. The SPED teachers role- their trainings, their insights, and
their skills are as supposed prime mover in the inclusive education
framework- must neither be diminished nor disregarded. Instead, These
must be used to ensure a good inclusive program is provided to children
with additional needs. Conversely, general education teachers must go
through skills training and capacity building workshops to ensure that they
are supporting all types of learners in their classrooms appropriately.
 Include transitions in planning. An abrupt systematic change that is not well-
planned or that disregards practices-whether existing or implied- may
hinder the shift to inclusion and caused resentment from all stakeholders.
Instead, current practices have to be respected and honored so as to
facilitate a gradual shift to inclusive education.

Booth and Ainscow (2002) recommended that schools reflect on their

current policies and practices to check their readiness for an inclusive set-
up. They also devised a questionnaire that would help administrators,
faculty, and other stakeholders comprehensively gather baseline data.
III. EVOLVING INCLUSIVE PRACTICES

Evolving inclusive practices is the third dimension to Booth and Ainscow’s framework for
schools (2002), where administration must first try to create an inclusive culture among its
stakeholdres, then build better; more all-encompassing policies. The goal of the first two steps is to
ascertain habit-forming conditions, which make procedures that are otherwise unfamiliar feel like
second nature to us. We want to reach a point where inclusive teaching practices are expected. Once
this happens, we can start focusing on raising the participation and success rates of learners with
additional needs inside our classroom.

Moreover, the term “evolving” assumes that we already have strategies in place which we just
have to revisit for possible tweaking. It suggests advancement and positive growth, which means we can
look at these existing strategies and just adjust these according to the needs of our students along the
way. Two effective evidence-based inclusive practices that can be used in the classroom are Universal
Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction.