inclusion

Inclusion is a philosophy and a belief that individuals with disabilities have a right to belong and participate meaningfully and actively alongside their peers in everyday life. Inclusion practices have proven to be advantageous for everyone. It is a value that we must all advocate for and share. Inclusion is an open pathway to build courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place. Please use the resources on this page to help you get started on the journey toward inclusion.

parent resources

Building Compassion - How to talk to your children about disabilities and how to support families of children with special needs.

Quality of Inclusion Checklist

A Parent Guide to Universal Design for Learning - http://www.ncld.org/images/stories/Publications/AdvocacyBriefs/ParentGuide-UDL/ParentsGuidetoUDL.pdf

IEP and Inclusion Tips for Parents and Teachers - http://www.acbr.com/fas/IEPTips.pdf

Inclusion Classrooms

Essential Best Practices in Inclusive Schools.pdf

Have you ever wondered what it's like to have a disability?

How does a person who can't see read? Can a person with a physical disability play sports? If you couldn't hear, how would you talk with your friends? Do people with disabilities get frustrated, have friends, like ice cream? This web site can help you begin to answer your questions about disabilities. Online activities for kids. - www.iidc.indiana.edu/CEDIR/kidsweb/

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts Inclusion Resource Booklet - http://www.girlscoutseasternmass.org/forms/InclusionInformationBooklet.pdf

Girls Scouts of Colorado Inclusion INformation - http://www.girlscoutsofcolorado.org/index.cfm/ID/279?CFID=568237&CFTOKEN=23857572

Girls Scouts Disability Awareness Program Kit - http://www.girlscoutsofcolorado.org/repository/documents/DisabilityAwareness.pdf

Kids Included Together - www.kitonline.org

Paths to Inclusion - http://www.IncludingAllKids.org/pdfs/paths_to_inclusion.pdf - This publication is designed as a guide to expanding those opportunities by helping you—as a youth program leader or volunteer—learn how to make your organization fully accessible to all young people.

www.kidstogether.org - Resources and Information on promoting inclusion.

teacher and administrator resources

What Inclusive Education is and is Not

Building Disability Awareness & Inclusion - Resources, activities, books, etc. - http://kcsos.kern.org/SpecialEd/stories/storyReader$263

IEP and Inclusion Tips for Parents and Teachers - http://www.acbr.com/fas/IEPTips.pdf

Inclusive Teaching Guide - http://www.coe.wayne.edu/wholeschooling/WS/WSPress/LrngWrks/Incl%20Tch%20Gd%20Elementary.pdf

A Primer on Universal Design in Education @ the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee - https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/edyburn/www/ud.html

Differentiating Instruction @ Paula Kluth - http://www.paulakluth.com/differentiating-instruction.html

Inclusion, LRE and Mainstreaming @ Wrightslaw - http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/lre.index.htm

Inclusive Learning Environments for Students With Special Needs @ New Horizons for Learning - http://www.newhorizons.org/spneeds/inclusion/front_inclusion.htm

Understanding Universal Design @ NICHCY - http://www.nichcy.org/EducateChildren/effective/Pages/UD.aspx

Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology @ NECTAC - http://www.nectac.org/topics/atech/udl.asp

Collaborative Teaching: Special Education for Inclusive Classrooms Online Textbook - http://www.parrotpublishing.com/

Tool Kit on Universal Design for Learning - http://www.osepideasthatwork.org/UDL/index.asp

Access Center - http://k8accesscenter.org/

Center for Applied Special Technology - http://www.cast.org/

Circle of Inclusion - http://www.circleofinclusion.org/

Essential Best Practices in Inclusive Schools.pdf

Let’s ALL Play brings an inclusive recreational experience to children with disabilities. - http://www.inclusionproject.org/level_2.php?id=3

Inclusive Schools Network - http://www.inclusiveschools.org/

Institute on Disability from University Center for Excellence on Disability -

•Fundamentals of Inclusive Education Series free webinars - http://iod.unh.edu/Projects/niei/Webinars/fie.aspx
•Administrators’ Leadership Series free webinars - http://iod.unh.edu/Projects/niei/Webinars/leadership.aspx
•Educators' Leadership Series free webinars - http://iod.unh.edu/Projects/niei/Webinars/educators_leadership.aspx

Kids Included Together - www.kitonline.org

Kit for Inclusion Team Success - http://inclusionkits.sccoe.org/

National Center On Universal Design for Learning - http://www.udlcenter.org/

National Inclusion Project - www.inclusionproject.org

National Professional Development Center on Inclusion - http://community.fpg.unc.edu/npdci

National Universal Design for Learning Task Force - http://www.advocacyinstitute.org/UDL/

Special Connections - http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/

Special Education Resources for General Educators - http://serge.ccsso.org/

Strategies to Help You in the Inclusion Classroom

Sports for All: Resources for Inclusive Sports

Inclusion of Students with Special Needs: Teaching and Learning

Together We Make a Difference: An Inclusive Service Learning Curriculum for Elementary Learners With and Without Disabilities - http://www.inclusionproject.org/level_2.php?id=2

Beyond the Foundations of Inclusive Education - Administrators’ Webinar- http://iod.unh.edu/pdf/NIEI/NIEI_AdminWebinar.pdf

The webinar topics include:

•A New View of Students with Autism and Related Disabilities
•Including Families and Students as Partners
•Creating a Leadership Team to Promote and Sustain Inclusion
•Creating a Welcoming Classroom, School, and Community for All Students
•Desired Outcomes and Best Practices for Students with Autism and Related Disabilities

When Special Education and General Education Unite Everyone Benefits

Have you ever wondered what it's like to have a disability? - How does a person who can't see read? Can a person with a physical disability play sports? If you couldn't hear, how would you talk with your friends? Do people with disabilities get frustrated, have friends, like ice cream? This web site can help you begin to answer your questions about disabilities. Online activities for kids. - www.iidc.indiana.edu/CEDIR/kidsweb/

Boosting inclusion with AT and supplemental services. - From the National Center for Technology Innovation and Center for Implementing Technology in Education. http://www.ldonline.org/article/9924

Inclusion Classrooms

Inclusion of the Child with Disabilities into the Regular Elementary Classroom

Keys to Successful Inclusion

www.kidstogether.org - Resources and Information on promoting inclusion.

books for teachers on inclusion

Creating Inclusive Classrooms, by Ellen Daniels and Kay Stafford

Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom, by Diane Heacox

Including Students With Severe and Multiple Disabilities in Typical Classrooms: Practical Strategies for Teachers, by June Downing, et al

Universal Design for Learning, by the Council for Exceptional Children

You're Going to Love This Kid!: Teaching Students With Autism in the Inclusive Classroom, by Paula Kluth

How to Reach and Teach All Students

The Book on Inclusive Schools

Embracing Diversity: Toolkit for Creating Inclusive, Learning-Friendly Environments - http://www2.unescobkk.org/elib/publications/032revised/index.htm

books for children on inclusion

Different & Alike - by Nancy P. McConnell

Kids Explore the Gifts of Children with Special Needs - By Westridge Young Writers Workshop, ISBN 1-56261-156-9

Basic Manuals for Friends of the Disabled - By Hannah Carlson, M.Ed, C.R.C.

Making Friends with Children With Autism

Reviews for books on inclusion

videos

The following videos are an excellent way to promote inclusion and awareness of disability issues with after school program professionals or the children in your program. Be sure to select a video that is appropriate for the age of the children in your program. Videos are most effective when coupled with a question and answer session, or another disability awareness activity.

KidAbility – an upbeat video that is a great tool for raising sensitivity towards people with dis/abilities. www.disabilitytraining.com

Kids Just Want to Have Fun AND What’s the Difference – two videos about how children with physical disabilities want to have fun just like kids without dis/abilities. www.disabilitytraining.com

Including Samuel – The Including Samuel Project is part of the Institute on Disability/UCED, a not profit 501(c)3 organization at the University of New Hampshire. The project’s mission is to build more inclusive schools and communities through curriculum, training and outreach. www.includingsamuel.com

Eight Reasons to Be Inclusive

Promoting Inclusion in Your School, Church, or Group by Terri Mauro

http://specialchildren.about.com/od/inthecommunity/tp/Eight-Reasons-To-Be-Inclusive.htm?nl=1

Maybe you've decided that although inclusion sounds like a good idea, in practice it's just not practical. Maybe you've rationalized that kids with disabilities are really happier with children like themselves. Maybe you've objected that accommodations for kids with special needs are unfair to kids without, or actively destroy the experience for everyone.

For whatever reason, you've decided that being inclusive is not worth the trouble. But as the parent of two children with special needs, I think you're wrong about that. And I've got eight reasons why you need to reconsider.

1. Typical isn't so typical anymore.

If you think of your child as "normal" and kids like mine as "not," you need to check the headlines. Research is proving you wrong. Latest estimates say that at least one in six kids has a developmental disability. One in 110 has autism. Six million U.S. kids have food allergies. Two out of ten have a mental-health disorder. As awareness increases and diagnosis becomes more sensitive and services become more important, it's going to be harder and harder to eliminate children with special needs from your kid's classroom and troop and Sunday school class. It's in everybody's best interest to figure out, now, how to include everybody in a way that benefits everybody. It's not impossible. It just takes all parents working together.

2. Any child can become a child with special needs.

Not every disability is diagnosed at birth. Not every kid who fits your definition of "typical" today is going to stay that way. An accident, an illness, a diagnosis of a chronic but previously undetected problem -- you can be on our side of the fence in a heartbeat. Considering how you would feel if it was your kid is not just a sensitivity exercise, it's an invitation to consider a very real possibility. If you're going to expect some compassion and understanding and flexibility when your child needs it, start working on those institutions and groups now. It's easier to advocate for right treatment from where you're currently standing.

3. The opposite of inclusion is exclusion.

"I'm sorry, we can't accommodate children with those issues in our program" may sound nicer than "We specifically exclude kids like that," but it means exactly the same thing. There was a time when children were excluded based on race or gender or faith, with pretty much the same sort of excuses: "He doesn't belong here." "She wouldn't be comfortable." "It will ruin things for everybody else." Those excuses aren't accepted anymore by other minority groups, so why would you think it's okay to exclude on the basis of disability? Keeping kids away because of who they are and how their brains and bodies work is just ugly.

4. You get good volunteers.

What, is your school or team or organization so brimming with parent support that you don't need more willing hands? If you've ever bemoaned the lack of good volunteers, consider what you're wasting by turning away children with special needs. Their parents are eager for them to be included, may be able to help make that inclusion work, and can be an asset to your program in all sorts of ways. Better they use their energy and expertise and motivation to support you rather than fight you.

5. It puts your money where your mouth is on bullying.

You may say, "It's not okay to bully people who are different than you." But if you follow it up by making it clear that some people with differences don't belong in your class or your club or your church or your business, you're not practicing what you preach. Inclusion is a dramatic way of demonstrating that you mean what you say, that treating people as less than is never okay, that everybody deserves to be treated with respect and given the same chances and opportunities. If you actively oppose inclusion, you can talk against bullies all you want. You still are one.

6. It's good for every child.

A well-done inclusion program isn't just good for children with special needs -- it's good for every child. It's a way to celebrate all kinds of strengths. It's a way to let every student to work at his or her capacity, from the gifted students to the typical students to the ones who need assistance whether they're classified or not. It takes into consideration different learning styles, different types of intelligence, all the various gifts that our children bring. A standard classroom or program doesn't fit a lot of kids right, but some square pegs can be crammed into round holes better than others. Why not let there be holes of every shape and size?

7. It's the law.

Ever heard of the Americans With Disabilities Act? If you thought it was just about curb cuts and ramps, you're wrong. It's about making society accessible to anyone with a disability that affects a major life activity. It means that if you are running a public program, you are required to make it safe and available to the kid with life-threatening food allergies, the kid with diabetes or asthma, the kid with intellectual disabilities, the kid with disability-related behavior issues, the kids with disabilities you can see and disabilities you can't. Nowhere does the law suggest that you can pick and choose which disabilities are worthy of your consideration. Open up.

8. It's the right thing to do.

That should be enough, shouldn't it? And if it's not, how do you justify that to yourself? If you've never forced yourself to really think it through, let this be your kick in the pants.

NOTE: F-SEPAC is providing the information above for educational purposes as a public service.

References to any treatment, program, or professional are not endorsements.