- 25/02/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Today, the equality of opportunities for all students is of a paramount importance, especially in regard to educational opportunities. In this respect, it is important to underline the fact that many students have special needs and, therefore, they need special approaches to their teaching. What is meant here is the fact that children with special needs should have equal opportunities compared with other students and they should not feel inferior compared to other students. However, the problem is that often students with special needs are deprived of equal opportunities because of the lack of essential technical equipment and facilities and, what is even more important, because of the lack of well-qualified specialists who are trained to work with such students and who could assist to their integration in their peer groups. At this point it should be said that the position of students with disabilities is particularly difficult because vision plays the key role in the modern education. In fact, the problem of visual impairment is extremely important because as a rule it adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Naturally, students with disabilities have special needs that have to be taken into consideration in order to provide such students with equal opportunities to receive a good education compared to other students who do not have such problems. In this respect, the use of effective teaching methods is extremely important to positive results in education.
Education of students with disabilities in the past
In the past, students with disabilities were virtually excluded from the learning process. In fact, they did not have access to education because of their disability. In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that schools and other educational institutions did not have facilities adapted to special needs of children with disabilities. As a result, many children with disabilities could not access educational institutions. In addition, students with disabilities often need special curriculum and complementary educational programs but, in the past, educators paid little attention to such students that enhanced their exclusion from the community and deprived students with disabilities of access to education. In such a situation, cases when students with disabilities obtained a college or University degree used to be rather exceptional than normal. As a result, students with disabilities were doomed to exclusion and without education they did not have good job opportunities.
In such a situation, legislators ignored needs of people with disabilities. The exclusion of people with disabilities was a norm. However, the rise of the Civil Rights movement encouraged people with disabilities to struggle for their rights and to increase pressure on the government. In response to the public pressure which had increased steadily since the 1960s, the government had to start implementing laws protecting rights of people with disabilities, especially in the field of education, and preventing discrimination of children with disabilities.
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