Today’s post is by our guest writer Medha Prakash. Medha is a social worker with masters from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. She works with children with disabilities at Ummeed Child Development Center, Mumbai and wishes to create a more inclusive environment for children with disabilities in schools. She wishes to change the mindset of the society around disability.
Having lived through her own experience with disability, Medha shares her personal and professional experience to emphasize the point that the set up and mindsets of the society are still not ready to accept a child with disability. She attributes most of it to lack of awareness and understanding which she believes are more important than just having accessible spaces.
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“The formative years of an individual’s life lay the groundwork for their development.” Providing treated equally and fostering an environment where the child feels comfortable expressing their challenges is pivotal, given the intricate nature of childhood, which significantly shapes one’s personality. The provision of such space profoundly influences a child’s perception of the world. Sometimes this big world doesn’t welcome the differences that exist which is where inclusion becomes an important tool to bring in acceptance.
Inclusion means to give equal access and opportunity to all, but in some spaces this does not happen. There is an attempt and the laws are there on paper but still it is difficult for a person with disability to navigate in the world be it in schools, colleges or in jobs. It just keeps on getting difficult. Like the person with disability has to prove themselves worth of being in a good college if they got in through reservation, as there comes in a inherent guilt that comes in them.
Having seen a lot of prejudice, discrimination and bullying growing up, a student with disability in a regular school, I realise that most of the spaces I have been a part of are actually were so called inclusive spaces but they did not actually follow practices which promoted inclusivity, for example in a dance class, when the teacher was teaching Indian classical, which I was not able to perform because of my disability, but I remember the teacher saying that “she’s lying as she doesn’t want to dance”. Though if dealt with it properly and in an inclusive manner it could have been as easy as a choice being kept between music and dance and not all things had to be similar for everyone.
The set up and the mindsets of the society are still not the ready to accept a child with disability. There is always a distress in the parents mind with regards to the acceptance of their child with disability in the society. I feel this anxiety and protectiveness of the parent rubs off on the child also becoming a bit more conscious about themselves and how the society accepts them. In many cases the child is made to feel inferior within families and made to feel that they can’t take decision for themselves and they will always have to be dependent on the family and they can’t do anything on their own. The society further thinks it is their right to give everyone advice when it just might be as simple as that they might not know about something. Being a person with locomotor disability, it came to me in the form of statements like- it must be my fault, or that I did not try to get ‘treated’ during the therapy to get ‘normal.’ Also statements like ‘it must be your mental block that people are not talking to you’ at 8yrs made it difficult for me to share and to talk about what problems I was facing.
The basic problem is not enough knowledge about disability among people which makes them ask questions. Being a person with disability, I have realised that there will be a lot of times when I’ll be asked these questions, and it become my duty to answer those and not just let those go, because many a times people ask those questions as there is very less knowledge among people about this. The spaces just don’t need to be physically accessible, the change in mindset would lead to people being more accepting of the difference and which will eventually lead to the society becoming more inclusive in their thoughts.
Schools as inclusive spaces, should be a norm in every school as all schools should now make an effort around understanding a student with disability just as any other student yet making some accommodations to involve him as a part of the schools without making the other children feel that the child with disability is being given separate special treatment. The schools before giving admissions are informed about disability, if they go ahead with the admissions it should be their responsibility to accommodate the child with disability as well and they should also be responsible for the child’s overall development. What happens is specifically in cases of invisible disability, is that the school treats the child differently in their attempts of accommodating a child with different needs but they are not able to lessen the difference they somewhere create amongst the classmates. In schools there is bullying also involved by peers, as the children are too young to accept this difference and try and become friends with the child with disability. In my case I was asked questions about my disability from a very young age. Questions like “why are you walking like that?” and “Why are you walking down the stairs that way” were a part of my childhood, with me not knowing how to answer those questions. I was a lot affected by these questions as these questions asked by adults at school, made my peers think that it was okay for them to laugh at me or try and bully me at school. All this affected my self-esteem a lot as it usually felt like I was being pointed out by everybody.
College supposedly being inclusive spaces as there are people coming from various backgrounds, so it becomes important that all the colleges are inclusive to accommodate people with disability as well in the colleges. There are reservations in all government colleges and some private colleges. The reservations should not be the only accommodation made for students with disability in the education spaces. Accommodations in classrooms and other co-curriculars in colleges is also an important part of the inclusion required in colleges. In most cases just giving admission becomes enough from the side of the institution. Having been told that I should be grateful that I got admission in colleges because of the reservations available for the persons of disability. The faculty in colleges should also be sensitised in terms of how to deal with adults with disability, while giving them the agency to make decisions about what they feel might be best for them. There needs to better and open communication among the students and the faculty and all should deal with the matter with maturity. The concept of student buddies is also there on colleges which might be a good initiative if the buddies assigned are sensitised enough on how they should behave around their peers with disability. There have been cases where the students have approached with questions like how should they approach a person with disability and what are the correct/wrong things to say. The sensitization in colleges is very important and to bring those inclusive practices as a part of routine. Inclusive practices should be taught in schools so that they become ingrained in people’s minds and then they can be good friends and support systems to their peers with disability.
Creating inclusive spaces should be everyone’s responsibility and not just the people with disability. We should now together work towards implementing some changes our daily lives. We could start by implementing the inclusive practices in our daily lives and then we as a society will be moving towards a progressive space which is not just inclusive on paper but more importantly inclusive in practice.
This post is a part of “International Day of Persons with Disability” blog hop hosted by Sakshi Varma – Tripleamommy. #IDPD2023Bloghop. Access all posts of this blog hop at Championing Diversity, Uniting Voices: Commemorating IDPD Together
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Regards, Sakshi aka tripleamommy
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[…] Day 5, 5th December Blogger Medha Prakash, shares her personal experience to emphasize the point that the set up and mindsets of the society are still not ready to accept a child with disability. She attributes most of it to lack of awareness and understanding which she believes are more important than just having accessible spaces. Read her experiences here. https://tripleamommy.com/2023/12/05/exclusion-in-the-name-of-inclusion-in-educational-spaces/ […]
Well-written from the heart. Many hugs to you for the way you have navigated this big bad world since a young age. You are absolutely right that as a society, we just inherently distrust one another — our society functions like that only — so I am not surprised at the dance teacher’s behaviour. Perhaps it comes from the colonial experience, or from the way the justice system allows corruption to go scot free. Glad you are advocating for yourself. Most people are good but ignorant.
It is such a tough line to toe when you wish to have people understanding but not giving special treatment -either cushioning you or berating you. I agree with Medha, it’s not just physical changes but we also need to change mindsets. I remember when my leg was in plaster and walking was tough without a stick, it made me feel very inferior and weak. But speaking out for myself was the only way forward. A huge college campus had only one lift and one had to walk about 200 m to the lift. I think it is living with dignity that matters most.
I loved your title ‘Exclusion in the name of Inclusion’. It is so true. Private schools today set up a resource room, hire one or two special educators and they are following the guidelines. There are always some dyslexic children who can be referred to the resource room. The real losers in all this are the children with real challenges. The need of the hour is Integration more than Inclusion. A need to accept and integrate people with all their differences.
Dyslexia presents so many challenges as well— being an invisible disability, someone with dyslexia is never even believed. Right from the parents down to classmates and teachers. Their challenges are equally “real”, if not more. 😊
First off, I have to say great idea from you to include the graphics exclusion-segregation-integration-inclusion. It made a lasting impact on my mind. You are right in pointing out that it’s important to prioritize changing people’s mindsets. It’s only when mindsets change that we can hope to build a world that is inclusive by its very inherent design. Currently, when we encoutner so called inclusive spaces it is because they are created as an afterthought or they perhaps have accessibility features because an organisation needs to meet compliance/legal requirements.
You have raised such an important issue. Even our topmost educational institutions are far from being inclusive. More thought and effort needs to go into making these places more inclusive.
Medha, your powerful reflection on the challenges faced by individuals with disabilities in educational spaces is both eye-opening and thought-provoking. Your personal experiences add a deeply human dimension to the broader issue of inclusion. Your call for a change in mindset, coupled with concrete actions in schools and colleges, resonates strongly. Your commitment to creating a more inclusive society is inspiring. Thank you for sharing your perspective and advocating for positive change. Keep up the impactful work!
Thanks Medha for sharing your story and experiences. I truly believe that inclusive education which means inclusion at that early stage can help remove a lot of bias from the minds of people. And if given equal opportunities of education and that too quality education, persons with disabilities wont need much other interventions in life. Like they say, don’t give him fish, teach him to fish!
Do you think inclusivity sensitisation or disability sensitisation or education could be the answer for proper introduction of it since our childhood in our schools like the way we study alphabets and numbers? Only empathy might not be enough. Sometimes due to lack of exposure to disabled individuals , people just dont know what to say, how to act so on and so forth. A formal introduction will help?
Inclusion, but at what cost? Most of the educational institutions are excluding in the name of including. Inclusion starts with us, with me, our mindset and then physical barriers will disappear.
Thanks for sharing your story..Inclusion in the right way at education platform mainly helps to remove bias from people’s mindest ..loved to read this