Introduction
Disability means when a person has lack of a ability to perform functions what we expect from a physically or mentally fit person
A person facing polio cannot run or cannot lift a heavy load and move. Thus we can say he is person with locomotor disability.
A person who cannot listen to voices and is unable to give instructions. He is called person with hearing and speech disability.
A person who is not a able to think or learn things or seek education is known as person with intellectual disability
But there is no evidence or example where we can say a person is unable to do anything. So a person with disability is a human facing some specific inability. Which can be ninimised or compensated with the help of Aids or appliances or some assisitive,/ supportive devices.
Disability is a challenge from almighty Allah the creator that you are one among big chunk of people having everything. But you are not given Eyes/ legs/ fit brain/ power to hear let u show other humans how to manage life. Like a vehicle loses a nut bolt, its window pane breaks would we agree now it is not a vehicle. Obviously it is with some minor deficiency.
Inclusion is the solution to empower children with disabilities. Educational inclusion is highly needed to ensure education for all. Otherwise raising slogan of 100% literacy is fake and unjustified.
Inclusion means that no one is left behind and inclusive Education means to cater the educational needs of every student irrespective of caste creed religion sex and economic background. We cannot ignore our own child when he is not possesing colour of our choice. We will never prefer to segregate our one child from other children when he harsh in behaviour. We cannot keep our own child hungary because his mouth is not having proper alignment or he has no hands. Instead we will start the innovative methods to feed him best meal than other children. The child who is weak or sick is given more care in family in order to make him feel comfortable.
Today in government schools there is big hunt for Enrolment. Let us start prioritising the children with disabilities and other underprivileged children and start imparting Education to them through innovative Methods we will be 100% successful to retain the Enrolment. There will be a faith generaton for government teacher and government school that they imparted education to children neglected and underestimated by society, so they can give charm to our creamy layer and make them more presentable and worth giving back towards social development.
So we need
*Early Identification*
*Early Acceptance*
*Early Intervention*
Then to start with a teacher needs to remove barriers.
Make school compound accessible.
Make school Entrance Accessible
Make classrooms Accessible
Make wash station and drinking water facility accessible
Make toilet completely accessible
Then we need to start need assesment of children with disabilities. We need to place
A child facing blindness near the point where light and ventilation is available
A child with hearing and speech disability in first row where he can keep complete eye on lips and actions of teacher.
A child with physical disability near the door so that he comes in goes out of class freely without disturbing whole clsss or being left inside class at back when there is emergency call like valcano tremors or breakage of roof.
Then start availability of learning material. Now soft books can be uploaded on mobile phone. Braille books are available with Samagrah shiksha and abacus and other things are a available on online shopping.
For deaf and mute we can use youtube channels as tool to get lessons in sign language.
At a minimum we can start these things.
We should write to zonal Education officers continuous basis.
We can utilise the service of special Educators or resource persons available with Samagrah Shiksha at district level.
We can consult NGOs or individuals having know how of disability.
The first need of child with disability for his legal identity as person with disability is Disability certificate that is being issued by the Medical Board available on some specific day in a week. Like medical board is available on Wednesday at Anantnag. The process is little bit different now. We have to fill online from for disability certificate on website www.swavlambancard.gov.in. then seeking a registration number we need to approach medical board. The doctors in medical board give collctive report and upload the disability certificate online. Thus alongwith disability certificate a unique disability identification card or UDID card gets generated. Under that card all benifits and relaxations will be given to persons with disabilities in whole country.
It is human duty of a teacher to help a student with disability to seek online disability certificate and a UDID card.
The important responsibly of a teacher and ministerial staff is to know all circulars and orders related to disability from Education department in light of Right to Education and the circular of relaxation from SCERT DIET & J&K Board of school Education.
The clerk and teachers sshould know about circulars that
Children with disabilities are exempted from all types of examination fee.
There is facility of scribe / amanuensis or helper for children with disabilities during exams for upper limb disabled and students facing blindness or weakness in arms due to cerebral palsy or neurological disorders.
There is provision of extra time of 20 minutes per hour for children with disabilities.
There is a soecific scholarship available for students with disabilities with minority affairs and social welfare department also.
The school needs proper consultation with Board of school Education while submitting secondary and higher secondary school examination forms.
From peon to principal everyone has role in staff of a school or educational institution to keep high support system for children with disabilities.
We need multidisciplinary team to deal with children with disabilities.
We need peer counselling to create Association of children with disabilities with non disable children.
We need to create sense of belongingness among disable and non disable children.
Our duties as teacher are vast sometimes more than a parent to empower students with disabilities. We need to know them. So we should hold an exclusive meeting on disability issues in our institutions. Formulate plans, implement them and take review what to do next.
The students with disabilities need to part of picnics, school programmes, innovations, science exhibitions, seminars, debates rallies and discipline committees. Cant we make him monitor of class for a day?
Census 2011 says there are around 361750 persons with disabilities in J&K but non governmental organisations and researchers in sociology say that around 10% of Jk population is facing one or other type of disability. Because conflict, road transport accidents various diseases and cross boarder shelling has added to the disability chart of J&K.
As per rights of persons with disabilities Act 2016 there are 21 types of bench mark types of disabilities. These includes
*Blindness*
*Low Vision*
*Leprosoy Cured persons*
*Locomotor Disability*
*Dwarfism*
*Intellectual Disability*
*Mental Illness*
*Cerebral Palsy*
*Specific Learning Disabilities*
*Speech and Language disability*
*Hearing Impairment ( Deaf and Hard of Hearing)*
*Muscular Dystrophy*
*Acid Attack Victim*
*Parkinson’s disease*
*Multiple Sclerosis*
*Thalassemia*
*Hemophilia*
*Sickle Cell disease*
*Autism Spectrum Disorder*
*Chronic Neurological conditions*
*Multiple Disabilities including Deaf Blindness*
So these disabilities have been classified into 4 types of main disabilities to provide 4% reservation in jobs and 5% reservation in Education admissions.
These groupings are
a) blindness and low vision;
(b) deaf and hard of hearing;
(c) locomotor disability including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attacks victims and muscular dystrophy;
(d) autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability and mental illness
