Report BRINGING DISABILITY EQUALITY INTO THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM Richard Rieser n the Autumn of 2009 and Spring of 2010, I was commissioned by the Qualification and Curriculum Development Authority to find out what schools in England were doing to raise disability equality in the curriculum and to work with them to develop good examples. I wrote an introduction to the project in Volume 24.
I
Now the project has finished and we are awaiting selected films and case studies to go onto the QCDA website. There are also a whole host of resources developed with and for schools on the World of Inclusion website. www.worldofinclusion.com/qcda.htm Under the 2005 Disability Discrimination Amendment Act all state schools, as public bodies, have a Duty to promote equality for disabled people, eliminate harassment and promote positive attitudes towards disabled people. Analysis of school Disability Equality Schemes has shown that promoting positive attitudes was not being addressed by more than half the schools that had a Scheme, (only around half of all schools have a scheme)*. Those schools that were addressing disability were usually only including it in PHSE or Citizenship and not bringing disability equality in across the curriculum. Clearly concerns about this dearth were linked to growing concerns about the level of bullying and harassment disabled children and young people were experiencing (8 times that for non-disabled students). The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families therefore recommended that QCDA commission this work. The Equalities Act 2010 has replaced this legislation, but the need for this work and to develop positive attitudes remain crucial in developing disability equality and inclusive education. Schools from next year will not have to have a Disability Equality Scheme, instead they will need a single equalities scheme where they can choose their priorities.
6
Richard and pupils at Ashcroft Academy
However, the public sector equality duty (Section 149.1) requires schools 'to foster good relations between persons who share protected characteristics (i.e. disabled) and persons who do not share it' And in particular the need to ‘tackle prejudice and promote understanding' (Section 149.5). The 2005 Act specifically said disability equality had to be based on the 'social model' of disability. This is not in the 2010 Act so we will all have to work harder to get this perspective embedded in schools. However, the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which is now law in UK, does have a social model orientation and Article 8 on Awareness Raising specifically requires Governments to take appropriate measure including: "b) Fostering at all levels of the education system, including in all children from an early age, an attitude of respect for the rights of persons with disabilities" Article 8 2b 26 schools took part trying out ideas and ways of bringing disability equality into the curriculum. We extended the project to film exemplars of good practice. In all, 7 films and 5 written case studies will appear on the QCDA website along with a written account of ways of thinking about disability