Creating Inclusive Post-Secondary Educational Environment

Creating Inclusive Post-Secondary Educational Environment

Creating an Inclusive environment means structuring schools, classrooms, lessons so that all students can learn together. An inclusive environment is one that supports all learners, including learners with disabilities. This means making all the students feel equally valued and part of the school without discrimination. This can be done by understanding and respecting all the people, regardless of their abilities and backgrounds. An inclusive educational environment gives students with disabilities and students without limitations an equal chance of success.

In the US, there is an increase in the number of people with disabilities enrolling in post-secondary education. Universities and colleges are putting up measures that accommodate and support students with disabilities. Despite the increase in enrollment, it is still about 40% below the population( Villa, 2005). Students with disabilities were less likely to obtain the minimum requirement to enroll in a college for a degree as compared to students without disabilities. This shows that even if the students with disabilities had an aspiration to get a degree, most of them would not qualify for the enrollment. This means that these students might not be having proper academic preparation to achieve their goals. Unlike the US, Canada has high sound quality services to students with disabilities and suitable investments in the field of education, which makes studying simpler for students with disabilities..

In Canada, the universities have invested in developing their student’s service centers to provide an excellent accommodative and learning environment for their students. They have equipped their classes with the necessary materials such as the interpreters, notetakers, and even captioning services. This makes their classes the ideal place to learn for all the students, whether with or without disabilities. They also have bodies whose work is to ensure that students with disabilities have an excellent accommodative environment both within and without school. These organizations also work to remove the remaining barriers in the educational environment for students with disabilities. They deal with the obstacles of students with disabilities, such as the lack of fees and their self-esteem. Students with disabilities are likely to have low self-esteem due to their challenges. Still, the presence of these organizations helps to build healthy self-esteem since they are accommodated well and made to be of equal importance as their peers.  Removal of these obstacles would make the students with disabilities have equal opportunities for success as compared to their peers. This makes studying in Canada the best for students with disabilities since they consider minimal problems; hence they have high chances of succeeding in their education.

The United States of America has an act which ensures there is an inclusive post-secondary educational environment in university and colleges. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) authorizes that the students in secondary schools and universities get help and services to ensure that they access the general curriculum. The law also requires that the students should also get the IEPs, which is planned to provide that the students that are identified to have special needs get what they require for their education. This step ensures that the students are equipped with facilities that they use during learning hence making learning easy for them.  It also provides that students with disabilities have an equal chance of succeeding in their education, like the other students without disabilities.

Canada has several organizations for students with disabilities, among them Is the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS). This body has several responsibilities to ensure that students with disabilities in Canada have an excellent accommodative environment. These functions include reducing the debts of the students, which means that the organization helps the students in raising school fees. They also help in student experience within the university, which help the students cope with the environment of the school. This includes making them feel important and part of the university by counseling and help them deal with their challenges in school. NEADS also has responsibility after graduation of the students to enable them to get their jobs, which makes the students and graduates avoid the frustration of being jobless.

Individualized Education Programs IEPS are used in the United States of America to ensure that students with disabilities achieve their goals. IEP is given depending on the student’s strengths and disability, as examined by the IEP team. This consideration will help to ensure that the child’s need or weaknesses in learning in a classroom are dealt with so as to make sure that he or she learn smoothly. Removing the child’s vulnerability through the use of IEP will ensure that the child can efficiently learn in a regular classroom without necessarily being pulled to a separate class. This makes it possible to include students with disabilities in the same class with the students without disabilities hence ending discrimination in schools. It also makes sure that they compete equally, and both groups succeed in their education.

Unlike the United States of America, where the students have to do everything by themselves, Canada does more in a classroom to ensure that the students with disabilities are well taken care of. Post-secondary education offers students with disabilities with notetakers. Notetakers help the students to take down the notes during a class because some of the students may find it difficult to take down clear notes by themselves. The institutions also offer students with lecturer notes or PowerPoint presentations. The students with disabilities just have to give a request to their lecturers in order to have them. Notetakers help make studying much more comfortable for the students to consider since the students will have the right notes to read and hence boost their understanding.

Canada also uses visual language interpreting to help students with hearing problems to be able to learn. The post-secondary schools in Canada have the interpreters present in class during lessons or examination (Pivik, 2002). These interpreters help the deaf students by interpreting what is being taught during lesson hours and also help to explain questions during a test. Deaf students have equal opportunities with the rest of the class. This is because they understand what is being taught and asked in questions during an exam. In support of the deaf students, post-secondary institutions have captioning services available. When the deaf students do not use the sign language, they can request the lecturer for captioning services. These services also boost the understanding of students with disabilities in class and hence make them be at the same position of succeeding in their education as the other students without disabilities.

References

.Pivik, J., McComas, J., &Laflamme, M. (2002). Barriers and facilitators to inclusive education. Exceptional children, 69(1), 97-107.

Villa, R. A., & Thousand, J. S. (Eds.). (2005). Creating an inclusive school. ASCD