The Role of Assistive Technology in Fostering Inclusive Education

Strategies and Tools to Support Change

Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf, Katerina Mavrou, Ivan Traina, Evert-Jan Hoogerwerf, Katerina Mavrou, Ivan Traina

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9780367546915
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429766404
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The Role of Assistive Technology in Fostering Inclusive Education uses evidence-based research to explore issues related to implementation of ICT-based Assistive Technology (ICT-AT) in education. It focuses on programmes and activities that aim at the empowerment of the learners with disabilities, as well as the empowerment of the entire educational ecosystem.

The book provides a synthesis of political and theoretical discussions as well as practical experiences on the implementation of ICT-AT in education. Analysing international policy frameworks in relation to inclusive education and technology, it discusses examples of school self-assessment and action plan methodologies for digital inclusive education, as well as case studies of innovative ICT and AT solutions in educational environments. The authors elaborate on digital empowerment as a wider societal challenge through reflection on the barriers that people with disabilities meet in education and beyond.

This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers, and postgraduate students in the fields of inclusive education and assistive technology, as well as those interested in education research and policy development.

1 A framework for action

Andrea Broderick, Delia Ferri, and Fleur Heleen Boot

1 Introduction

The right to education is well established in binding international human rights law, as well as several regional human rights treaties, that prohibit exclusion from education or limitations on educational opportunities, on multiple grounds, including disability. It is also affirmed in various soft law documents that have been released by international and regional organisations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education (UNESCO, 1960), with entry into force in 1962, was the earliest thematic instrument addressing education to have a binding force in international law. It establishes the principles of non-discrimination and equality of opportunity in education and requires States Parties to make primary education free and compulsory. It also mandates that States Parties render secondary education and higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity. Other treaties, in a similar manner to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (UN, 1948),¹ proclaim the right to education alongside other economic, social, and cultural rights.² However, most of those treaties are silent on the rights of persons with disabilities. Only Article 23 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) refers to children with disabilities and requires, inter alia, that States Parties ensure that children with disabilities have ‘effective access to and [receive] education’ (UN, 1989).

The first instrument that addresses the right to education of persons with disabilities in a comprehensive manner and that explicitly requires the realisation of ‘an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning’ is the 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD or UN Convention) (UN, 2006). The CRPD is a comprehensive international treaty that is tailored to the human rights of persons with disabilities, requiring States Parties to address the needs of persons with disabilities in all contexts, including in the sphere of education. Although the UN Convention, and specifically Article 24 CRPD, is the first binding international legal instrument to contain a reference to inclusive education, it builds on previous soft law documents. Those documents include the Jomtien World Declaration on Education for All (UNESCO, 1990), the United Nations Standard Rules on Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (UN, 1993), and the Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (Salamanca Statement) (UNESCO, 1994)³ (Kiuppis, 2014). Article 24 CRPD must also be read in conjunction with other global and regional policy initiatives designed to foster inclusive educational environments for students with disabilities. For instance, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development⁴ includes among its targets the stated aim of achieving an inclusive and equitable quality education for all. In connection with this goal, the ‘Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action’ requires ‘comprehensive, multifaceted and cohesive [educational] policies that are gender and disability-sensitive’ (UNESCO, 2015).

The role played by assistive technology (AT) in fostering the enjoyment of the right to education for students with disabilities has long been disregarded, but it has come to the fore in recent times. Academic scholarship (Beijen et al., 2007; Parette, & Peterson-Karlan, 2007) and studies published by international bodies have consistently highlighted the importance of compensatory and learning aids, as well as assistive and information technology in supporting students with disabilities (among others, OHCHR, 2013) and in realising an inclusive model of education.

The CRPD does not include a definition of AT, but it does refer to such products and technologies. In a general fashion, assistive products are defined by the International Standardization Organization (ISO) as:

any product (including devices, equipment, instruments and software), especially produced or generally available, used by or for persons with disability: for participation; to protect, support, train, measure or substitute for body functions/structures and activities, or to prevent impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions.

(ISO 9999: 2016, para. 2.3)

The Global Disability Action Plan 2014–2021 of the World Health Organization (WHO) states that AT includes a wide range of tools, from low-vision devices to hearing aids, and from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to walking frames and wheelchairs (WHO, 2015, para. 35). Bearing in mind the framework of this volume as a whole, this chapter addresses technologies that are used within educational settings. Such technologies include, but are not limited to, information and communications technologies (ICT), such as computers, screen-reading software, and customised telephones (MacLachlan et al., 2018).⁵

Against this background, the present chapter aims to frame the analysis conducted in subsequent chapters of this book by examining the extent to which international and European laws and policies protect and facilitate the right to education of persons with disabilities by promoting the use of AT in educational settings. In doing so, this chapter contributes to the existing debate on how the current legal and policy framework at the international and European levels fosters the use of AT in educational settings. While paying attention to the global context, this chapter focuses on Europe. Although it does not carry out comparative legal analysis, it includes examples of best practices in educational policies from selected European States.

Following this introductory section, Section 2 outlines the research questions to be answered throughout this chapter as well as the methodology adopted. Section 3 highlights the distinctive features of the CRPD, before discussing Article 24 CRPD and the concept of ‘inclusive education’ purported by the UN Convention, as well as the role that AT plays in ensuring inclusive education. The choice to commence the analysis in this chapter by discussing the CRPD is premised on the understanding that the UN Convention has become the global legal benchmark for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities. Section 4 of the chapter goes on to analyse the role of two UN agencies – the WHO and the UNESCO – in supporting inclusive education through the use of AT.

The chapter then turns to an examination of the European legal context in Sections 5 and 6. Section 5 of the chapter discusses the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or Strasbourg Court) in the context of inclusive education, and considers (where relevant) the role of other soft law documents or policy initiatives adopted by the Council of Europe (CoE) in fostering inclusive education by means of AT. Section 6 goes on to examine the role of the European Union (EU) in promoting the use of AT in inclusive educational settings. Section 7 of the chapter provides a succinct overview of selected best practices at the national level, while Section 8 contains concluding remarks and puts forward some brief policy recommendations for further action.

2 Research questions and methodology

In line with the objectives of the volume as a whole, this chapter answers three interconnected research questions. In the first instance, it explores what the main legal documents are at the international and European levels that support an inclusive approach to education. Secondly, it reflects on which documents exist at the international and European levels that provide a policy framework to enable an understanding of recent developments pertaining to the use of ICT, and AT in particular, in educational settings. Thirdly, the chapter addresses the question as to whether the documents and instruments examined throughout the chapter can provide useful insights that can contribute to developing a framework for action on AT in educational settings.

This chapter is informed by doctrinal legal methodology, in that it aims to provide ‘a critical conceptual analysis of all relevant [legal instruments] to reveal a statement of the law relevant to the matter under investigation’ (Hutchinson, 2014, p. 584). It has been affirmed that:

doctrinal research, at its best, involves rigorous analysis and creative synthesis, the making of connections between seemingly disparate doctrinal strands, and the challenge of extracting general principles from an inchoate mass of primary materials.

(Council of Australian Law Deans, 2005, p. 3)

The legal analysis conducted in this chapter is based on primary legal sources as well as on legal and socio-legal scholarship, and disability studies scholarship. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) is drawn on in Section 2 of the chapter to enable an interpretation of the relevant provisions of the CRPD. Articles 31 and 32 VCLT posit that international treaties can be interpreted using four methods of interpretation, namely by: drawing on the text of the treaty itself (textual interpretation); interpreting the text in its overall context, including the Preamble, general principles, and obligations of the UN Convention, as well as the General Comments of the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD Committee) (contextual interpretation); aligning the text of the UN Convention with the object and purpose of the CRPD as a whole (teleological interpretation); and drawing on the drafting history, or travaux préparatoires, of the CRPD (historical interpretation).

This chapter also draws upon the multifaceted literature that investigates the environmental and social barriers faced by persons with disabilities, the role of AT in overcoming those barriers (inter alia, MacLachlan et al., 2018), and the wide-ranging scholarship on inclusive education (among many others, Ainscow, 1999; ARACY, 2013; Caldin, 2013; Corbett, 2001; Pitt & Curtin, 2004; Slee, 2001). The selection of sources in Section 7 is rooted in desk-based research and draws from relevant reports of the European Agency for Special Needs and Inclusive Education (EASNIE), as well as scholarly work.

Finally, it is important to note that the language used in this chapter is informed by international and European legal scholarship (de Beco et al., 2019). While aimed at an interdisciplinary readership, legal rigour is ensured. In that connection, ‘hard law’ denotes binding legal obligations contained in legislation. The general term ‘soft law’ is used to identify documents or instruments that do not have the binding force of law, but which are nonetheless not devoid of legal character. The term ‘policy documents’ is used less frequently as a synonym of soft law.

3 The CRPD as the ‘golden legal standard’ for inclusive education

3.1 Setting the scene: the CRPD in a nutshell

Traditionally, both national and international norms have tended to attribute the disadvantage faced by people with disabilities to their physical, intellectual, or other impairments, but the CRPD recasts disability as a social construction (Barnes & Mercer, 2010). The UN Convention, approved by the UN General Assembly on 13 December 2006, with entry into force in 2008, ‘brings a human rights dimension to disability issues’ (de Beco, 2014, p. 269). Its innovative character is reflected in its elaboration of existing human rights within the disability context, and in its explicit recognition of the inherent dignity and autonomy of people with disabilities, and their diversity. The CRPD aims to ensure effective participation of persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others in all areas of life. The conceptualisation of disability espoused by the UN Convention acknowledges the interactional relationship between individuals with impairments and barriers (legal, attitudinal, and physical) that result in their exclusion from society. This understanding of how disability arises has been termed ‘a social-contextual understanding of disability’ (Broderick, 2015, p. 77). The substantive provisions of the UN Convention are underpinned by what the CRPD Committee (CtRPD, 2018, para. 9) and scholars (among others, Broderick, 2015; Degener, 2017) term the ‘human rights model’ of disability. The Committee states that while the human rights model acknowledges the social construction inherent to disability, it goes further than that to recognise that ‘disability is one of several layers of identity. Hence, disability laws and policies must take the diversity of persons with disabilities into account’ (CtRPD, 2018, para. 9).

Article 1 CRPD enunciates the purpose of the UN Convention, namely ‘to promote, protect and ensure the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity’. The CRPD is underpinned by the rights to non-discrimination and equality, which include the right to reasonable accommodation (Kayess & French, 2008; Seatzu, 2008). The scope of the CRPD is extremely broad, as it does not simply prohibit discrimination on the ground of disability, but it also covers civil and political, as well as economic, social, and cultural rights. The UN Convention consists of a Preamble and 50 articles, and it is complemented by ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 A framework for action
• 2 Defining objectives: a self-assessment tool for inclusive schools for improving the adoption and use of assistive technology
• 3 The choice and use of enabling technologies in educational environments: research findings and case report
• 4 The development of competences in assistive technology
• 5 Inclusive education and digital empowerment as part of wider societal challenges
• Index