7th conference report

Indian Association of Rehabilitation Professionals (IARP) wishes to acknowledge the contribution of various institutions, development partners and individuals for their moral, financial and material support in organizing the 7th National Conference. We acknowledge the NIEPMD for their contribution and technical support. We remain indebted to the Founder of Amity University who helped us with financial support and predicted that this conference is going to be "Kumbh of Rehabilitation Professionals". We extend thanks to all the professionals for their involvement as Chair, Co-chair, Resource persons and delegates to make the conference a huge success. We appreciate the sign language interpreters for facilitating communication to delegates who are deaf. We also thank media persons, photographers and Rapporteurs for production of the initial report for quality photographs and videos that captured both the mood and tone of the conferenceFinally, we acknowledge the members of conference organizing committees for their tireless effort in planning for the conference, panel chairs, presenters, delegates and staffs of Integrated Institute for the Disabled for preparing the conference venue, their good hospitality and warm welcome to make the conference successful.

Introduction Archeologists discovered evidence of inclusion of people with disabilities in India about 2000 years ago in the form of adapted toys made accessible for children with disabilities. These small pieces of evidence are part of the “gurukul” system of education that existed in India for centuries before British rule.Article 24 of the UNCRPD addresses education. Section one of this Article addresses why it is a right for people with disabilities to access the same mainstream education that people without disabilities receive.Inclusive education is imperative for people with and without disabilities because it allows people of all ability levels to develop skills and become effective members in a “free society". It points out that education of people with disabilities is not just a human right, but is imperative for the development of humans to their fullest potential.Section two specifically mandates that people with disabilities are not excluded from the general education system on the basis of disability. People with disabilities should be able to access “free and compulsory” primary and secondary education in the community within which they live. However, inclusion means including "reasonable accommodation" for children with disabilities, and providing "effective individualized supports" in environments that maximize academic and social development. Today, access to education for learners with disability and special needs continues to face so many barriers. In order to achieve inclusive quality education, it is imperative to focus on the practice of special needs education in India. There are several National and International policies aimed at providing a direction for schooling of children with special needs in inclusive setup. To this effect, the Government of India, in collaboration with partners has made efforts to expand learning opportunities to all children with and without disabilities.

Goal of the Conference
The conference sought to explore the trends, gaps, challenges and emerging issues with a focus to advance Inclusive Education in our country. It stimulated discussion and debate through the following themes:
1. National and International Policies and Practices for Inclusive Education;
2. Role of Skill Development in Vocational Education;
3. Redefining Partnership: Individual with Disabilities, Families, and other Stakeholders;
4. Models and Practices in Early Intervention towards Inclusion
5. UNCRPD: Rethinking the relationship between Disability and Society;
6. Role of RTE in Inclusion of Children with Different Abilities;
7. Universal Design for Learning in Inclusive Education
8. Team Approach towards promoting Inclusion
9. Role of RPD Act for Education and Rehabilitation of Children with Disabilities;
10. Universal Design towards Information & Communication Technology.

Welcome Remarks
Dr. R. A. Joseph, General Secretary of IARP & Organizing Secretary of the National conference welcomed the Hon'ble Minister for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh Shri Om Prakash Rajbhar, Guest of Honors, experts, resource persons and all the delegates to the 7th National Conference on Policies and Practices for Inclusive Education of Children with Different Abilities. He stated that IARP is a forum which brought together thousands of professionals, government and civil society organizations and other stakeholders with a goal to empower persons with different abilities in its previous conferences. Today, we are here to discuss on various aspects for inclusion of persons with disabilities. He read the Goodwill Message of our Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji about successful deliberation of the conference. He added that in two days conference, we will discuss on various issues, challenges and find ways for successful implementation of inclusive education for our Divyang brothers and sisters as stated by our Prime Minister in his goodwill message.

Opening Remarks
While addressing the delegates, Chief Guest Shri Om Prakash Rajbhar, Hon'ble Minister for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh expressed that his ministry is taking up various issues relating to inclusive education of children with disabilities. He observed that this forum brought together faculties, researchers, scholars, teachers, therapists, persons with disabilities and parents among other stakeholders to share emerging trends of inclusive education. In addition, he noted that there is need to forge stronger collaborations among key stakeholders at national and state level to ensure successful inclusion of persons with disabilities. In his conclusion, he highlighted the following areas to critically address:

1. Increase pension of persons with disabilities;
2. Appoint a Special Educator to each and every Government school to ensure proper implementation of inclusive education;
3. Inclusive education requires a lot of resources, more than the regular programs; which will be ensured by his government for empowerment of children with disabilities.
He added that the Ministry for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Uttar Pradesh is in collaboration with other partners, working to support the Inclusive Education program at every stage to ensure that proper infrastructure, equipment and capacity building of teachers and other stakeholders are enhanced.

Presidential Address
Dr. J.P. Singh, President IARP and Ex Member Secretary, RCI, Govt. of India expressed that our professionals are playing a major role at various level to implement inclusive education for children with disabilities. He further said that I am sure, each one of you is proud to be rehabilitation professional and member of this association. He added that IARP is a massive platform which can be used for promoting the field of disability rehabilitation and inclusive education for empowerment of PwDs. He demanded that Hon'ble minister should take necessary steps to appoint at least one special educator in each Govt. School of the state and by doing so Uttar Pradesh will become a model for other states for implementing inclusive education for children with disabilities. After all, only rehab professionals have in-depth knowledge and expertise about implementation of inclusive education, but that needs to be spread in general school teachers too. We all know that we have annual conventions being held separately for different category of professionals such as speech & audiologists, physiotherapist & occupational therapists, clinical psychologists, and so on. It is a long-term dream to integrate all these associations under one umbrella- the Indian Association of Rehabilitation Professionals. If all these sub-organizations can be gathered under the wings of IARP, while  maintaining their individual identities, it would make a strong and united front for all of us. The conventions of all associations of rehabilitation sciences can be brought under one roof during the National Annual Congress of the IARP, which will benefit all our members and also persons with disabilities. Further, we should adequately train and refresh the knowledge of our professionals by conducting several programs in all the corners of our country through our state chapters. For this, we should encourage the professionals to form state chapters in their states. Thank you for listening and thank you all for the important contributions you made to the field of disability rehabilitation and to our nation.

Keynote Address
Dr. (Mrs.) Hemlata, Director, National Centre for Disability Studies, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi in her keynote address stated that it was unfortunate that in India, the way Inclusive Education is framed within the context of disability, perhaps that is why there is little progress on inclusion. Inclusion is not about some people but rather about everyone. For sure everyone has a special need. There is no legitimacy to point at someone and say "s/he is different". You should point at yourself and say, "I am different", challenging the participants. She further observed that inclusive education is not only about including children with disabilities, but including all children, because all children are different. Dr. Hemleta suggested the following changes to realizing inclusive education: 1. Change our thinking- It's not about the other person, it's about you who is different;
2. Education policy- It's not about including children with disabilities but including all children;
3. Teacher education- Teachers should not graduate without undertaking Inclusive Education unit;
4. Instructional practice- It's about differentiated instructions, not individualized instructions;
5. Learning environment- It's not about changing the child but changing the school and classroom environment;
6. Assessment- It's not about assessing children with special needs but adapting learning assessments for all children;
7. Parenting practice- Parents should promote diversity in children. They should seek opportunity for every child.
She added that the practice of inclusion places extra demands on students and logistics facilities, but there are numerous benefits to all students, both disabled and non-disabled.

Summary of Presentations
This conference brought together 1502 delegates from 25 states for a scholarly discourse on inclusive education of children with different abilities. A total of 39 papers were presented and discussed in 10 sessions during the two days national conference. Also, there were 10 poster presentation by the professionals from various Institutions and Universities which were very informative and highly appreciated by the expert team. The presenters as well as Chair and Co-chairs of the scientific sessions highlighted the following challenges in delivering Inclusive Education services to children with disabilities:

Challenges:
º Lack of Screening and assessment competencies in professionals
º Ambiguous and outdated screening & assessment profarma.
º Lack of appropriate and need based assessment tools in inclusive settings.
º Lack of clarity in Inclusive Education policy and legislation;
º Lack of awareness on inclusion and inclusive education; because societal norms often are the biggest barrier to inclusion of children with disabilities.
º Shortage of appropriate trained teachers and experienced trainers;
º Lack of resources and assistive devices in schools for the learners with disabilities;
º Inaccessible school environment for students with disabilities;
º Inflexible curriculum that is exam oriented;
º Recommendations of inappropriate teaching methods;
º No formulation of feasible inclusive education policy;
º Some teachers force students to have better grades instead of distinguishing the slow and quick learners;
º Students with special needs are often misunderstood and they feel neglected as not enough support and attention is given by the teacher;
º Teachers find it difficult to give the required attention to a child with disability without neglecting the remaining students and isolating the disabled student;
º Most of the general schools feel that it would be pointless to invest their time and resources in including children with disabilities into mainstream education;
º Too often, students with special needs face discrimination and low expectations;

IARP Open Session
This session have always been a very important part of the conference where IARP committee presents a brief report of the previous works, conferences, meetings, and discuss about the future plans. It's almost a concluding session when professionals can ask questions and give suggestions and recommendations for strengthening the field for empowerment of persons with disabilities.

Suggestions & Recommendations:
º Need to develop new screening and assessment tools in Indian context.
º Need to adapt advanced teaching practices to meet the need of inclusive education.
º Need to improve on how we treat the Persons with Disabilities; do not treat them like objects. Differently abled children should be treated equally as the normal children and instead of looking them in sympathy their talents and abilities should be recognized for their self-respect.
º Advocacy- Create awareness on inclusion, adopt inclusion as a lifestyle
º Media should allocate more space & time for disability issues in their newspapers and news channels
º Develop facilities - instead of abolishing special schools, make all schools inclusive and accessible
º Make inclusive education a foundation for all teacher training programs
º Educate teachers about legislation and policies related to inclusion of children with disabilities
º Implement the pieces of legislation on inclusive education to have functional systems
º Sufficiently train and equip all teachers with necessary attitudes, values, knowledge, skills and competences to meet all learners' needs
º Promote professional skill development in the areas of cooperative learning, peer tutoring and adaptive curriculum
º Making schools (buildings, pathways, toilets, playgrounds, laboratories, libraries etc.) barrier-free and accessible for all types of disability
º Equip all schools with the necessary resources and assistive devices for learners with disabilities
º To organize comprehensive workshop for special educator in execution of various assessment process particularly in summer season and accredit as CRE program.
º Modify the existing curriculum and examination system to meet all learners' needs
º Allocate separate budget for inclusive education so that schools will be able to develop programs for students on needs basis, instead of funding basis
º There is a need for monitoring and evaluation to ensure that money dispersed by the government for Inclusive Education is used for that purpose only
º Involve and discuss with children and adults with disabilities while developing policies
º Setting up Parent-Teacher counselling and grievance redressal systems in all the schools
º Parents of children with disabilities must also be informed about their rights and responsibilities
º Encouraging collaboration between general and special education teachers
º Ministry of HRD, NCTE, CBSE; Department of Empowerment of PwDs & RCI under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, and State Education Ministries needs to have better coordination for implementing inclusive education in our country
º Government and concerned agencies should change the ridiculous designation like- itinerant and para- teacher and recognize them as regular teacher for better inclusion.
º As suggested by many professionals, RCI should develop common norms & guidelines for all the National Institutes involved in conducting annual/semester examination of D.Ed./diploma courses
º AYJNISHD (D), Mumbai should conduct exams, declare results and issue mark sheets in time, so that students don't miss opportunity to apply for the jobs advertised by Govt. & private sector, time to time.
º Many professionals suggested that RCI should give more emphasis on strengthening the existing institutions through cross-disability approach to produce quality professionals.
º A parent & professional explained that the new guideline of RCI to start new D.Ed. courses is harmful for children with disabilities. If two training centers will utilize special needs children of a single special school, then most of the time they will be used by the trainees and their regular educational & therapeutic services will be hampered. However, RCI should re-consider on its decision so that children with disabilities do not remain as practical material for the training centers.  | As suggested by many professionals from Bihar and other states that RCI should restart Add-on course so that most of the professionals with one year diploma course such as DECSE (MR), DECSE (HI), DVR (MR), DHLS can become eligible for their Jobs where they are working; because those without Add-on course have been considered disqualified by the government and removed from their Jobs.
º Disability Certificate still remains a big challenge due to which most PwDs are not able to get benefit of the facilities availed by the government. However, Govt. of India with its concern departments and partners should formulate necessary strategies and implement in a mission mode to ensure that every individual with disability gets their disability certificate within a stipulated time.

Closing Remarks
Prof. P. Jeyachandran, Director, VHS, Chennai in his closing remarks stated that, the conference was exciting, challenging and successful. He stressed that we have a very old history of inclusion, but presently we need to do a lot for inclusive education of children with disabilities. For effective inclusion, there is need for early intervention, team spirit, promotion of family involvement and improvement as well as need for advocacy and quality research. Prof. S.Z.H. Zaidi, HOD, Department of Clinical Psychology, Amity University suggested that Indian Association of Rehabilitation Professionals need to organize more conferences at different part of the country. The President of IARP, Dr. J.P. Singh congratulated the organizing committee for successfully conducting the 7th National conference of IARP.