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This editorial introduces a two-part Special Issue on the Disability Royal Commission and People with Intellectual Disabilities in Australia. The Commission was established in 2019 to investigate violence, abuse, neglect, and exploitation of people with disabilities. The Commission's Final Report, delivered in 2023, included 222 recommendations, some of which were not unanimous. The report covers a wide range of issues and includes the perspectives of people with disabilities. The Commission's work involved public hearings, private sessions, and community engagements. The report has generated controversy, as it focuses on negative experiences and poor-quality services, without exploring positive experiences and factors contributing to good quality services. The text also discusses the challenges faced by governments in responding to the Commission's recommendations and mentions the release of the Independent Review of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which intersects with the Commission's recommendations. The text provides guidance on accessing the Commission's publications, submissions, public hearings, and other resources. It introduces the articles in Part 1 of a Special Issue that critically analyze the Commission's findings and recommendations on various topics related to people with intellectual disabilities. The text concludes by mentioning that Part 2 of the Special Issue will include additional articles on education, health, and Positive Behaviour Support. [Extracted from the article]

Although the literature on inclusive service learning generally reports positive outcomes for students with disabilities, it provides little insight into the process of inclusion that occurs when students with and without disabilities meet within a service-learning framework. This distinction between students with and without disabilities became less clear, especially as all students began to see that they have disabilities or that they lack something that the other has or vice versa, experience themselves without disabilities even if others have defined them that way. In this paper, we address this issue through a case study of a service-learning course that brought together students with and without disabilities. The course was based on a five-facet model for inclusive service learning that comprised theory, experiential learning, community projects, dialogue, and reflection. A qualitative analysis of the course illustrates that both students with and without disabilities experienced significant changes in perception of disability such that they no longer saw themselves as two separate groups. The paper looks at the processes that produced this change and suggests the idea of 'continuous mutual learning' (CML) as an important component in education for inclusion, arguing that CML can deepen the inclusiveness of inclusive service learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We overview several key issues of the past, present, and near future of special education for students with severe disabilities. We contextualize the Telos of special education by briefly remarking on its historical roots in the United States, then delve into several issues we believe are critical for advancing toward better outcomes for students with severe disabilities, including the increasingly alarming shortage of special education teachers and short-sighted responses to address it. We also discuss issues related to curricular decisions, and the apparent tension between access to general education (i.e. academic) curriculum and teaching other life altering repertoires for students with severe disabilities. Attention also is given to the evidence-based practices movement in special education, including the apparent rigidity of intervention protocols and slow advances toward clarifying for whom and under what conditions an intervention is effective. Our intention is to generate discussion about and interest in areas where consensus among stakeholders appears feasible such that policy and law can be influenced in ways that advance toward realizing the Telos of special education for students with severe disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recognized benefits, access to assistive technology (AT) remains limited. Identifying the current usage patterns and unmet needs of AT users could help address the challenges of students with disabilities. Thus, this study aimed to investigate AT use and its associated factors. An institution-based cross-sectional mixed study was conducted on higher education students with disabilities in Ethiopia. An interviewer-administered questionnaire and an in-depth interview technique were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models were used to analyse the quantitative data, while inductive thematic analysis was undertaken for the qualitative data. A total of 233 (74.68%) with (95% CI: 70%–80%) students with disabilities used at least one form of AT. Four themes emerged which include experiences of AT use and disability, benefits and challenges of using AT, perception of the community towards AT, and responsibility for the provision of AT. Students with vision problems or those with severe disability types were most likely to be AT users. A significant proportion of students with disabilities had unmet needs for AT. Capacity at universities or rehabilitation centres would enhance access, usage of AT, and the unmet needs of students with disabilities. Will help to solve the barriers to accessing assistive technology and associated factors in the access and provision of assistive technology. Will help policymakers and stakeholders to design evidence-based rehabilitation strategies in the provision of assistive technology to persons with disabilities. Provide insight into the role of assistive technology in an educational platform to engage people with disabilities in education, improve their quality of life and lead them to become part of a productive society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Around 28 per cent of state primary school children attend 'faith' establishments in England, the majority in Catholic or Church of England schools. Research suggests 'faith' schools tend to educate proportionally fewer children from low-income families (proxied by eligibility for Free School Meals [FSM]). This paper examines whether they also under-admit children 'disadvantaged' according to another key dimension: having special educational needs and/or disability (SEND). Descriptive statistics and modelling use the National Pupil Database census and span 2010–2020. Across years, 'faith' primary schools are less likely to include children with SEND, and less likely to admit children with SEND to the first (Reception) year. Accounting for area-level factors, indications of under-admission to Catholic schools become more pronounced. Some disproportionality for Church of England schools is explained by confounders – but even after attenuation, they remain less likely to serve children with SEND than non-'faith' schools. Together, FSM and SEND predict a substantively meaningful lowered likelihood of children attending 'faith' schools, so these schools, at the national level, seem to have become hubs of relative 'advantage'. Findings therefore demand interrogation of whose interests these institutions serve, and of their part within the current English system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education of students with disability has changed dramatically over the past 50 years. Universal declarations and conventions have underpinned many of these changes at both an international level and within Australia. In the early 1970s, the philosophy of John Rawls provided a theory of justice to preserve social justice and individual liberty within communities. This mirrored attempts to advance education to ensure social justice, rights and access to education for learners with disability. This micro-historical ethnography provides a review spanning the past half century in Australia of changes to the education of students with disability. Underpinned by an ethnographic epistemology through interviews with the presentism of eight educators involved in Western Australian education for learners with disability, and viewed through an interpretivist lens, major elements of change are identified. An analytical framework deduced from the work of Rawls is used to reflect upon the changes and discuss the degree that Rawls' justice as fairness has been enacted in education for learners with disability from 1970 to 2021 in Australia. Key words: Australia, learners with disability, special education, inclusion, Rawls, equity, social justice [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a Foucauldian theorisation and an in-depth study with eight disabled student activists in England, this paper explores how persistent marginalisation and ableism in higher education has triggered a wave of activism among disabled students, who, just before the advent of the pandemic, had organised a structured movement, Disabled Students UK. We employ Foucault's ideas of the care of the self and others to discuss the formation of disabled students as activist subjects fighting discrimination in English higher education, in a moment in which the intersection between inclusive policies and austerity measures exposed the ableism rooted in academic practices. This paper promotes discussion on the nurturing relationship that exists between the individual and the community in constituting disability activism and disabled activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The salience of education for better life outcomes is well accepted, but people with disabilities continue to be underrepresented in higher education. Building on Weedon's approach to the intersection of impairment with socioeconomic factors, this paper identifies the facilitators and barriers encountered and/or experienced by young people with disabilities along their diverse pathways to and through higher education in Sweden. The data comes from longitudinal ethnographic case studies of persons with ADHD. While the findings show similarities in impairment-specific barriers, such as transition and inadequate support available at university, they make even more visible the existing heterogeneity among people with ADHD and the inadequacy of support structures at higher education institutions. Parents, economic security and individual factors, such as ease of learning and belief in one's own capacity, were found to be strong facilitators. ADHD and socioeconomic disadvantage together magnified vulnerabilities and hurdles faced while aspiring to and accessing higher education. The article concludes by highlighting the urgent need for universities to change entrenched structures that perceive students with disabilities as a homogeneous group and disability as an individual problem, in order to enable participation of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]