Universal Design for Learning to Support Access to the General Education Curriculum for Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

The issue concerned with enhancing support to the intellectually disabled students for enabling them to access the general education has gained significant importance in the recent years all over the world. The intellectually disabled students suffer from neurodevelopmental disorders that acts as a barrier to the normal functioning of the brain and slow down the learning abilities and proper development of an individual. The presence of intellectual disabilities affects both the mental and physical well-being of the students by causing issues for them to understand, think logically, speak, remembering things, and find solutions to the problems. Many research studies are conducted across the world for finding the ways and designing innovative models that can help in increasing the access to general education for these students with special needs. The universal design for learning framework also aims at providing support to the intellectually disabled students for gaining access to general education by enhancing their intellectual functioning and ability to adapt.It is essential that faulty and unethical practices prevailing in the educational settings in concern with the recruitment of teachers and training processes are discontinued and replaced with better policies. Parents, family members, and society play a significant role in enhancing the acceptance level among the children with intellectual disabilities (Agran et al., 2010;Kraglund-Gauthier, Young & Kell, 2014). Treating children with love, respect, and care at home and giving them equal social acceptance to access the community belongings and attend social programs expose children to varied settings enabling them to gain new experiences. In this respecting development of a landscape that facilitates communication of the children with other normal peer, parents, teachers, and society can make it easier for the children to access general education. Designing new policy interventions that aim at keeping a check on the integration of healthy practices can help in meeting the changing needs of the students and prepare them for facing the world in a better manner (Agran et al., 2010).

The Design, Content and Delivery of Relationship and Sexuality Education Programmes for People with Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review of the International Evidence

“…With the growing need to ensure that RSE programmes are available and accessible to all children, including those with disabilities or special needs, the UK Government have embedded RSE programmes into the school curriculum for all pupils in primary and secondary schools from autumn 2020 [ 17 , 50 ]. While the RSE needs of young people with ID are distinct and responses will inevitably change over time, the guiding policy is that they have the same fundamental right to access education programmes as typically developing children and young people, one of which is access to evidence-based RSE programmes [ 40 , 51 ]. It is evident from the findings arising from the current systematic review, that access to age-appropriate and evidence-based RSE programmes within the education system is required for young people with ID and that need continues into adulthood.…”

Universal Design for Learning and Intellectual Disabilities

“…The educational program in place, allows to work on one or more networks involved. Consequently, that deficit network can be stimulated through the appropriate multiple means so that the students with ID can achieve their educational success [19,20].…”

EFL Teachers’ Problems and Solutions in Teaching English to Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disability

“…Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disability have difficulty in their intellectual functioning and adaptive skill. According to Al Hazmi and Ahmad (2018), this can cause issues for them to understand, think logically, speak, remember things, and find solutions to problems. As they have difficulty in those aspects, it can be hard for them to learn and understand a language, especially a foreign language that is not frequently used.…”

“…They keep on repeating the same words in the same materials, and then ask the students to keep on repeating for many times. This method is commonly used by the observed teachers as the students have difficulties to understand, think logically, and remember things (Al Hazmi & Ahmad, 2018). Therefore, the teacher would rather to keep repeating the words students need to learn rather than keep on repeating the materials itself until students understand.…”