Special Needs

Issues Facing Persons with Special Needs

Although there is a move toward creating more inclusive attitudes and opportunities for persons with special needs, prejudice and hardship have historically been issues. Social structures since the beginning of human interaction have focused on creating an image of what is “normal” or desirable. A person who falls outside the norm is seen as different, and as a result, these persons are frequently isolated and often emotionally or physically abused or neglected. In the past, common terminology for people with a disability of any kind focused on the person as afflicted, sinful, monstrous, and abnormal. Through disability activists and human rights movements, many modern perceptions of disability and special needs have changed, although people with special needs still face challenges and obstacles in today's exclusive, norm-focused society.

Inclusion efforts for persons with special needs focus on human rights acts, increased inclusion of people with disabilities in equality rights sections of charters/declarations, accessible travel and employment opportunities, and increased public awareness and research on access and inclusion for people with special needs.

Recent years have shown increasing movement toward inclusiveness for special needs students in school settings. In 1975, the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in the United States afforded all children the possibility of a free and appropriate education. In 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the United States furthered this by requiring education environments to be available with minimal restrictions. Rather than [Page 1051]separating students with special needs into separate classrooms, schools try integrating students into regular classrooms with their peers, and as a result, special needs children often spend part of their time in a regular classroom, and part in a separate one. This has been found to benefit the growth of both special needs children and their peers. Teachers have the responsibility of preparing their lesson plans to meet each student's needs, and educational assistants (EA's) are often paired with specific children to provide additional assistance.

A large focus of disability or special-needs movements is the access that people with special needs have to the arts and music. In school and extracurricular activities, people with special needs may suffer exclusion because of a lack of trained staff, equipment, or tools. Adapted music lessons and educators/program coordinators who are trained in working with people with special needs are becoming more common, although inclusion for people with special needs in music programs is still a fairly new concept. Music has been a tool that people with special needs have used to demonstrate creativity, expression, and self-advocacy, and music continues to be an important aspect of the culture and vision of persons with special needs.

...