SP in Schools project 2017 Low Res V2

Context

There are several international and national imperatives that provide context to this resource. The most relevant ones are: The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education, the Disability Discrimination Act , Disability Standards for Education, 2005, National Disability Strategy 2010–2020, Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians (December 2008). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Declaration: “Australia recognizes that persons with disability enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with others in all aspects of life. Australia declares its understanding that the Convention allows for fully supported or substituted decision-making arrangements, which provide for decisions to be made on behalf of a person, only where such arrangements are necessary, as a last resort and subject to safeguards; Australia recognizes that every person with disability has a right to respect for his or her physical and mental integrity on an equal basis with others. Australia further declares its understanding that the Convention allows for compulsory assistance or treatment of persons, including measures taken for the treatment of mental disability, where such treatment is necessary, as a last resort and subject to safeguards; Australia recognizes the rights of persons with disability to liberty of movement, to freedom to choose their residence and to a nationality, on an equal basis with others. Australia further declares its understanding that the Convention does not create a right for a person to enter or remain in a country of which he or she is not a national, nor impact on Australia’s health requirements for non-nationals seeking to enter or remain in Australia, where these requirements are based on legitimate, objective and reasonable criteria.”

The convention is international legislation and Australia reports on its actions towards meeting the requirements regularly to the UN. For you as a speech pathologist working in schools, this legislation frames your work around ensuring equal access to education for students with disability to support schools to use appropriate materials, techniques and forms of communication for the students you support, and to provide support measures for students with speech, language and communication needs. The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on Special Needs Education These documents are informed by the principle of inclusion, by recognition of the need to work towards “schools for all” – institutions which include everybody, celebrate differences, support learning, and respond to individual needs. As such, they constitute an important contribution to the agenda for achieving education for all and for making schools educationally more effective. The guiding principle that informs this framework is that schools should accommodate all children regardless of their physical, intellectual, social, emotional, linguistic or other conditions. These conditions create a range of different challenges to school systems. Schools have to find ways of successfully educating all children, including those who have serious disadvantages and disabilities. There is an emerging consensus that children and youth with special educational needs should be included in the educational arrangements made for the majority of children. This has led to the concept of the inclusive school. The challenge confronting the inclusive school is that of developing a child-centred pedagogy capable of successfully educating all children, including those who have serious disadvantages and disabilities. The merit of such schools is not only that they are capable of providing quality education to all children; their establishment is a crucial step in helping to change discriminatory attitudes, in creating welcoming communities and in developing an inclusive society.

Salamanca Statement 1994

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This statement calls on schools to ensure that they respond to the needs of all students through the use of adjusted curriculum, organisational

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Speech Pathology Australia: Speech Pathology in Schools Project