ATL

ESRC: Disabled children still being marginalised

06 December 2011

Too many disabled children are unable to achieve their full potential because schools and health and social care continue to marginalise them, new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has found.

Researchers who conducted the study pointed to an epidemic in labeling children as 'disabled' and instead said that society should change its attitude, valuing and promoting diversity.

Conducting interviews with children with disabilities and their families, the Does Every Child Matter, post Blair? Project aimed to discover what effects the policies put in place by New Labour had had.

Carried out by Manchester Metropolitan University, the report found that barriers are often placed in front of disabled children's attainment, with disabled youngsters often excluded from friendships, education and work.

Professor Dan Goodley and Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole, who conducted the study, said: "We found that disabled children often experience discrimination, exclusion and even violence.

"The biggest barriers they meet are the attitudes of other people and widespread forms of institutional discrimination."

Their report urges policy makers to help children with disabilities participate further in education, the arts, leisure and community by breaking down access barriers.

Gaps in provisions were identified by the researchers, who highlighted that the transition to adulthood was particularly poorly provided for, while the study authors say that disabled children are frequently treated as 'lacking' by educational and care professionals as they do not fit with the 'normal' image.

Segregation was also found to be fostered through inadequate physical access to activities and poor transport provisions which create barriers to participation and limit the ability to take part in creative activities.

"Our study shows that many children who don't fit the narrow definition of 'normal' have untapped reserves of potential and high aspirations which can be fulfilled when their families receive effective support," Professor Goodley and Dr Runswick-Cole said.