Approaches that Address Social Inclusion for Special Needs Community

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Introduction

Social inclusion is multidimensional: it encompasses social, political, cultural, and economic dimensions. The special needs community is often neglected in the world. Special needs parents find it hard to take care of their children due to a lack of social inclusion, infrastructure, education, and society. This will result in special needs children not being able to try new things or acquire information. 

Therefore, here are some social inclusion approaches that need to be implemented into our policy and infrastructure so that the special needs communities would feel “included” in our society rather than feeling “ inferior” or “different”.

Social inclusion approaches for special needs children in our world:

1. Inclusive in Playground

Playful is children’s nature; An Inclusive playground is designed to address the needs of all people, including neurotypical and neuroatypical children. It accommodates everyone regardless of age, health condition, or socioeconomic status and challenges them at their developmental level.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) :

  1. Design and provide a quiet and secluded space in the inclusive playground as sensory overload often poses a challenge to autistic children.
  2. Incorporate cooperative play activities into the inclusive playground to practice social interaction.

 Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) :

  1. Design the play equipment that can help to train concentration, calmness, body coordination and balance.
  2. Rope playground equipment can help burn off their overwhelming energy by using their whole body and increasing their attention while climbing.

Cerebral Palsy :

  1. Design and provide activities that help a cerebral palsy child to train their spatial awareness, balance and fine motor skill while playing with the equipment.
  2. Provide a wheelchair platform swing to enjoy swing activities with peers.

Down Syndrome :

  1. Children with Down syndrome may have some visual impairment,
  2. Provide smaller handrails for them to grasp for safety or support purposes.

2. Inclusive in Education

The best way to learn about supporting students with special needs in inclusive schools is to include them.

The education system throughout the country should try to make appropriate accommodations for special needs children to spend time in general education classrooms, provide opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities such as sports, and involve them in several situations and circumstances to increase their social interaction with their peers.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) :

  1. During the transition, they may feel uncomfortable, so using a visual timer to help them with time management.
  2. For example, provide a transition aid like toys or pictures.
  3. Teachers can provide instructional pauses for autistic learners to discuss and interact with their peers.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) :

  1. Teachers can use a behavioral classroom management approach, such as a reward system or a daily report card, to accommodate their core symptoms, including inattention and aggressiveness.
  2. Teachers can use some accommodations such as regular changes to the study environment to limit the destruction of ADHD students and use positive reinforcement to encourage their positive behaviour.

Cerebral Palsy :

  1. Use assistive technology and adaptive curriculum materials such as large print text and computers.
  2. Teachers can modify general classroom activities into motor impairment friendly. For example, they were having one of the child’s peers or an aide help turn the page of a book, and this will help the child read a hard-copy book and encourage social interaction with peers.

Down Syndrome :

  1. Design different ways of interactive learning to help them acquire language skills. For example, using pictures and PowerPoint on the screen encourages students with Down syndrome to tell a story.
  2. Provide visual resources and approaches to aid comprehension of abstract concepts and task demands to help children with Down syndrome accommodate their short-term auditory memory deficits.

Learning Disabilities :

  1. Design an evaluation of academic performance in a comprehensive and inclusive setting for children with learning disabilities.
  2. Special education teachers provide academic assistance and support personnel in small-group instruction and co-teaching.

3. Inclusive in Social Media

Social Media such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook have gained a level of ubiquitousness and importance that skills in using them are becoming an essential prerequisite in many aspects of our lives, including education, job, and social relations. It is also used as an assistive tool to promote and facilitate participation and inclusion of the special needs community. Compared to the traditional social environment, they help ease anxiety and decrease the barriers between the special needs community and society.

Inclusive social media design and inclusive social media content should be provided and designed to accommodate the needs of a diverse audience. This is because in the world we live in today, there is a significant percentage of people suffering from disorders and difficulties, making them less included in social media. However, with the help of technologies, marketers and designers can engage more people in their content and design by caring for potential and current clients or customers.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) : 

  1. SocialMirror, designed in the USA, is a device connected to an online social network that allows young autistic adults to seek advice from a trusted and responsive network of family, friends, and professionals. This device will help them to learn everyday life skills. 
  2. For the content, especially videos and images involving facial expressions and emotions, autistic people may have difficulty understanding. Therefore, including an image description will help autistic people to get the full picture of the whole idea.  

Cerebral Palsy :

  1. Design virtual material to demystify and prevent exclusion with the participation of people with CP.
  2. For the content, the admin of social media groups such as Facebook and WhatsApp groups should set up a policy to avoid ableist language usage.

4. Social Inclusion in Public Transportation

Some social inclusion approaches have been implemented in public transportation.

Cerebral Palsy :

  1. Increasing the availability of and reducing the physical barriers to public transport. So they can step to board a bus or tram with their wheelchair.
  2. In Malaysia, a concession card provides a 50% discount on selected buses, LRT and MRT for certain special needs. 

Down Syndrome :

  1. Provide ample legroom, ramps and wheelchair space allocation on public transport.
  2. The public transport system should provide tactile and audible signals or signboards, access ramps and wide sidewalks  

Conclusion

Everyone is a part of this society, and the world should try to improve the ability, opportunity, and dignity based on their identity. We can all promote social inclusion when we are willing to help socially excluded individuals and communities, especially special needs communities, overcome the inequalities and eliminate discrimination. With these important points in mind, communities and society take action, such as creating learning opportunities to make special needs communities become active members of society.

References:

1. Lucas, K and Musso, A (2014) Policies for social inclusion in transportation: An introduction to the special issue. Case Studies on Transport Policy, 2 (2). 37 – 40. ISSN 2213-624X 

2.https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/inclusive-playgrounds

3.https://www.accessibleplayground.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Inclusive-Play-Design-Guide-LowRes-2.pdf

4.https://www.miracle-recreation.com/blog/autism-why-playgrounds-matter/?lang=can

5.https://hags.com/en-us/designing-inclusive-playgrounds/selecting-equipment#:~:text=Kids%20with%20ADHD%20experience%20milder,ADHD%20focus%20and%20mange%20moods.

6.http://www.outdoorplayequipments.com/blog/adhdchildren_play/

7.https://www.berliner.com.vn/media/upload/images/Berliner_Playequipment_5c5a4df6c12ef658.pdf

8.https://www.cerebralpalsy.org/information/sports/inclusive-playscapes

9.https://www.readingrockets.org/article/supporting-students-autism-10-ideas-inclusive-classrooms

10.https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/school-success.html

11.http://www.ijlt.org/uploadfile/2021/0616/20210616022722638.pdf

12.https://www.ldonline.org/ld-topics/teaching-instruction/social-face-inclusive-education-are-students-learning-disabilities

13.https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0034654321998072

14.https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1137131.pdf

15.https://library.down-syndrome.org/en-gb/news-update/06/1/inclusive-education-individuals-down-syndrome#:~:text=With%20supportive%20legislation%20to%20help,for%20children%20with%20Down%20syndrome.

16.https://www.time4learning.com/homeschooling/special-needs/down-syndrome/

17.Zhu, R., Hardy, D. & Myers, T. Community Led Co-Design of a Social Networking Platform with Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 52, 38–51 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-021-04918-9

18.https://www.digitalhill.com/blog/the-impact-of-inclusive-social-media-content/

19.Hong, H., Kim, J. G., Abowd, G. D., & Arriaga, R. I. (2012). Designing a social network to support the independence of young adults with autism. Proceedings of the ACM 2012 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work – CSCW ’12. doi:10.1145/2145204.2145300 

10.1145/2145204.2145300

20.https://bbostaffs.org/knowledge-advice/what-is-social-inclusion/

21.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/viewFile/1289/1289

22.https://www.globalfuturecities.org/story/persons-disabilities-malaysia-benefit-through-gfcp-transportation-and-mobility-projects

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