Attitudes towards disability and inclusion in Bangladesh: from theory to practice

Abstract

Along with the development of global consciousness, the campaign for an inclusive society is gaining momentum. An inclusive society based on social justice ensures individual rights and social welfare for each and everybody. On the contrary, the conventional disability paradigm categorizes people with many different labels which exclude people from society. For many years, people have been labelled as being ‘normal’, ‘disabled’ and ‘handicapped’ around the world. The theoretical developments around understanding disability have influenced professional knowledge and policy-making. During the twentieth century, social sciences show that disability is a socially created phenomenon rather than the individual's fault. This article represents a discussion based on the learning aims of the module ‘Inclusive Society–Inclusive School’ within the Erasmus Mundus Special Education Needs study programme (EMSEN), and raises a number of perspectives and potential problems and concerns related to new disability paradigms. The article offers the authors’ reflection through the EMSEN programme, a programme that constitutes an opportunity and opens up space to practise and understand ‘inclusion’ through a multicultural environment across diverse geographical contexts.

Keywords:

• disability
• Erasmus Mundus Special Education Needs
• Bangladesh
• inclusive society–inclusive school module