Secondary Education

Challenges and improvements  Generally we have received support in our education and we are happy, but this is not enough and more progress needs to be done.  Teachers must pay attention to our specific needs in the class.  On the other hand, teachers should not treat us “like babies”: we do not want sympathy, we want to be respected as independent persons who have to manage in a normal environment.  Teachers should be co-ordinated among themselves and throughout the school years.

Challenges and improvements  There is sometimes a problem with the evaluation of our needs: decisions on our education made on the basis of this evaluation can sometimes be wrong.  If you are disabled you work harder than other students: you make more efforts than the others in order to follow the courses.  We want to have a real freedom of choice of our lessons or of the studies we want to follow.  We are happy to have friends. Classmates help us sometimes. Sometime we feel isolated, but sometimes we have real mutual understanding with the others, even if they are not disabled.

Challenges and improvements  ACCESSIBILITY is very important: not only, buildings, but also information and support should be accessible to all. Accessibility means to organise our situation so that we have the same possibilities as the others.  This covers accessible technology (computers, digital cameras, microphones), accessible buildings, assistants and sign interpreters, etc. Schools should have the resources to answer to our needs.

Challenges and improvements  Sometimes, no one knows what help you have the right to receive and how you can access the support. We need better information. Support services should be better coordinated: maybe there could be one central point where we could address our questions and problems?  We should be able to receive counselling throughout our school carrier  Teachers should be better trained about our specific needs.

Inclusive education Overall, we see a lot of benefits in inclusive education:  - we acquire more social skills  - we live more experiences, we learn about how to manage in the real world  - we learn and we teach a lot to one another: in special schools this is not possible and we do not learn about the real world Negative aspects of inclusive education can be that:  Teachers are sometimes not prepared and informed about our needs  There is sometimes a lack of support and resources,  Sometimes, we feel lost  Teachers, the other pupils, the other parents can have a negative attitude against us

Inclusive education  We need to have the energy to fight for our rights  Inclusive Education can be the most wonderful or the most horrible experience at the same time.  It is very important to give everyone the freedom to choose where to be educated.

Inclusive education  We are in favour of inclusive education as long as necessary support, trained teachers etc. is available. Under the condition that all support is available inclusive education is better, but if this is not possible then special education is necessary.  Some challenges is that, we are sometimes not well considered by the other classmates. Also, we are slower and this leads to frustration.

Our Future  Many of us want to study at University but it could be difficult because of Accessibility of the building and material, accessibility of the courses People are full of prejudices: we need to remove physical barriers but most of all we need to change attitudes! We want to have the possibility to study what we want.  We also want to work, and we do not want to be separated from the others. The problem is that employers have prejudices : they prefer to employ people without disabilities. We would like to receive more counselling for jobs.

Our Future  We would like to have more job opportunities: the employment world should be more active towards people with disabilities.  We also want to have a family and a house adapted to our needs. We want to be independent.  Maybe the future means to the development of new and better technology to support our independence and increase possibilities?  We are the ones who build our future: it is not because we are disabled that we will not achieve what we want.