In this edition of Inclusive Education we begin a discussion of the issue of High Schools, links with Inclusive Employment and Inclusion - which may flow over to subsequent editions. Asa parent, eminent professor and inclusive employent luminary Lou Brown has poigniently addressed the field recently,

 “ … if you are alive and have significant disabilities, you must be somewhere. Where should you be? You must be with someone. With whom should you be? You must be doing something. What should you be doing? You should be in respected environments with individuals without disabilities doing what they do because an integrated life is inherently better than one that is segregated.

In an extensive report that we believe will become one of the seminal pieces of literature of our time, Professor Brown reflects on the inclusive work histories of 50 adults who were in schools 15-25 years ago. He ponders how it is that we do more broadly; what we now know how to do: -

“ … Some adults with significant disabilities have productively functioned in integrated work settings for centuries and each year increasing numbers do so in more communities around the world. Nevertheless, the post-school outcomes realized by the vast majority are tragically unacceptable and wasteful of hopes, dreams, lives, and increasingly scarce tax dollars. Far too many exit school and are unnecessarily confined to segregated enclaves, workshops, and activity centers or stay at home all day with family…

How little is the difference here? Do we not also know how to do inclusive employment and haven’t we known this for at least as long as they have in Madison and don’t we too have far too many people still being segregated, left at home or doing menial “work” for below menial pay? What is IT that we don’t understand? Again the answer from Lou:

“Those who opposed allowing opportunities for integrated vocational experiences in the 1970s and 1980s and predicted failure and harm were wrong. Those who oppose integration today are even more wrong because we now have an increasing body of evidence that, given authentic instruction and reasonable long-term and personalized support, individuals with significant disabilities can be engaged successfully and safely in integrated vocational settings over long periods.”

Brown doesn’t stop with chastising the employment field. He examines the critical link with education: 

“Schools are time-limited means to ends. They are not ends. … What can educators do to produce better outcomes?

• Provide authentic vocational assessment and instruction.
• Teach skills for successful performance not only in integrated schools and classes, but also in integrated lunch and break rooms, on public busses and trains, in carpools, work sites, parks, and in a variety of other integrated settings
• Teach students to do as much as possible for themselves and to use their skills as well as possible under natural supervisory conditions. The unnecessary use of 1:1 or other low ratio instructional arrangements during school careers makes it extremely difficult for individuals with disabilities to function in real work and related settings under natural supervisory conditions and in accordance with financially viable job coach to worker ratios at school exit. The clear message to schools is to teach students to participate effectively in the highest possible personnel to student ratios
• Teach as many students without disabilities as possible, the coworkers of the future, to provide meaningful natural support.
• Start fading out school and scheduling in experiences in integrated nonschool settings no later than age 14 .
• Teach students to be nice to others and to work hard.
• Take responsibility for, plan for, fight for, demand, and do all that is feasible to produce integrated outcomes or step aside and give someone else a chance. That is, if school personnel cannot or will not provide reasonable preparatory experiences, they should contract with others who can and will.

These are the links, we believe, between school and adult lives that have yet to be examined in their fullness. We thank Lou for this wake up call & recommend all readers to access this full journal.

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