6 / 48
6
Speech Pathology Australia: Speech Pathology in Schools Project
There are several international and national
imperatives that provide context to this resource.
The most relevant ones are: The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities, The Salamanca Statement and
Framework for Action on Special Needs Education,
the
Disability Discrimination Act
, Disability
Standards for Education, 2005, National Disability
Strategy 2010–2020, Melbourne Declaration on
Educational Goals for Young Australians (December
2008).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
Declaration:
“Australia recognizes that persons with disability
enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with
others in all aspects of life. Australia declares its
understanding that the Convention allows for
fully supported or substituted decision-making
arrangements, which provide for decisions to be
made on behalf of a person, only where such
arrangements are necessary, as a last resort and
subject to safeguards;
Australia recognizes that every person with
disability has a right to respect for his or her
physical and mental integrity on an equal basis with
others. Australia further declares its understanding
that the Convention allows for compulsory
assistance or treatment of persons, including
measures taken for the treatment of mental
disability, where such treatment is necessary, as a
last resort and subject to safeguards;
Australia recognizes the rights of persons with
disability to liberty of movement, to freedom to
choose their residence and to a nationality, on an
equal basis with others. Australia further declares its
understanding that the Convention does not create
a right for a person to enter or remain in a country
of which he or she is not a national, nor impact on
Australia’s health requirements for non-nationals
seeking to enter or remain in Australia, where these
requirements are based on legitimate, objective and
reasonable criteria.”
The convention is international legislation and
Australia reports on its actions towards meeting the
requirements regularly to the UN.
For you as a speech pathologist working in schools,
this legislation frames your work around ensuring
equal access to education for students with
disability to support schools to use appropriate
materials, techniques and forms of communication
for the students you support, and to provide
support measures for students with speech,
language and communication needs.
The Salamanca Statement and Framework for
Action on Special Needs Education
These documents are informed by the principle
of inclusion, by recognition of the need to work
towards “schools for all” – institutions which include
everybody, celebrate differences, support learning,
and respond to individual needs. As such, they
constitute an important contribution to the agenda
for achieving education for all and for making
schools educationally more effective.
The guiding principle that informs this framework
is that schools should accommodate all children
regardless of their physical, intellectual, social,
emotional, linguistic or other conditions. These
conditions create a range of different challenges
to school systems. Schools have to find ways of
successfully educating all children, including those
who have serious disadvantages and disabilities.
There is an emerging consensus that children and
youth with special educational needs should be
included in the educational arrangements made for
the majority of children. This has led to the concept
of the inclusive school. The challenge confronting
the inclusive school is that of developing a
child-centred pedagogy capable of successfully
educating all children, including those who have
serious disadvantages and disabilities. The merit
of such schools is not only that they are capable
of providing quality education to all children; their
establishment is a crucial step in helping to change
discriminatory attitudes, in creating welcoming
communities and in developing an inclusive society.
This statement calls on schools to ensure that
they respond to the needs of all students through
the use of adjusted curriculum, organisational
Context
The United Nations Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Salamanca Statement 1994