The lead story in this week’s special needs Subject Focus is about disability rights, and it reminds us that just because we have legislation outlawing discrimination, people like 11-year-old Jessi Parrott still have to put up with social ineptness from those who inhabit the able-bodied world, where her wheelchair seems to cloak her in invisibility. Changing attitudes is an uphill struggle and Jessi has contributed to a new resource designed to help teachers introduce disability issues into citizenship and PSHE. The result is called “Just Like Us” and it is free (page 30).
Fifty years ago two men had a different mountain to climb. Read their story on page 12. Joyce Arnold