The following pages provide a timeline of key events and attitudes related to disability and education from the 1760s through the years to the SEND Code of practice in 2014. The resource has been designed to get participants thinking about perceptions of disability through time. Each participant has a page to work from (12 pages available). They should use the prompts provided in the footer to make notes. They should then contribute in turn to a group discussion, starting with the oldest page, leading up to the present day, making comparisons and observations on each other’s time periods. Key questions: • Has any language surprised you? • At what point was inclusive education getting on the right track? • Is education ahead of society or the other way around? • Which disabilities are understood best? • Which disabilities are least understood? Why might this be? • When were people with learning disabilities considered teachable? • What do you think about the sterilisation proposals • Consider how parents would feel if they had a child with a disability • Consider how self-esteem may be effected by societies attitudes • What are the advantages and disadvantages of special schools? • What are the advantages and disadvantages of seeking inclusion in mainstream? • Is true inclusion possible? Further discussion: • Have we now achieved best practice in terms of inclusion? • Describe a perfectly inclusive classroom / learning environment / school.

This powerpoint guides users through a lesson to help young children understand that people have different needs and how it is right and fair to accommodate them. Ideal for exploring diversity, disability, autism and the paralympics. One of the main characters features Stephen Wiltshire (the human camera) as child. It would be a valuable activity to watch videos of him on youtube . This would help explore that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. This resource was developed by Spectrum Savvy to help build peer relationships and tolerance where autistic learners were being misunderstood in mainstream. If you would like Nicola at Spectrum Savvy to deliver this session or similar to your setting, visit www.spectrumsavvy.co.uk,

This powerpoint presentation provides a list of famous people who are thought to be autistic. This has been used as printed cards for discussion when helping individuals to understand autism and feel more empowered regarding their diagnosis.

A simple matching activity to begin exploring the age you have to be to legally do various activities in the UK. The Word document is easy to edit so you an add topics suited to your group. This has been used as part of independent living skills, Citizenship and exploring Emotions and Behaviour.