Development efforts of any organization need to include and benefit people with various types of disabilities, people at risks of exclusion/discrimination and marginalization, through providing quality education and training, creating equity, accessibility, employability, promoting prosperity, reducing poverty and enhancing peace, stability and creating inclusive society. Unfortunately, this has not been the practice for the majority of people with disabilities and vulnerable groups, due to unfavorable attitude, negligence, inaccessibility and exclusion from all development endeavors. It is obvious that people with disabilities are the large stand most disadvantaged minority in the world. They are about 15 percent of the global population (about one billion people), and 17.6 million in Ethiopia, with most extended families including someone with a disability (World Health Organization and World Bank and 2011). An exclusion practice of this large number of persons with disabilities in Ethiopia is an indicator of violating fundamental human rights that undermines their potential/ability to contribute to poverty reduction and economic growth within their household, their community and the country. It is clear that it is not impairment, but, the exclusion practices that has contributed for insecurity (conflict), poverty aggravation for persons with disabilities and vulnerabilities, that has highly demanding inclusive practices. Exclusion practices of persons with disabilities have a long history, affecting the life of people with disabilities and the society at large. In the past and even today people have been discriminated due to their disabilities.
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Inclusiveness promotes effective developments through full participation of all members of a population, people with disabilities and vulnerabilities, where all are equal contributors of development and equitable beneficiaries. Through inclusive practices, it is possible to identify and remove social and physical barriers so that people with disabilities and vulnerabilities can participate and benefit from all developments. Genuine inclusion of people with disabilities and vulnerabilities allow of them to actively participate in development processes and eliminate dependence syndrome, leads to broader benefits for families and communities, reduces the impacts of poverty, and positively contributes to a country‘s economic growth, development and ultimately create inclusive society. All stages of development processes of any organization should be inclusive through creating equal access to education, health care services, work and employment, social protection and all development center of human being.
Hence, in this course, the higher education students will learn how to assess, understand and address the needs of persons with disabilities and vulnerabilities; and provide relevant support or seek extra support from experts. He/she also learns how to adapt and implementing services for an inclusive environment that aimed to develop holistic development such as affective, cognitive and psychosocial skills of the population with disabilities and vulnerabilities. Identification and removal/management of environmental barriers would find a crucial place in the course. The students learn how to give more attention and support for persons with; hearing impairments, visual impairment, deaf-Blind, autism, physical and health impairments, intellectually challenged, emotional and behavior disorders, learning difficulty, communication disorders, vulnerable persons including gifted and talented, and those at risk due to different reason (persons who are environmentally and culturally deprived, abused, torched, abandoned, and orphaned..etc.). All University students should be given the chance to study the specific developmental characteristics of each group of persons with disabilities and vulnerabilities. Furth more, they also indentify the major environmental and social barriers that hinder the development of individuals; and come up with appropriate intervention strategies in inclusive settings of their respective professional environment and any development settings where all citizens are equally benefited
- Teacher: Shimelis K