THE EDUCATOR

Growing a 'Can Do' Society for All - Gwen Nagel and Karen Stobbs

Inclusive Education for Learners in Aotearoa New Zealand who are Blind and Vision Impaired
Gwen Nagel & Karen Stobbs

A strong, proud assertive society needs successes. It needs the confidence that there is a good life here for future generations. ...A strong society is also by definition inclusive, offering opportunity and security to all its members.
- (Rt. Hon. Helen Clark, Prime Minister of New Zealand, 2001)

Inclusion

Inclusion takes many forms and may be observed across a range of settings. In Aotearoa New Zealand there is no formal or official definition of inclusion. There are, however, some generally agreed upon principles of inclusive education for schools. These are:

* Respecting the rights of all children to enrol and receive education at state schools, to be treated with respect, to have dignity and independence, to have access to a fair share of all special education resources, and not to be directly or indirectly discriminated against.

* Having a philosophy of providing for all children, including children with special education needs.

* Recognising and responding to the diversity of their population.

* Accommodating to children's different learning styles and rates of learning; and

* Ensuring that equitable educational opportunities are provided for all learners through appropriate curriculum, school organisation, use of resources and partnerships with communities. (Quinn & Ryba, 2000)

Inclusive education is concerned with the process of adapting the educational environment to match the needs of the learner. Within this ecological approach the emphasis is upon learners' abilities and what they are capable of achieving rather than their deficits.

Inclusion as a social practice depends on shared understandings, values and beliefs and is most likely to succeed when there are opportunities for interactive learning that enable participation of all learners in achieving their educational goals. Inclusion requires development of an inclusive 'regular' education system, an inclusive curriculum, inclusive school policies, and networks of
support that take place through collaboration and consultation (Quinn & Ryba, 2000).

An Early Experience of Inclusion

New Zealand is fortunate to have a long history of services for people who are blind and vision impaired, starting officially with the establishment of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind in Parnell, Auckland, in 1891 (Mitchell & Singh, 1987; Nagel, 1998). And learners who are blind and vision
impaired have been integrated within regular education for some decades. In the mid 1950s M was mainstreamed for his secondary education following early schooling at the Institute. He reflects on his experiences.

I remember starting school at the Institute for the Blind in the brick building in Parnell Road at age 5. I had some visual memory of my Mother leaving me and howling my eyes out and being clutched to the bosom of a white-aproned matron who was very kindly. She was very nice to me. But that began my life of education and institutional living. My family had moved to Auckland. They gave up their roots in the Hawkes Bay. My elder brother had to attend a new school, and my father had to find another job.

I boarded at the Institute during the week. I went to school on Monday morning with my Father ñ on his way to work he would drop me off. We took the tram ride up. And on Friday afternoon my Mother would come and collect me and that was just wonderful. One can talk a lot about institutional life and how it was ruled by bells at half-past six in the morning, and running down iron stairs to get washed in porcelain basins, and tiled bathrooms that echoed, and cold water, and being sent back to clean one's shoes three or four times because they weren't quite right, and the food was terrible... I think I must have been quite an emotional child because every now
and then I knew that feigning a stomach-ache would allow meto get out of all of this and stay in bed. And on Monday mornings I continually protested to my Mother that I didn't want to go to school and it was a real battle for her to get me off.

But having said that, I began to learn Braille at age 5. We used to have little pins that we put in a board that gave the shape of the Braille alphabet and we played with that. These were the days when the chairs in the school had little planks up the back of them and I said, "What are these for?" And they said that the people who could see a bit used to have blindfolds on and they had their heads tied back so that they had to use their fingers to read the Braille and they wouldn't
be using their eyes. So those were the sorts of methods that were taught in those days.

I initially had some sight but my early childhood is a memory of pain caused by infantile glaucoma and at age 7 my education was interrupted for about 9 months when my eyes were taken out.

I learnt to touch type at age 8. I remember being very proud of having an Underwood portable typewriter put in front of me and learning ASDFG. And doing pages and pages of those finger exercises. We had relief maps, of the North Island and the South Island with little nails in it. I loved geography, I loved learning my way around and finding the different places. It was wonderful and I have a lovely memory of it.

The Headmaster of the school was a wonderful Maori man who told us stories about the war. In the afternoons, he or his wonderful wife, who also taught at the school, would read us the newspaper. And then we had a lovely lady, who was the senior teacher - a wonderfully wise woman who believed in us kids and we had to get our spelling right and we had to do
mental arithmetic, and it wasn't good enough if you didn't know, and "You go back and learn these things". So she had very high expectations of what we could achieve.

I remember sort of little memory tasks. We used to begin the day's lessons with a prayer and a hymn. We would sing a hymn -usually two or three verses, and we had to learn the words of the hymns off pat. That was the first lesson of the day. After the prayers we would go back to our rooms and learn the words of the hymn for the next morning. Then we would have Mental Arithmetic, and then we'd have spelling and so these were basic things that we learnt.

There was no orientation and mobility. Playtimes were play times. And we used to run about bowling tyres with manukasticks. That was part of our mobility, although we didn't know that at the time. We would also get an old football and kick it onto the roof of the gym and you could hear when the ball bounced down where it was. We learned to chase the ball and if you didn't get it you didn't play again. And if you did get it you did play again, so that was your reward. And we would get five-pound treacle tins from the kitchen to play hockey using manuka sticks. It would be an hour or two before it was knocked into quite a round sort of ball and we would chase that around listening to where it went and came. There were trees that we climbed and we would have what we called cock fights, where we would piggy-back on one another. We made
our own fun.

The nights, I remember, as being particularly difficult. I was a bed wetter and I always got into trouble. I do remember bad dreams and things like that. But, the education was wonderful.

When I was around 12 they thought that I might be able to go to Auckland Grammar. I think we did some exam before that and I wasn't terribly aware of what this exam was for, but anyway, I got selected and a group of 3 or 4 of us went off to Grammar. We boarded at the Institute still, but each morning at about quarter past eight we would pack our bags and walk up to the school.

I have to say, that that was just wonderful mainstream education. I was lacking in confidence and I just muddled through really, but the teachers were very good. We used to use the Stainsby machines, very noisy Braille writers, to take notes in class, and the teachers would write up on the board and dictate to me. I never had to ask, ìWould you please read it outî. Sometimes the teacher would get my partner sitting next to me to read out, but most often the teachers
read. I was very embarrassed with the noise that the machine made as I wrote my notes and the only saving grace was that I would write faster than anybody else. And so I would sit there for thirty seconds while everybody caught up and I thought that was sort of quite nice.

I excelled in subjects like History and Geography, and perhaps English to a lesser extent, where it was just a matter of learning and reading and memorising. Science was a bit more of a struggle because it was somewhat more schematic and visually presented with formula and positions. Where I do feel aggrieved about my education is in Maths. Arithmetic was just fine but when it came to Algebra and Geometry there was just no way in which I could conceptualise that, and I think that was as much my failing -I obviously didn't have anabsolute aptitude for it. But nor were the teaching methods going to be changed to get me there. So I dropped Maths and went into something like Commercial Law, which was just simply a rote learning exercise.

The support that we got from the Institute during this time was coming back and doing our prep with students from the Teachers Training College who were volunteers helping us with our homework and being readers. But it wasn't support in the sense of learning how to do things a different way. And the other huge disadvantage was the slowness in the transcribing of French vocabs and all the texts. I think I had one text book and that was in French - and I didn't actually pass School C French. The only other texts we had were those which were read to us and the notes that we took. And we took copious notes. I remember having Eastlight folders stuffed full of handwritten and Stainsby notes and that's how the information was revised for examinations.

As I got into the upper school, it became a possibility that I could get to Physiotherapy School in London, which was a school run particularly for blind students. In order to achieve entry, I had to have Matriculation or University Entrance in Physics. And one of the Physics teachers took me aside and gave me some coaching and I managed to achieve that. So that's the sort of commitment which Grammar had to this. I went on to University and did Education, Psychology and Philosophy for a year, just to prove that I could exist in a tertiary institution. That was a very lonely year because again, I didn't use the Stainsby in that situation. Tape recorders were only just coming onto the market. They were very bulky and not able to be taken into the lecture room and I used to use a hand frame - a stylus and frame to take notes. I managed to scrape through but felt very unsatisfied with my time at university.

Then I went to the Royal National Institute for the Blind School of Physiotherapy in London. Well, that was an absolute joy. There were all the books. There were small classes, a wonderful
professor, and [experiential learning]. I really enjoyed learning without restriction. Having all the resources to hand and of course, living in London was exciting. I was homesick and poor but that, in a way, didn't matter.

I suppose reflecting on my education, and my subsequent development, I was a shy child. I never really began to overcome my sense of insecurity until I was well into my thirties. There
were not a lot of recreational things that I participated in, although music, I used to play in bands and things like that. I didn't mix a lot because I was a boarder and I was betwixt and between. And my relationships with girls, and so on, were very limited. So, it's that social side that I feel that was only made up by sort of ongoing experience in later life.

In reflecting on the education system today, the things I think we should be seeking are literacy, numeracy, self-confidence in movement, and personal functional independence. The quest for knowledge and knowing where, and the ability to turn to resources. I think benchmarking against the regular curriculum is extremely important because we've got to foot it with this competitive world that we live in. Like it, or not. And if you want a job you have to compete, you have to be there, you have to develop skills and talents. Part of this is having the ability to know and to deal with others, and to live in the real world. You have to be able to learn to take the
knocks and have the ability to deal with prejudices.

The sense of self-esteem is important, also an optimistic view of the future. An approach that finds out what the potential and what the particular talents of the individual are, and builds
on strengths. Rewarding. Nothing succeeds like success.

An ability to advocate for one's self is needed. I think one needs to stick up for one's self in the nicest possible way. You know, with grace - that ability to say "I'm sorry, I don't quite catch on there, but I wonder if you'd mind just showing me again" or "Could you go over that again?" Because you can't expect the rest of the world to know exactly. My experience is that you are either greatly underestimated, or greatly overestimated. It is only the rare individual that gets it
somewhere right. There is that need for that ability to keep a balance between levels of aspiration and levels of personal performance - to have insight into, and be realistic about one's
strengths and weaknesses. Being surrounded by people who believe in you, I believe to be one of the most powerful factors in education and personal development.

Legislation, Policies and Guidelines

Today, inclusive education with its focus on regular settings and community-based opportunities, has led to the majority of learners who are blind and vision impaired attending their local school. Their education takes place within the context of New Zealand's education and human rights legislation, special education policy and guidelines, and the disability strategy. All support inclusive education.

The New Zealand Disability Strategy, Making a World of Difference, Whakanui Oranga, (Ministry for Disability Issues, April 2001) presents a long-term strategy for changing Aotearoa New Zealand from a disabling to an inclusive society. Barriers to full participation in society are identified and a means for delivering the strategy outlined. Fifteen objectives have been identified. While all objectives are relevant, five are highlighted as relating specifically to children with special needs, their families and whanau. These are:

Objective 3 : Provide the best education;
Objective 7 : Create long-term support systems centred on the individual;
Objective 10 : Collect and use relevant information about disabilities, people and disability issues;
Objective 13 : Enable disabled children and youth to lead full and active lives;
Objective 15 : Value families, whanau and people providing ongoing support.

Within the broad education context, Education Priorities for New Zealand (Mallard, Minister of Education, May 2003), states achievement objectives and strategies aimed at raising achievement and reducing disparity. The four key areas of focus are:

# Providing all New Zealanders with strong foundations for future learning;
# Ensuring high levels of achievement by all school leavers;
# Ensuring that New Zealanders engage in learning throughout their lives and develop a highly skilled workforce; and
# Making a strong contribution to our knowledge base, especially in key areas of national development.

In New Zealand, all learners between the ages of 5 and 19 years are entitled to free enrolment and education in any state school. (Attendance can be extended to 21 years.) Section 8 of the Education Act (1989) specifies that people who have special education needs have the same right to enrol and receive education at state schools as people who do not. Therefore, all schools have statutory obligations to provide an appropriate education for all learners irrespective of their level of ability. Section 57 of The Human Rights Act (1993) also upholds this right.

The National Education Guidelines require each school to analyse barriers to learning and achievement, develop and implement strategies that address identified learners needs in order to overcome barriers to students' learning, and assess student achievement.

While The New Zealand Curriculum Framework states that:

# Young children and students with special education needs have the same rights to a high-quality education as people of the same age who do not have special education needs;

# The primary focus of special education is to meet the individual learning and developmental needs of the young child and student.

# All young children and students with identified special education needs have access to a fair share of the available special education resources; and

# Partnership between students' families/whanau and education providers is essential in overcoming barriers to learning. (Ministry of Education, 1993)

The aim is for all schools to be inclusive and accepting of all learners.

While legislation, guidelines and the school charter provide a framework for inclusive education, both the principal, as providing professional leadership within the school, and the class teacher, are crucial to successful inclusion. Bishop in her study of 1986 identified the attitude of the class
teacher as the most significant factor in the successful mainstreaming of learners who are blind and vision impaired. A teacher's attitudes and assumptions influence their interactions and expectations of children. Like most children, children who are blind and vision impaired usually
respond positively to being given class responsibilities, to warm friendly guidance and support, opportunities to help others and not always be on the receiving end of help, high but realistic, expectations, opportunities to take risks and learn from their mistakes, and opportunities to succeed, both individually and with their peers. The most vulnerable aspect of many learners is a lack of self-esteem. A teacher's positive attitude and belief in a child is crucial and can have
lasting effect (Neilson, 2000).

Special Education

The education of learners who are blind and vision impaired is a co-operative effort shared between regular and special education. Special education in New Zealand has undergone and continues to undergo considerable change. The genesis of its policies and systems were the education reforms introduced in 1989, under what is referred to as Tomorrow's Schools (Lange, 1988). Overall, the changes involve several paradigm shifts: from a medical to an ecological model of special education needs, from a binary system of education to an inclusive system, from a centralised administration to a decentralised one. The objectives are that children with special education needs will achieve better learning outcomes, be welcome at their local school, benefit from having more flexibility in the provision of programmes, and receive equitable levels of resourcing according to level of need, whatever their learning environment (Mitchell, 2000).

Eligibility for special education services in Aotearoa New Zealand is determined under the Special Education 2000 policy (Ministry of Education, 1996a). It comprises a complex, interlocking set of provisions aimed at achieving a world-class inclusive education system that provides learning opportunities of equal quality to all learners. Introduced in 1996, the policy has been stage-implemented. The areas most relevant to learners who are blind and vision impaired are:

# The Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme (ORRS) which provides a guaranteed level of resourcing for learners with high and very high learning needs;

# Moderate Education Needs which comprises a special education grant to schools for learners with moderate special education needs and access to the services of Resource Teachers Vision;

# Early Childhood which makes provision for co-ordinated specialist advice, teaching and paraprofessional support.

The implementation of Special Education 2000 has brought significant changes to the way in which services are funded and accessed including the directing of funding by the Ministry of Education to a designated fundholder, rather than directly to the service provider; the allocation of ORRS teacher resourcing (.1 and .2 Full Time Equivalent Teachers) directly to the learner's school; the intention that schools purchase those services and resources they deem most
relevant to their learners with special needs; and the resourcing to provide support to learners with moderate needs.

Specialist Services for the Education of Learners
who are Blind and Vision Impaired

In Aotearoa New Zealand there are 1,234 children and young people who are blind or vision impaired. This includes learners who are blind, learners with low vision, learners who are deafblind, and learners with complexinterrelated needs.

They come from a range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, including Maori and Pakeha (New Zealand European), as well as those of Pacific, Asian, European and African cultures. The learners range in age from newborn through to 21 years, are spread across the various levels of
education, and have a broad spectrum of developmental and educational needs. Some live in large cosmopolitan areas, others in small communities.

Those within the Sector are committed to an array of educational placement options available to learners according to their education needs at any point in time. Thus, learners may move in and out of a number of settings during their schooling years. Their education settings include early childhood facilities such as PlayCentres, Kindergartens, Kohanga Reo, Language Nests, and Early
Intervention Centres. School settings include Primary, Intermediate and Secondary Schools, Kura Kaupapa, and Special Schools. Of those learners in compulsory education, 67% attend mainstream settings, 19% attend special units located within regular schools and 14% attend special schools. The children learn in one to one, small group and whole-class contexts.

Table 1 indicates the education sector, funding category, and communication medium of the children.

These learners have the same rights and requirements to receive the education available to their sighted peers, that is, the right to equal opportunity and equal access to all aspects of education - access to a visual world, access to information, access to curricula, access to knowledge, and
access to human relationships.

The total curriculum for learners who are blind and vision impaired consists of two parts. The first, the regular curriculum, is provided to all learners, and in Aotearoa New Zealand is delivered through Te Whariki, the Early Childhood Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 1996b), and the New Zealand Curriculum Framework (Ministry of Education, 1993). The second, The Expanded Core
Curriculum, comprises the body of knowledge and skills unique to the needs of learners who are blind and vision impaired and provides a tool for access to the regular curriculum as well as the development of independence skills. It includes areas such as language and communication, literacy through braille and/or print, listening skills, concept development, visual efficiency, physical abilities, developmental orientation and mobility, social skills, life skills and adaptive technology.

An example of the relationship between the Expanded Core Curriculum and the regular curriculum is provided in Table 2. Access to Te Whariki and The New Zealand Curriculum is
supported through the provision of specialist services. Effective, collaborative partnerships in the provision of these services are essential. Such partnerships involve:

# Parents and professionals;
# Professionals within transdisciplinary teams;
# Local, regional and national specialist service providers;
# The blind and vision impaired community; and
# Special education and regular education.

The IEP (Individual Education Programme) is the means employed to ensure an education appropriate to the individual learner. It provides the opportunity for teaming of both parents and professionals to consider the learner's educational development, learning needs and programme.

The team approach enables all members' perspectives to be considered with a focus on clear objectives and goals, both within the educational setting and for living within the wider community. The Ministry of Education's publication on IEP guidelines (1998) provides support in
the process.

Practices to ensure access to education programmes include:

# Delivery of the Expanded Core Curriculum;
# Adaptation of the learning environment;
# Adaptation of teaching and learning approaches;
# Provision of accessible format materials;
# The use of technology; and
# Adaptation of the regular curriculum.

Key participants involved in the delivery of services and programmes are the Resource Teachers Vision of the 12 Visual and Sensory Resource Centres, Homai National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired, the Children's Services of the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, and Group Special Education of the Ministry of Education.

Resource Teachers Vision provide a range of support services across all educational settings in partnership with families and teachers. A primary role is to support learners to access and participate in the curriculum. This is undertaken by:

* Working as a member of the learner's education team;
* Providing functional vision assessment;
* Relaying information from Low Vision Clinics and ophthalmic assessments to class teachers;
* Providing information and advice to teachers on strategies for effective inclusion;
* Providing advice on programmes and the learning environment;
* Providing information on strategies for teaching and learning;
* Teaching programmes based on the Expanded Core Curriculum;
* Advocating for appropriate resources and services;
* Co-ordinating assessment and making application for appropriate equipment;
* Providing instruction in use of equipment;
* Providing in-service professional development;
* Liaising with other specialists (eg, Developmental Orientation and Mobility specialists);
* Developing, accessing or requesting appropriate accessible format materials (large print books, audio);
* Establishing and co-ordinating professional networks; and
* Assisting families to access support networks.
- (Ministry of Education & Vision Education Agency, 2003)

Homai National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired provides a number of services. These include campusbased programmes of learning for students with vision impairment and complex-interrelated needs, a transition living skills progamme for young adults, and support to learners in regular education settings through its national assessment and training services, residential services and itinerant services (Auckland Visual Resource Centre).

Currently, Homai is reviewing its strategic direction and looking to extend its national role with the aim of fostering more cohesive and better co-ordinated services throughout the country.

The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind provides services to learners through the provision of:

* Developmental Orientation and Mobility Services;
* Peer Support programmes;
* Support as learners transition from school to the community;
* Child and Family Social Workers, and Aronga, who work with the Maori community; and
* The production of Accessible Format Materials.

The Ministry of Education's Group Special Education (GSE) has psychologists, therapists and special education advisers available to assist schools with meeting the special needs of learners who are blind and vision impaired. Resource Teachers Vision work closely with GSE's Early Intervention teams in providing services to infants and young children. The Ministry of Education also funds the training of teachers specialising in the education of learners who are blind and
vision impaired by providing study awards each year. The Education of Students with Vision Impairment (ESVI) Postgraduate Diploma, a one-year course of study, is delivered by Auckland College of Education, both on- and off-campus. The Ministry also resources professional development for class teachers and paraprofessionals.

At a national level, a collaborative approach has been taken by Sector organisations - Parents of the Vision Impaired (PVI), the Association of Teachers of Learners with Vision Impairment (NZATLVI), the Association of Blind Citizens (ABCNZ), Homai National School for the Blind and Vision Impaired (HNSBVI), Visual and Sensory Resource Centres, the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind (RNZFB) and the Vision Education Agency (VEA) - to initiatives aimed
at further enhancing the education of learners. Each group carries behind it constituents who are passionate about the education of children and provide valuable knowledge and expertise.

Key initiatives arising out of the Sector collaboration include:

* The development of a National Plan;
* The establishment of a national body, the Vision Education Agency;
* Establishment of a National Database; and
* Development of the publications Guidelines to the Expanded Core Curriculum, Access to Learning, and The Early Years.

The National Plan

A National Plan for Learners who are Blind and Vision Impaired in Aotearoa New Zealand, (Nagel & Wells, 1998), provides the context for the delivery of specialist services. It outlines a philosophical position, describes trends, and defines a set of 17 principles and associated goals for the delivery of inclusive, co-ordinated services. These relate to:

* Equal rights and unique needs of learners who are blind and vision impaired;
* Parent partnership;
* Service delivery;
* Identification, referral, assessment and eligibility for services;
* Access to the curriculum
* Professional development
* Monitoring and evaluation; and
* Research.

The Vision Education Agency

A critical ingredient for the fulfilment of the National Plan was the development of an effective co-ordination body, the Vision Education Agency. Some of its key functions are to promote the needs of the Sector to Government, ensure the goals of the National Plan are implemented, develop standards and best practice guidelines, hold a national database of learners, develop and promote the official recognition of the Expanded Core Curriculum, and provide advice to parents.

Publications

The publication, Guidelines to the Expanded Core Curriculum (Ministry of Education & Vision Education Agency, in press) details current best practice in Aotearoa New Zealand and provides guidelines to teaching and learning in the Expanded Core Curriculum. Its primary aim is to support specialist educators of learners who are blind and vision impaired in their work. The publication seats the Expanded Core Curriculum within the context of the unique needs of learners, education through partnership, assessment and the classroom environment.

A second publication Access to Education (Ministry of Education & Vision Education Agency, 2003) provides best practice guidelines for class teachers of learners with moderate vision impairment.

The Early Years is the first in a series of three publications to be produced for parents. The aim of the series which will also include The School Years and Transition are to provide parents with information to support them in their role as 'first teacher'. These are being developed with the support of Parents of Vision Impaired (PVI).

Establishment of a National Database

A national database of learners who are blind and vision impaired has been developed to:

* Identify their learning needs;
* Identify the resources available to meet their needs;
* Identify any gap in resourcing;
* Determine how they are accessing the regular curriculum;
* Determine how well they are achieving;
* Determine the effectiveness of services and programmes;
* Identify patterns and trends;
* Provide a basis for research and policy development; and
* Develop a comprehensive knowledge about what it is that learners who are blind and vision impaired need to support them in their development and education.

Data analyses are providing a sound basis for information to Government, and Ministries on the current and future education requirements of the learners.

Experiencing Inclusion Today

So how have the legislation, policies, and practices impacted on today's learners?

More than fifty years on from the beginning of M's story, we meet 11 year-old Sam, a little boy who had a stormy start to his journey through life. Arriving prematurely, he developed retinopathy of prematurity and became blind as a result. His mother, Justine, picks up on the story to date, sharing her perspectives on some of the successes and challenges experienced.

... Since then he has developed and is very bright. He is only blind, there is nothing else wrong with him, a very bright boy, top of the class, reading at a fifteen year level and doing really very well. Which hasn't been easy all the way along. We have had to work on it and here he is. He likes school and gets on well with everyone. We've always brought him up so that he is a child first, so his blindness is an influence but not the main influence. He must behave like every other child first. I know my grandmother found that hard to start off with. She said, "You won't be able to tell him off, smack him or anything like that". I said, "Whatever! I am not having a spoilt little special needs child that nobody wants to know". And I think its pretty obvious coming through that he is not like that.

In 2003 Sam is attending his local school, is age appropriate academically, can Braille, type, loves learning and attends two extension programmes each week for gifted children and creative thinkers. He is in the school performance, loves music, learns an instrument and has several more lined up that he would like to play. Sam loves school and enjoys his family and friends.

So what do M and Sam, as young boys have in common? They, like all children were filled with a love of learning. They have been fortunate to have parents who believed in them and ask ëWhy not?' when an idea is suggested. Crossing their paths have been people - teachers, administrators and support staff - that believe they can do anything and have a right to reach for their full potential.

Like M, Sam's family have had to consider where they live and moved away from their extended family to be close to appropriate support - such are the limitations of New Zealand's wide spread geography and population. Unlike M, Sam has had designated resourcing and support from specialists in the Education of the Blind and Vision Impaired Learners. His mother continues...

... He started with early intervention when he was one. I am early childhood trained so I knew what I wanted. I was being visited, I think I had met the Visual Resource Teacher by that stage when he was one, and I had the Neurodevelopmental therapist coming in as well for the prematurity side. The Child and Family Social Worker from the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind ended up taking me to an Early Intervention Centre and the Neurodevelopmental therapist wasn't that happy that she had done that because she thought it was her job. There is always that kind of conflict between different therapists. So, when he was one he started going
there twice a week. He had speech language therapy and cognitive therapy once a week and while he was there he got socialisation skills because it was a play group as well. There were siblings there, not just children with special needs. It was the best of both worlds. Now I look at it and I definitely see it as a bridge. I ended up being the manager there because I believe that's the way it should be for all special needs kids - it's the parents that also need that support. Because you're blind doesn't mean that you are going to get on with every blind child, and the same for the parents (of blind children) as well. So Sam started there and he continued there until he was four. But in that time, he also started at PlayCentre, when he was two and half - that was the normal age. He had a teacher aide, but not full time. I had a very big push against
that because I had a different perspective to the Visual Resource Centre at that time. I wanted him to go to PlayCentre not a Kindergarten. If he went to Kindergarten he would need a teacher aide full-time because there are 45 kids, but at PlayCentre you were lucky to have fifteen kids with four to five adults and you didn't actually need to have a full time teacher aide. I didn't want him to have that. I knew that as he got older he would need that (more teacher aide and teacher time) and I wanted him to have access to kids.

Sam attended three primary schools as Justine sought the education which would both meet his learning needs and challenge his capabilities.

.....When we started the third school, which was awesome, that's the best situation we could ever have for any blind child in my opinion. We had the class teacher, the Resource Teacher Vision (RTV) and the teacher aide working hand in hand for two years. The class teacher stayed for two years, and even though Sam had just started at this school, it was an easy transition because they all got on so well. The teacher was new at the school. The teacher aide had already
been at the school, so that made it a little easier, and she learnt Braille. It went really well, you couldn't ask for any better. It was absolutely perfect. The RTV got the homework before everyone else and she could Braille it out and he could work at exactly at the same level and that was that, it was accepted, expected of him. The classroom teacher was very creative and into dance and did aerobics and did a production and he had to do it all as well, and art splash and all sorts of things. Then Orientation and Mobility (O&M) came in, Special Education Services gave money so that he could learn to cross the roads and things like that.

One of his biggest wants in life was to do road patrol and because we were away when this was done he was disappointed and missed, and one of the teachers said he couldn't do it.

So we had to go in and say this is what he really wants to do and its like - 'he is going to do it!' The policewoman wasn't that happy, but we said, ìHe's just an extra one on the road patrol, he could push the barrier arm outî' and he loved it. He made some great friendships. There were people to chat with, old people tooting as they passed by, and that sort of thing. So that was really great, those last two years of primary schooling were the best you could want.

What made it so good was the team - and the principal. We know that schools are just so different now, but the principal was right there, he wasn't over the top either. All of them having their eyes open to see he is a very bright boy. Because, academically he is up with all the rest, in fact above the rest. Just their ability to be flexible, to look at different options for doing things, and not be one-eyed, tunnel-visioned. That was really great.

Just realizing the importance of having O&M, and at school as well. It doesn't sound much, but it is so important. Most people only have IEPs every year. I have always had them four times a year. We have a team here and we don't always get together so it is important. Even if you only meet briefly you need to have the RTV, the teacher aide, the parents and O&M. You need to know what is going on. If you have one once a term it might be for one, not two hours. We did do that and it was good...

One major difference is the role parents now take in the education of their child and the level of involvement:

... I have to be more assertive. Stroppy as well, because professionals, be they doctors or educationalists, all think that he is their child and he is actually mine and I have to live with him, they don't. They can quit their jobs, whereas I have got to be there until the day I die. Ö Parent partnership is highly needed but not always there. They say you are emotionally involved but that's part of it. They underestimate what parents can offer.

So fifty years on, in some ways much has changed, and yet, in others, nothing has changed.

There are areas for urgent attention, such as the levels of and access to resourcing, access to all aspects of the Expanded Core Curriculum, alleviation of the high learner: Resource Teacher Vision ratio, increased opportunities for specialist training, and the implementation of an equitable, co-ordinated and cohesive system for service delivery.

Elements for Successful Inclusion

The key elements for successful inclusive education remain:

* Early identification and a good early start;
* The most stable home life that can be achieved;
* Emotional support ñ some way of instilling belief in self - ìYou're different, you're okî;
* An institutional willingness;
* Good environmental design;
* A welcoming and supportive principal - an attitude of ìWe're going to make it togetherî;
* A class teacher with a positive, enabling attitude;
* An appropriate level of resourcing;
* Access to the Curriculum and all that that implies;
* Total exposure to the Expanded Core Curriculum;
* Access to, and instruction in the use of technology;
* A focus on the development of literacy and numeracy, problem-solving skills, effective mobility, and functional independence;
* Support for regular class teachers;
* Trained specialist teachers;
* Trained teacher aides and other paraprofessionals;
* Ongoing professional development;
* Provision of support to parents;
* Valuing the knowledge and expertise of parents;
* Working in partnerships and teaming;
* Exposure to peer and personal benchmarking;
* Effective transitions;
* A valuing of independence;
* High expectations of achievement; and
* An optimistic view of the future.

And what makes for an inclusive society? M considers it is one that is non-discriminatory, that has a human rights base, and values the potentials of people, no matter how humble. A society where there is affirmative action available as needed.

I think we need institutionalised equity. We need a kind of society where people in all of the major institutions of society can say, "Well, why not". Not "How can you?" but "Why not?". There is a different frame of reference here.

And how would he rate Aotearoa New Zealand as an inclusive a society?

Not too bad. If I look back over my lifetime, we have come a long way. I think we are beginning to slow down, probably because we are not a wealthy country any more. And we are getting more and more bureaucracies that have to be battled for environmental design and so on. But I think we are not too bad and we do have the great ability that you can still get to your politicians, you still know your politicians and you still know to whom to turn to advocate, whereas in larger populations, that's not possible.

Conclusion

To conclude, let us return to the beginning - to take up the challenge and renew commitment to a society that is inclusive and offering opportunity to all its members. In doing so there is the need to focus on increased opportunities and initiatives designed to equip children and young people for complex and diverse cultural, social, and economic environments.

By working in collaboration, we can strive to ensure that children who are blind and vision impaired have access to a quality education, achieve educational and social outcomes that will enable them to lead meaningful and valued lives, and that there is an enabling society in which
they might be fully participating members.

References

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