Children with disabilities are difficult to raise, given that their circumstances are not normal. Taking care of them requires parents, guardians and caretakers to be sensitive and understanding to their needs.
Outside the house, the disabled child would encounter different kinds of people and situations that are beyond their parents' control. This is why it's the government and schools' responsibility to establish guidelines on how children with disabilities should be treated, and provide services for parents and children alike to cope with the staggering demands of living with disabilities.
Baker Small, a British law firm whose primary work is concentrated on contesting cases involving children with special educational needs (SEN), was commissioned by the government council to defend their decisions regarding parents' requests for a child with disability. Recently, the firm drew public flak when its tweets seemed to be mocking parents of disabled children, making fun of them for losing legal battles for their child's sake (via Independent).
Columnist Lola Okolosie writes an opinion piece for The Guardian, in opposition of Baker Small's insensitive tweets and the British council's decisions to cut services for children with disabilities. She muses, "While a child's disability is not what defines them, society makes it by failing to provide them and their families with essential services that will enable them to live their lives more independently."
"This only enables our government to deflect blame so that families with legitimate requests can be made to feel guilt and humiliation for their inability to cope. The loser? The child whose health and development are harmed as a result," Okolskie writes further in her The Guardian article.
Ultimately, it is the child with disabilities who gets affected with mockery and cutting of services designed to help him/her. In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) protects the interests of children with disabilities.
It was passed in 1975 and has been amended multiple times by Congress. As per Understood, the goals of IDEA is to give children with disabilities access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) and that schools must provide special education in an unrestrictive environment. Also under IDEA, parents can interfere with the school's decisions involving their kids. Four years ago, about 5.8 million children with disabilities benefit from services under IDEA.
How do you think should children with disabilities be treated? What services would help them and their parents? Share your thoughts on the Comments section below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
