Development of Tool

Twenty years ago the term 'Inclusive Education' was not used. It is only since the late 1980s that 'Inclusion' has come to supersede 'integration'. Earlier, the disabilities of the child were looked as abnormalities and were categorized as Special Need Children. Exclusion from mainstream schools, underestimating their learning capacities, learning only through special schools, segregation from society, discrimination, survival opportunities were their fate. UN intervention on ¿Education for all¿ and protecting the Human rights of all has incorporated Inclusive education. Hence, Inclusion as per Inclusion International's 1996 definition, ¿Inclusion refers to the opportunity for persons with a disability to participate fully in all of the educational, employment, consumer, recreational, community, and domestic activities that typify everyday society.¿ It clearly states that persons with disability have a right to acquire education in the mainstream schools and this has even been expected by Government of India. Various educational acts have been instrumental in bringing about a perceptive change in the attitude of government, NGOs and people with disabilities.