Dis(en)abled: the lived experiences of inclusion policies amongst disabled young people

Paper Presented as Part of the Symposium:
BERA Annual Conference, Institute of Education, London September 2014

This paper explores the tension between the policies and practice of Inclusion and the lived experiences of disabled young people in education. Drawing on the narratives of two young men who formed part of a small pilot study of young people defined as disabled and in receipt of a Statement of
Special Educational Need, the paper utilises theoretical concepts around disability, structure and agency and power and control as it explores the ways in which inclusion can create subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) forms of exclusion.

Focussing on the young men’s experiences of further and higher education, the paper argues that Inclusive practices and policies, however well intentioned, can create new and subtle forms of marginalisation through the structures and discourse intended to address exclusion. It goes on to
suggest that, in this way, inclusion comes to form part of the complex and multi-layered behaviours, structures and social practices that we refer to as exclusion.

It concludes by questioning whether, in a diverse and disparate society, in which all our lives are
defined by the extent to which we are more or less equal than others, inclusion can ever be anything
other than an illusory concept.