Abstract:

Inclusion of learners with different types of special needs in mainstream schools is an on-going process that conducts differently in different countries around the world. Nevertheless, integrating adults with special needs into society, and including them in a variety of workplaces is a challenge most communities deal with. Furthermore, including adults with special needs in education systems is both a cultural and a social challenge many communities avoid from. In order for this challenge to be successfully met, educational leaders must fully recognize the integrators’ attitudes so as to adapt what is required in the inclusive educational setting. While the inclusion of adults with learning, sensory or motor disabilities into the education system has been studied and implemented over the years, this is not the case for adults with Intellectual developmental disability (IDD). Nowadays, adults with IDD are offered to work in a variety of programs in the community they live in, but they are not offered to be trained and return as workers in the educational system. Thus, despite the fact that they studied in inclusive schools as students; an inclusive environment that doesn’t offer them to return as adults with IDD. Actually, while for many years educational leaders promoted inclusion rather than integration of learners with special needs in schools, as adults these learners are pushed back to be integrated in the society rather than being included. In this study, for the first time, 75 leading figures in the field of education and promoters of inclusion in the Israeli society were asked about the possibilities of including such adults into the education system. The participants contributed to the understanding of the complexity of inclusion adults with IDD, understanding the needs of the educational system to expand the inclusion possibilities, in order to improve the quality of education for all. Participants also shared their perspectives regarding the challenges, the advantages while including adults with IDD, alongside proposing possible and practical solutions for implementation.

Keywords:

Intellectual developmental disability, Inclusion, Intervention programs, School principals, Integration leaders, Social workers.