Addressing students with disabilities in school textbooks

Abstract

Inclusive education can help facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream schools. Inclusive education has proven to be a key benefit for disabled children as an end in itself and as a means to an end of greater social acceptance of difference and disability. However there needs to be greater awareness‐raising measures at mainstream schools to ease the transition of students with disabilities in this process. School textbooks can play an important role in preparing non‐disabled students' thinking concerning their disabled classmates. The present study set out to investigate the visibility of people with disabilities in the illustrations of seven Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) textbooks at the secondary and high school levels. The results suggested that people with disabilities were under‐represented in the analyzed Iranian EFL textbooks which potentially place students with disabilities in disadvantageous positions and perpetuate invisibility of such students. Some suggestions regarding mainstreaming disability in school textbooks and education will be provided at the end of this article which may increase awareness amongst Iranian educators and textbook writers to the inclusive potential of these books.