Over the last 50 years, there has been an increasing shift towards the inclusion of pupils with various disabilities, including those whose disability was diagnosed as severe. Still, often, many of them face numerous academic difficulties, which raises the question of how meaningful and effective their inclusion is.

Curricular adaptations, as well as teaching and testing accommodations, have demonstrated effectiveness in inclusion, but only to some extent. Ryndak et al. (2012) point out that the increasing access to general curriculum and inclusive general education contexts raised the expectations from pupils with disabilities to progress annually and to obtain regular high school diplomas. The increasing inclusion of pupils with disabilities and inclusive practices resulted in several positive changes, but it also brought up questions about the desired outcomes of educational services for these pupils. As Ryndak et al. (2012) put it, it also raised questions about ‘the efficacy of various forms of curriculum content, instructional practices, and instructional contexts that comprise their educational experiences’ (p. 127).

It should be borne in mind that our participants were in primary and secondary school from the 1970s to the 1990s, when many of these accommodations were few and far between. Nevertheless, to date, many pupils still struggle to receive the necessary support that would enable them to succeed in school, since many teachers in inclusive education lack the necessary knowledge and skills required to identify and cater to the individual needs of pupils with disabilities (Holcombe & Plunkett, 2016).

In this chapter, we will present academic challenges that various populations of pupils with specific disabilities face and some effective inclusive practices for them.

1 Pupils with Physical Disabilities

Students with physical disabilities can experience numerous barriers to inclusion, not only during physical activities but also during academic classes, due to teachers’ attitudes and curricular barriers at school. In some cases, regional and local policies can prevent a pupil with a physical disability from completing a high school diploma. Such was the famous case of Ed Roberts, the founder of the Independent Living Movement and an American disability rights activist. When Roberts contracted polio at age 14, he became paralysed from the neck down. It was only in his senior year that he attended high school in California in person, due to the iron lung or respirator he needed to breathe. As a result of not completing physical education and driver education courses, his high school refused to let him graduate. However, after his mother petitioned the board, the decision was reversed. This is only one example of the challenges imposed on pupils with physical disabilities in formal educational systems, at least until a few decades ago.

Physical disabilities can occur either during gestation, at birth, or soon after. Some physical disabilities are ‘acquired’ as they develop through injury (such as trauma) or illness during normal child development. Such disabilities include paraplegia, quadriplegia, hemiplegia, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, absence of a limb or reduced limb function dystrophy, and polio. In addition, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual fifth edition (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) lists a number of motor disabilities, including developmental coordination disorder, stereotypic movement disorder, and various tic disorders. In our study we interviewed people with childhood polio and cerebral palsy.

Polio paralysis is caused by the poliovirus. While reports of such paralysis are as early as 1789 (Underwood, 1789), and later in the 1830s and 1840s (Badham, 1836; Heine, 1840), reports of epidemic polio in North America started in 1916, when over 27,000 persons were paralysed and 6000 died. According to Baicus (2012), ‘The polio outbreaks gradually became more severe, more frequent and widespread throughout Europe and the United States at the beginning of the 20th century’ (p. 108). The vaccine for the poliovirus was only introduced in 1955 by Jonas Salk. By the end of 2012, after 25 years and a multibillion-dollar campaign by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), poliovirus was almost completely eradicated from the world, despite the detection of a small number of cases in 2014 in nine countries. According to Tajaldin et al. (2015), ‘rather than being eradicated by the end of 2014 … polio now has a foothold on 3 continents. It has a persistent presence in Africa, it has re-emerged in the Middle East after more than a decade of absence with the outbreak in Syria and spread to Iraq, and it continues to flourish in Pakistan and Central Asia, threatening India’s new polio-free status.’ As recent as 2022, cases of children who contracted polio among anti-vaccination groups were reported in Israel.

Cerebral palsy is not a single condition but is in fact a group of permanent disorders that affect the development of movement and posture. Primarily, it causes limitations in physical activity. The clinical diagnosis of cerebral palsy is based on a combination of both clinical and neurological signs and is usually diagnosed between age 12 and 24 months. According to Novak et al. (2017), there are four types of motor disabilities in cerebral palsy. These may emerge and change during the first two years of life: spasticity (which is the most common type), dyskinesia (4–7%; including dystonia and athetosis), ataxia (4–6%), and hypotonia (2%). Cerebral palsy often involved comorbidities and functional limitations, which include chronic pain, intellectual disability, behavioural disorders, epilepsy, musculoskeletal problems, functional blindness, sleep disorders, and hearing impairment. It is important to note that cerebral palsy is the most common childhood physical disability, with a prevalence of 2.1 cases per 1000 in high-income countries (Oskoui et al., 2013).

After carefully reviewing the literature, we found very few academic resources that focus on the academic challenges of pupils with physical disabilities, although there are some books geared towards teachers who include pupils with physical disabilities in their classrooms (e.g., Fox, 2013) or books who provide information about inclusion of pupils with various types of disabilities, including physical disabilities (e.g., Leslie, 2010; Westwood, 2009). In addition, there have been many studies and reviews that examined the integration of assistive technologies to facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities (e.g., Coleman, 2011; Vigilante Jr & Hoile, 2018). In this section we will discuss the barriers and challenges those pupils with physical disabilities face in schools. Following is a brief discussion on the inclusion of students with physical disabilities in physical education and other sports activities.

According to Alquraini and Gut’s (2012) review of studies that focused on critical components of successful inclusion of students with severe disabilities, inclusive schools must provide and support opportunities for students with severe disabilities ‘to increase and develop a variety of skills in terms of academic achievement, social interaction, and communication skills’ (p. 47).

People with physical disabilities often do not participate in sports as regularly as nondisabled people, according to a review by Jaarsma et al. (2014). They found that there were both personal and environmental barriers to participation in sports. Personal barriers included disability and health, while environmental barriers included lack of facilities, transport, and other difficulties with accessibility. On the other hand, personal facilitators to involvement with sports were enjoyment from sports activities and health, while the environmental facilitator was social contacts.

While many of the studies they reviewed focused on adults, their results suggested that facilitating involvement in sports should include both encouraging the individual with physical disability to regularly participate in sports activities and increasing accessibility and reducing other environmental barriers. Similar findings were found by Shields et al. (2012), who reviewed the literature on barriers and facilitating factors to involvement in physical activities of children with various types of disabilities. Qi and Ha’s (2012) reviewed the literature on involvement of pupils with various types of disabilities. They found that preservice training and practicum experience in adapted physical education helped change the teacher trainees’ attitudes towards pupils with disabilities.

Oftentimes, participation in sports activities during school years has an important role in social acceptance and in developing sense of efficacy. As an example, let us listen to Y’s story, a senior judge who contracted polio at an early age and subsequently had a physical disability:

Coping with my disability started when I was six months old, and the main element in my coping where my parents. No doubt that their support and dedication reduced the effect of the disability compared to others who did not gain such care. For example, a lot of physiotherapy, swimming since age three, and a lot of other activities that helped promote my condition. In addition, inclusion with normal kids from day one, in elementary school and high school. One of my teachers, who used to be a welder, had an idea of making a bicycle for me, that you could operate it by moving your hand back and forth which moved a lever that activated the rear wheels, so I could ride it to school, and to the swimming pool that was far away. There was a guy there who took care of me and I swam there almost every day during the summer. I was lucky to be a good student so that gave me some credit at school and naturally my motivation was high. As for my family, I have a brother who is a year younger than me, and suffered a bit from the focus our parents gave to my treatment but he helped a lot for example by carrying things that I couldn’t. Together with him we really managed to get ahead.

At that time, when I was in seventh grade, my parents let go and allowed my brother and I to be independent. My father insisted that I will keep swimming. We didn’t have a car so my dad used to take a horse and carriage and we’d go to the swimming pool. He didn’t give up. It was really important.

Socially, three things were very helpful. First, that my scholastic ability was very helpful socially because some of the students depended on me, and I’d help them and it was a good, mutual exploitation. Another thing was everything that related to sports. And it was clear to everyone that I play. That is, I stand up with the stick [in some kind of a local baseball game] and hit as much as I could. Of course, I couldn’t move around but I was in the game. And in tenth or eleventh grade, can’t exactly remember, my brother and I took a volleyball referees’ training…and in volleyball the referee sits on a chair, and that was something I could easily do …

The thing in being a referee is that you’re in the game. In physical education classes I didn’t sit at the bench, I’d go to class, wouldn’t do anything but I’d referee when we were playing handball or any other game, the physical education teacher would let me be involved this way.

This narrative demonstrates how a combination of internal and external factors can enhance the self-efficacy of a child with a physical disability. In his immediate surrounding there were his parents, who from day one made sure that he will receive the necessary treatments. Later his father insisted that the child will continue swimming and personally brought him to swimming practices. The parents also cared for his inclusion with nondisabled peers. In addition, his younger brother helped him by carrying things for him, and a teacher built adjusted bicycle for him. Being a good pupil was a powerful internal factor that gave him an advantage at school, as was his motivation to succeed academically and socially. The synergy of both internal and external factors helped him be ‘part of the game’—an expression he repeated as a mantra several times.

Practical recommendations for classroom instruction practices for students with physical disabilities are more often found in non-academic resources, such as Watson (2019), or An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Students with Physical Disabilities (DLM Solutions, n.d.). Egilson and Traustadottir (2009) recommended that in order to increase school participation of students with physical disabilities, professionals should consider a confluence of individual, environmental (especially physical accessibility), and task factors rather than focusing on the individual pupil’s aspects alone.

In the inclusive classroom, effective learning environments for pupils with physical disabilities should include collecting specific information about the pupils’ abilities and challenges and providing them with the required accommodations and adjustments, incorporating assistive technologies, arranging the classroom for easy access and using appropriately adjusted furniture such as a larger desk (or one that can be adjusted for height), asking the students’ where they would prefer sitting in class, using a buddy system (e.g., for taking notes), and working with paraprofessionals. When designing activities, it is imperative to ensure that all pupils can participate meaningfully. Finally, it is highly recommended that teachers will ask the pupils with disabilities and their parents regarding their needs and preferences and consult with special education teachers and inclusion facilitators regarding specific accommodations and inclusive practices. This recommendation is relevant to the inclusion of all students with disabilities.

2 Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

According to the National Autistic Society in the United Kingdom (n.d.), autism is a lifelong, neurodevelopmental disability. It affects the way an individual relates to people in their surroundings and how that individual communicates with them. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), the diagnostic criteria of autistic spectrum disorder include deficits in social interaction and social communication, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of interests, behaviour, or activities.

It should be noted that autism also refers to how people with autistic spectrum disorder experience the world around them and to their unique behaviours and interests. Autistic spectrum disorder represents a range of abilities, support needs, and behaviours. Some people with autistic spectrum disorder are very high functioning. Until the publication of DSM5, these people were usually diagnosed as having Asperger’s syndrome. One such famous example is Dr Temple Grandin, a well-known researcher and lecturer. Footnote 1 Still, these people have difficulty interpreting social situations and responding to them in an appropriate manner.

In contrast, other people with autistic spectrum disorder face great challenges in communicating with others and functioning without support, to the extent of developmental intellectual disability.

According to Segev et al. (2019), the prevalence and incidence rate of autistic spectrum disorder in various countries is inconclusive, and it is hard to attempt to understand global trends, since there are varying definitions of autistic spectrum disorder and diagnostic protocols. In addition, different study methodologies, and cultural differences limit our ability to compare rates across countries. Thus, it is difficult to achieve a comprehensive picture regarding global prevalence and incidence rates. While many systematic reviews report an increase of autistic spectrum disorder in various countries in recent decades (such as 21 per 1000 in Sweden), others find no significant increase (e.g., Baxter et al., 2015).

A recent study by Zablotsky et al. (2019) found that from 2009 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2017, there were overall significant increases in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (1.1–2.5%). Similarly, a large study by Kogan and his colleagues found that parents of about 1.5 million American children ages 3–17 (2.50% of all children) reported an autistic spectrum disorder diagnosis for the child and that their child currently had the disorder.

We can all understand that pupils with autistic spectrum disorder might experience great challenges at school, compared to their neurotypical peers, due to the unique challenges posed by autistic spectrum disorder.

In a recent study of the narratives of eight mothers of children with autistic spectrum disorders in Australia who had to transfer from an inclusive school to a more segregated setting, Lilley (2015) coined the term ‘autism inclusion disorder’. She refers to the reports of these mothers that there is a pattern of deficits in these so-called inclusive classrooms and schools. Autism inclusion disorder refers, then, to the schools’ shortfalls in supporting social communication or interaction (including teachers’ difficulty to interact with students with autistic spectrum disorder). It also refers to the schools’ rigid behaviours and decision-making regarding students with challenging or complex behaviours.

A 2015 survey of the Australian Bureau of Statistics of people with disabilities found that most pupils with autistic spectrum disorder experienced some form of educational restriction (96.7%), to the extent that a small number of them were unable to attend school due to their disability (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017). Of those who attended school or another type of educational institutions, about 84% reported experiencing some difficulty, including social adjustment, learning, and communication difficulties. These difficulties echo the effects of the main aspects of autistic spectrum disorder (communication and social interaction, behaviour, and cognition), which educational institutions find it difficult to fully comprehend and accommodate.

While many of them require quiet, organised, consistent, and predictable environments for effective learning and functioning, schools often present noisy and even chaotic settings (Humphrey & Lewis, 2008). In addition, some students with autistic spectrum disorder demonstrate stereotypic behaviour (manifested in overt repetitive physical behaviours such as flapping or rocking) which may attract negative responses from peers and teachers. Furthermore, restrictive and rigid interests, which are not always those popular among peers, may further limit their social interactions (Wilczynski et al., 2007). Other difficulties may stem from cognitive and behavioural inflexibility that may challenge the successful inclusion in the dynamics and social interactions at school. In addition, pupils with autistic spectrum disorder are less likely than their peers to respond orally to questions, stand up in front of the class and deliver a presentation, or work collaboratively with their peers (Newman, 2007). The majority of students with autistic spectrum disorder receive some type of accommodation, the most frequent being extra time on tests or assignments. Newman reported that nearly half of secondary students with autistic spectrum disorder receive alternative assessments, meaning they will not graduate with a regular high school diploma.

Finally, greater difficulties in executive functioning which result in challenges in organisation, following multiple-step directions and the ability to self-initiate (Rosenthal et al., 2013), can further impede their successful inclusion in school, especially in secondary education.

Hedges et al. (2014) interviewed focus groups of high school stakeholders (parents, school personnel, and one group of students and young adults with autistic spectrum disorder) about the challenges that high school students with autistic spectrum disorder face. They found three themes that reflect the challenges posed by high schools for these students: inconsistencies (across the school day, over time, and between school and home environments), difficulties with interpersonal connections (forming and maintaining relationships and communication with teachers, staff, and peers), and knowledge/process breakdowns of teachers and staff (roles and responsibilities, knowledge and preparation, and special education processes).

High school poses a serious challenge for many students with disabilities. It is a complex social and academic environment, due to the large number of students and classes, number of subjects studied each day and subsequently the number of transitions between student groups and teachers, the length of the school day, and the greater demand for independent learning, planning, and organisational skills (Rosenthal et al., 2013). These demands occur simultaneously while coping with adolescence, with its physiological and social challenges that characterise this developmental stage. Concomitantly, the increasing demands on accountability that is based on high stakes testing require high school teachers to focus on increasing academic achievement. High school tends to be more impersonal, competitive, and achievement-oriented than middle school (Corcoran & Silander, 2009). Due to the nature, structure, and purpose of high schools, teachers have few opportunities to learn more closely about the needs of individual students and to accommodate their needs.

There are various curricular adaptations and accommodations that can create a more inclusive environment for pupils with autistic spectrum disorder. In Australia, students undergo evaluations to determine the type and extent of adjustments and adaptations they need based on their functional ability rather than on their medical or psychological diagnoses. Such adjustments may include ‘modifying programmes and adapting curriculum delivery and assessment strategies, providing ongoing consultancy support or professional learning and training for staff, specialized technology or computer software or equipment, provision of study notes or research materials in different formats, and services such as specialist support staff, tutors or aides’ (Roberts, 2019, p. 366).

One of our participants, G., is a senior researcher and sciences professor at a prestigious academic research institute with autistic spectrum disorder. His story echoes the challenges a pupil with this disorder can face at school, both academically and socially:

I was born in western Europe into a complex family. The complexity stems from the relationship between my mother, may her soul rest in peace, and my father, may his soul rest in peace.

I grew up not in poverty but in a humble home. My father, let’s say, was a negative role model (laughter). My mother was a very loving woman, and sometimes, let’s say, their relationship was very problematic.

In fact, my father, I don’t think he cared about anyone but himself. On the other hand, he had no ambition to make any achievements. I knew that he was not a stupid man, but he was completely devoid of any intellectual curiosity, OK? When I was 12 my mom and I found out together that he led a secret life. Let’s say that one woman was not enough for him (laughter).

At school and in other places people noticed that I had a bit higher than the average IQ (laughter) and that I had, let’s say, higher than the average memory. But I had difficulty perceiving … in those days nobody talked about Asperger syndrome or stuff life that, but I had difficulty perceiving social cues. Sometimes it was hard of me to understand social situations, the mental state of other people. As I grew up, I found ways to … let’s say, to figure out indirectly what I couldn’t see directly.

Let’s say, for example, that facial expression tells me very little. The sound of voice does [give me social input] because, perhaps because I’m musical. I see a person in a situation, I try to put myself in his place and OK, how I would react in that situation. Or how I would feel. Or when I was a bit older, how a person I know very well would react in that situation (laughter).

Obviously, school was a little interesting experience because OK, socially it didn’t work, and academically in fact until I reached more or less ninth or tenth grade, I didn’t have to do anything. The school psychologist didn’t exactly knew how to digest it. He found that there was a gap between my intellectual age and my emotional age. He recommended keeping me behind in first grade.

They didn’t know how to treat me, ’cause on one hand I behaved like an ass, on the other hand they didn’t know how to digest it. We’re talking about kids who are themselves searching for their identity and do it in groups or cliques or whatever that was, it didn’t work [for me]. Let’s say that phenomenon of the ‘geek club’, which you sometimes see in American TV series. We had something like that say from 10th grade. And that was the first time I felt some sense of friendship. Yes, out of common intellectual interests or musical interests, you get the idea.

That was also the age when for the first time I seriously started looking at girls, OK? (laughter).

There were no schools at that time for things like that so a lot of time it was just dreadfully boring, I was bored at school. Here and there, there were teachers who (sigh) felt that I was bored and offered me some bonus assignments.

When I was a bit older, in recess we’d talk and in physical education class which was never my thing I managed to get exemption and at that time there was only one computer in the entire school so during physical education class I’d learn how to program a little (laughter).

I became interested in girls during high school, but let’s say that my success rate was zero, which also sounds familiar. In fact, the first girlfriend I had was during my third year at the university. She said that more or less she knew nothing about men, and you know nothing about women, so let’s find out about it together (laughter).

When I started studying at the university, at first it wasn’t clear to me what do I wanted to study. On one hand physics interested me as a discipline but I didn’t think I would be good enough to be involved in research so perhaps I could be a high school teacher and I would be miserable, on the other hand, medicine interested me, but then I didn’t know if I’d be good enough to get involved in medical research and people told me ‘you wouldn’t be a pleasant family doctor’. Simply, because in order to be a doctor, you need more than an intellectual ability. You need to know how to communicate with patients but that was not my talent, OK?Footnote 2 (laughter). So, I chose another scientific discipline as sort of a middle ground between these two disciplines and I said, oh, perhaps later on I’ll change my major—but then I was bitten by the bug of this discipline and that was the time when we started using computers and that’s when I decided that, wow, this is what I want to do. And with that [discipline] I stayed. Later on, I also started with doing some music—I tried to compose a little bit.

My mom tried to media the social aspect [of life] for me. She saw that there was a problem, but she didn’t understand it completely.

Later on, he shared how he met his wife, where he worked overseas and how he got to Israel to the academic institute where he works today:

So, after a few years here I received full professorship and anyway, socially speaking there are two aspects here. First there’s the intellectual aspect. That was not a problem at all because you are in a place where you can find people similar to you… About social life after work? Let’s say that there is very little of it. I have an online social network. At the time I was a bit active in some social networks, more than just a bit active. Explaining and discussing things, mostly. From one thing to the next I developed other interests at some point, I got connected with a group of creative writing and science fiction enthusiasts (laughter), OK…

I must also say that during the two years when I was in an academic administrative role, I learned more about human psychology than in my entire life (laughter). Luckily, at that time I had a guiding female friend, completely platonic, mind you. She was a psychologist and sometimes we discuss these issues. And part of these discussions made me aware of issues in love and some other things that were happening at home.

When discussing Asperger as a disability, at least at the milder levels, I’d say that I’m not sure that it’s a disability. At the milder levels, it perhaps impairs one’s social abilities but perhaps you can create a circle, alternative ways to handle with it. At the severe levels that not possible, of course. It’s something completely different. My brother has a very good sight, except for one thing—he can’t perceive depth. So, when he drives, if you’re driving and you can’t perceive depth that’s a problem.

Success for me is that every article that I write on any topic is the best article there is. The best that I can produce. And that perhaps I can educate some other good researchers and I’ve had some good experiences there. Or, for example, to listen to a good performance of a piece by Bach. Or spending good time with my wife. Or read a novel that was well written from all aspects. Things like that. But, perhaps, if I had to define the biggest success—that’s investigating a scientific question, to understand the answer and to know that perhaps you’re the first one to understand it.

What helped me in life are good friends that I could have free conversations with, ones in which you can talk about all subtleties and who speak based on knowledge and not on something of the top of their heads.

I believe that what contributed to my success is some objective indication that I did the right thing and that’s what counts, and not to depend as much on what others will say. I think that helped me to some degree.

I’d recommend to other people with Asperger who wish to succeed in life to look for an occupation that requires some aspects of Asperger, such as that ability to concentrate for a long time, like the interest in details, which are adaptive. Usually, such people are drawn anyway to such occupations. And there are other ways that could work for you. I have a good verbal expression in English or in my native language. If you have a means of communication, use it all the way. And in addition, what helps you to succeed is belief [in your way] and love.

Reading this narrative’s sequence enables us to see how this highly accomplished man moved from a position of deficit, split, and duality to a position in life of a coherent, whole self-concept. This duality begins with the narrative about the parents: from his son’s perspective, he saw his mother as a loving mother and his father as a complex individual who cared only for himself. As we continue to read the narrative, it appears that he experienced another gap—between his high intellectual ability and his inability to interpret social situations and subsequently experiencing social difficulties. This difficulty was also manifested when he had to choose a major at the university. His deliberation which major to choose reflects his low self-esteem (concerned that he will not succeed in physics) but also his high awareness to his social difficulties (thus not choosing to become a family doctor). Coping with this gap throughout life helped him develop several strategies: since he had difficulty understanding social situation and interpreting facial expressions, he developed a technique of asking himself how he would feel or react if he were the person he was interacting with. Using social media through the computer also made life easier for him. In addition, administrative roles he was required to fulfil as part of his academic career and required interpersonal skills helped him develop experience in various social situations. His platonic friendship with a woman was another source of information on how to better behave and interact in social situation. In other words, this remarkable man managed to learn how to better navigate his way in a complex social world. Today, the gap that he experienced for many years was minimised, and he lives with a much greater sense of coherence: as part of his perceptions of his successes in life, he mentions spending quality time with his wife and friends. That is, his experiences throughout life enable him to enjoy social interactions. Reflecting back on his life, he also gives recommendations to other people in his situation: choose a career in which high-functioning autism can be an advantage (such as a high level of concentration or focusing on details). Ending his narrative with the moving expression that what is important in life is believing in yourself and love indicates his long journey, and it contains a message of home: one can exceed one’s disability and embrace its advantages.

3 Pupils with Learning Disabilities

According to the UK National Health Service (n.d.), a learning disability has lifetime effects on the way people learn new things, understand information, and communicate. The UK Office of Public Health (2018) emphasised that there is a distinction between a ‘learning difficulty’ such as dyslexia and dyspraxia and a ‘learning disability’, which is a label given to a group of conditions that are present before the age of 18. A somewhat different definition of learning disabilities is ‘specific learning disorder’, according to the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This disorder is defined as a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading, in written expression or in mathematics. According to this definition, the pupil’s current academic skills must be well below (i.e., at least 1.5 standard deviations below the population mean for age and age-appropriate education) in culturally and linguistically appropriate tests of basic academic skills in reading, writing, and/or mathematics. The World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (11th Revision) (World Health Organisation, n.d.) has a definition of ‘developmental learning disorder’, which is one of the neurodevelopmental disorders. According to this definition, this disorder ‘is characterized by significant and persistent difficulties in learning academic skills, which may include reading, writing, or arithmetic. The individual’s performance in the affected academic skill (s) is markedly below what would be expected for chronological age and general level of intellectual functioning, and results in significant impairment in the individual’s academic or occupational functioning.’ Considered a developmental disorder, it usually manifests itself during the early school when academic skills are initially taught and is not caused by lack of appropriate education, lack of proficiency in the language of academic instruction or cultural difference, sensory impairment, or due to some type of psychosocial adversity or emotional disturbance. It is important to note that the pupil’s learning difficulty does not stem from an intellectual deficit and is not due to an intellectual deficit. While a learning disability is often manifested in the early school years, some pupils demonstrate marked learning difficulties later on. Thus, a diagnosis can be made at any point after formal education starts, even in adolescence or adulthood.

Based on the most recent UK Office of Public Health report (2020), ‘In 2018, 67,765 children in England had a statement of special educational needs (SEN) or an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and were identified as having a primary SEN associated with learning disabilities.’ Some of them have a moderate level of learning disabilities, while others have a severe or profound level of their disability. However, according to the Department of Public Health, many children in the United Kingdom were identified at a broader level of special educational needs support with their primary educational needs associated with learning disabilities; most of them are boys. The American Psychiatric Association reports that the prevalence of specific learning disorders among children from different languages ​​and cultures ranges between 5% and 15% and that the prevalence of specific learning disorders in reading ranges between 4% and 9%.

Pupils with learning disabilities tend to display maladaptive academic behaviour, learned helplessness, academic procrastination, lower levels of persistence, negative affect towards their learning, and lower academic expectations (Hen & Goroshit, 2014).

Still, some pupils with learning disabilities persevered in these learning conditions. Some even thrived, enjoying the opportunity of digital learning, exploring and experiencing a diversity of learning opportunities, and the quietness of their home, without the constant buzz of an active classroom. Despite their learning and sometimes attention challenges, they managed to apply strategies they have learned or developed and study.

Klassen (2010), who studied self-regulatory efficacy among adolescents with learning disabilities and reading self-efficacy, found that, on the average, these adolescents rated their efficacy lower than their peers who did not have a learning disability. In addition, self-regulatory efficacy contributed greatly to their grade in English at the end of the term.

Thus, it seems that among pupils with learning disabilities, performance in language arts subjects (such as English), depends only partially on their reading ability. The pupils’ belief in their abilities (meaning their self-efficacy) to master learning skills or tasks, especially reading, and to manage their learning processes and environment is equally important and may mediate reading comprehension (Shehzad et al., 2019).

In the United Kingdom, about a quarter of all children receiving an education, health, and care (EHC) plan were being educated in inclusive schools. Those pupils who had a moderate level of learning disabilities were more likely to be excluded (usually fixed-period exclusion) than children with no special educational needs. However, the numbers might be somewhat higher as the UK Department for Education’s National Pupil Database does not include children being educated at home, in for-profit independent special schools, or in independent (non-state funded) mainstream schools.

However, pupils with learning disabilities experience not only academic challenges but also emotional ones. For example, in a large study involving adolescents with reading difficulties in Norway, Undheim and Sund (2008) found that adolescents had higher levels of depression, were worried more about going to school, and experienced more school stress and lower self-worth. It is important to note that students with learning disabilities have adverse emotional outcomes due to the academic stress they experience—stress which should, and could, be prevented.

The academic, social, and emotional challenges described earlier in this chapter were heightened during lockdowns enforced in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, schools were shut down, and studying had to quickly undergo both a transition and a transformation—from learning in class to distance learning. According to Masonbrink and Hurley (2020), ‘school closure means loss of critical resources for children with disabilities, including engagement with specialized educators and structured learning environments. Parents of children with high learning needs are unlikely to be equipped with resources to maintain remote learning.’ The transition to distance learning required many pupils with learning disabilities to utilise self-regulation strategies and survive or to withdraw and disappear behind a camera conveniently turned-off during Zoom sessions.

The story of R. demonstrates some of the challenges that a pupil with a learning disability, which was diagnosed only in adolescence, his struggles, and how he managed to cope with them. He is a 50-year-old successful businessman, married with two children. R. owns several companies, some involved in financial investments, others in providing services:

I was diagnosed with dyslexia in reading and writing in 11th grade, because they didn’t know anything about it at that time. It was my mother’s and my school’s initiative. In retrospect I understood that it was a certificate which I could use to make progress. I knew about it earlier so it didn’t change anything. It only helped me to laugh about it and say ‘OK, that’s me. Here’s the certificate.’ There a person without a hand and another one without a leg and they still need to make a living. So, I don’t have the ability to read and write.

That’s the situation, I can’t read. That’s the situation. Can’t read and don’t know how to write like most normal people.

And that means that I need to move on. And so that failure won’t stick to you, you use the certificate. It’s kind of survival, if I think about it. From the first day, my identity was of a survivor. When they were reading [out loud] homework to hide so they won’t catch me, I didn’t do my homework so I had to see how I’d survive this class. How to be nice so others would let you copy their homework, etc. What helped during my matric exams was the opportunity to be tested orally, and two good friends who helped me.

I have two degrees: A bachelor degree in physics and a master’s degree in computer sciences. And I worked with computers because there was no work in physics. At the age of 40 I’ve decided I had enough working as an employee although I’ve (already) opened start-up companies so I moved on to run my parents’ company, I bought it from them. Perhaps I’ll get a Ph.D. I’m debating between nanotechnology and business administration. I’m thinking about getting a Ph.D. just out of interest, to study. Economy interests me from its psychological aspect. From an early age I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Without being dependent on any one. I have no idea where this desire comes from.

My role today as an independent businessman requires commitment around the clock, 24 hours each day. It’s a lot. My head keeps working all the time. I live it 24 hours each day. I dream about it at night. I also do sports and of course I have a family. My wife helps me a lot.

We have a very clear division (of labour). She reads, I make the decisions. She reads the contracts and I tell her what needs to be fixed. It’s a very clear role division. She collects that data, I make the decisions. And what really helps me is the hunger to succeed. I have no idea where it comes from. Success for me means being in places where I’ve never been before. To cross distances I have not crossed before. To meet interesting people I haven’t met yet, to make greater decisions than I have made to date. Success for me is also measured in other domains, for example, to read an interesting book, new prose (laughing).

To the best of my knowledge, my parents were entrepreneurs for many years. They didn’t exactly do well in their business. Every time they became entrepreneurs, they kept on failing. It’s possible that their difficulty affected me one way or another, but I don’t care about the reasons, the reasons never interested me. It’s the future that interests me. From the moments that I understood that failure has no meaning for the future except for learning from it…that means it won’t help me if I’d be sad, it will only help me come to conclusions and move on and I could clear myself of that failure I could succeed. I was not afraid to fail. And usually, I tried that the failure won’t stick to me. I’ve failed and moved on. The failure didn’t leave any scars or bad feelings. You just feel that it doesn’t belong to you.

You want to survive…you look for the things that require less writing and computer sciences was a great choice for me. I didn’t have to use much writing and if I made mistakes the computer corrected it. The difficulty remains till this day, I don’t read or write. Only very short emails. WhatsApp is my favourite thing. I have tools that help me bypass my difficulties. For example, my wife, who reads the contracts. There’s a bunch of people who help me.

The definition of good managers is their ability in ambiguous situations and make the correct decisions in hindsight. So, I collect most of the information, and the information I can’t get—that’s what it is. You can’t always get all the information. I collect most of it, I let other people read it, so they’d tell me about it, I read some of it, not all of it. If it’s long it’s tiring. What I do it listed to a lot of read aloud stories.

Because you become some sort of a survivor, then there’s loneliness.

You’re a surviving person. You look forward. You’re target oriented a lot of times. A group does not like personal goals so you miss there a lot of things. Any person who’s a CEO or owns a company is some kind of a loner.

Regarding my family, I don’t think I have a problem because of my disability. The greatest advantage is that my son is also learning disabled. He received a read made toolbox pretty much from the first day, which helps a lot. He reads and writes pretty well. First of all, we tested him right away in first grade and he received accommodations and we didn’t use them, so that he’d practice. We didn’t give up on anything for him even if it was difficult, that’s the way it was. He’s doesn’t write too well. He’s not going to be an author but he received a more comfortable toolbox: Private tutoring for those things that were problematic all the way to reading books to him till sixth grade so he will not stop acquiring his cultural capital. One of the hardest things for people like us is to obtain cultural capital and the moment they know or want or are ready to insist on cultural capital because it’s important to them, then it come out because people find you interesting, people want to hear your opinion, you know things, suddenly you find out about more things because it keeps pushing you forward. Cultural capital is a very very important tool for every teenager.

Whenever I need to advocate for myself it was through humour. ‘What do you want from me, I’m dyslexic. Do you want the certificate? That I’m disabled?’ And you move on. I come from a position of power and knowledge so it’s easy.

There were a lot of people who were significant for me as I was developing. For example, there’s G. Who gave me the courage to do business; there’s my wife who was always behind the scenes looking out for things. She brought me to the conclusions that if you’re missing something you can buy it. There’s Y. who taught me banking. Who else? There are all kinds of people from who I’ve learned law. There’s I. who taught me to choose, to choose according to what I thing. He’s been accompanying me for many years. It’s not something specific that he made an influence on me, he’s just with me and I’m influenced by him. He’s a very clever man. My parents were not significant for me as they were too busy with themselves. Neither were teachers, who made no impact on me. Up until my military service it was simply a journey of survival. I’d like to say to people with a learning disability: Keep on wanting and do not be afraid to fail.

The central theme of R.’s narrative is his practical approach to describing his ways of successfully coping with his disability. These strategies included:

  1. 1.

    Accepting the fact that he could not read or write like everyone else. He chose not to deny it but to accept it as a given.

  2. 2.

    During his studies at school, he adopted a position of a survivor. For example, he learned how to be nice to others so they will let him copy their homework due to his difficulty reading and writing.

  3. 3.

    Identifying people who could help him overcome his reading and writing disability, such as his wife and good friends.

  4. 4.

    Using humour as a strategy.

In addition to these practices that R. developed over time, he had some internal qualities that helped him succeed: relentless passion to succeed and commitment to achieve the goals he set for himself; his strive for independence and autonomy; continuously challenging himself; lack of fear of failing; and finally, his willingness and ability to learn from others. All of these qualities are accompanied by his worldview that the past is meant only for learning lessons and does not define you in any way and that a person must always focus on the future. In R.’s story we see that these personal characteristics were more influential than external factors in shaping his sense of efficacy. His willingness and persistence to succeed, his ability to constantly challenge himself, and all his other qualities are what led him to the success he achieved.

4 Pupils with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder. Its diagnosis includes symptoms of inattentiveness, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity, which leads to marked impairments in everyday life. According to DSM5 (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), ADHD symptoms are manifested before the age of 12. Worldwide, ADHD has a prevalence of 5–7% among school-age children and remained relatively stable over the years. Leading symptoms in childhood are impulsiveness and hyperactivity, although they often decrease in adulthood. In adulthood, inattentiveness becomes the leading symptom. It is also possible that children who display mostly inattention and not impulsiveness or hyperactivity are less likely to be referred for evaluation by the school. Among adults, the prevalence of persistent adult ADHD (which started in childhood) was 2.58% and that of symptomatic adult (regardless of a childhood onset) ADHD was 6.76% (Song et al., 2021).

A recent study by Zablotsky et al. (2019) found that from 2009 to 2011 and from 2015 to 2017, there were overall significant increases in the prevalence of ADHD (8.5–9.5%). ADHD is often accompanied by comorbid conditions in childhood and adulthood, including learning disorders, other neurodevelopmental disorders, and internalising and externalising disorders which may further hamper the individual’s functioning and prognosis (Gnanavel et al., 2019).

Pupils with ADHD often face numerous difficulties at school. Fleischmann and Miller (2013) analysed online narratives of adults with ADHD who were diagnosed in adulthood. All of them reported major difficulties at school, stemming from academic, social, and interpersonal difficulties with teachers and peers. Some of these difficulties were the result of blaming them for being lazy or for having a maladjusted personality. Difficulties at school that many students with ADHD face include getting organised for school, maintaining attention and coping with distractions, preparing for exams and writing papers, and regulating their classroom behaviour.

Graham et al. (2016) conducted a meta-analysis of 44 studies on writing skills of students with ADHD studying in 1st to 12th grade. They found that pupils with ADHD received lower scores compared to their peers for writing quality, output, spelling, vocabulary, number of genre elements, and handwriting.

Major et al. (2013) found in their study of adolescents with ADHD that girls reported the lowest levels of self-regulated learning self-efficacy. In contrast, boys with and without ADHD reported similar levels of self-efficacy. In addition, Major (2011) found that among adolescents with ADHD, self-reported inattention symptoms predicted self-efficacy for learning beliefs, beyond the impact of academic achievement and internalising difficulties. Thus, it is likely that secondary school pupils who reported high levels of inattention may develop lower expectations of their ability to cope with academic tasks that require self-regulation strategies.

The academic challenges that high-functioning individuals with ADHD faced at school are reflected on Y.’s story. He is 41 years old, divorced with one child, and a successful businessman in the restaurant business. Here is his story:

I was born and grew up in a small town in the northern part of the country, a development town with all its implications—poverty, unemployment, and at the beginning of the 80s it naturally also meant lots and lots of drugs and crime, naturally.

I grew up in a family that found it difficult to make ends meet. My dad was a simple worker, my mom was a home-maker with four kids, and then five kids. It wasn’t easy. I was the firstborn, which is very important to my family, as you will soon find out. Since my dad was the only son, he, too, was a beloved son in his family and I was the first grandson to carry on the family name so there was an issue here, which I laughingly call ‘being the chosen one’. I was anointed to be the firstborn in the family to carry on the family name. Obviously, I was my grandfather’s favourite son, and I was selected in advance to be the one who will need to lead the way. That meant that if I did something wrong as a kid, they’d tell me: ‘Oh, you’re the firstborn. You should set an example [an alternative translation: be a role model] to others.’ My grandmother had 12 children, was married twice, but it was still obvious that I was the favourite grandchild. My family’s message to me was: ‘You are the one who will redeem this family from its current status.’

At the age of 12 I’ve already realised that what I want is to open a restaurant, and that having a better mathematical ability or if I’ll know literature better, it won’t help me get where I want. So, the school invited my parents and me to dozens of meetings. How the school counsellor called it? ‘You’re an oversight of the system.’ I’ll never forget that sentence she said. ‘You’re an oversight of the system. We oversaw you. You were supposed to be an excellent pupil in high school and eventually you’re ….’ I was the chair of the pupils’ council, meaning that socially I was a social leader. I was the first chair of the pupils’ council to get kicked out because he did all sorts of things against the system. Today I know that it was either channelling my energies and talent against the system or for it, depending on who was leading me. I’ve had amazing teachers along the way, all of whom believed in me and saw me as an exceptional child. It was clear to everyone that I was exceptional. I was a sharp, intelligent, breadwinning kid. From the age of 12 I provided for myself, from the age of fourteen I’ve already earned money to support my brothers and my family. I brought money home. I was a kid who at the age of 14 or 15 earns more money than his teachers. I guess I have ADHD but at that time they didn’t diagnose it. Today I notice that I’m fidgety and I do it all the time. Today they call it ADHD but back then I was a kid with lots of energies.

When I was 12, I received as a birthday gift a horseback riding course. I started learning how to ride horses and at that time I fantasised how I’d become a famous horse trainer and how I’ll become famous and how I’ll be the best in that field. After the course ended, in order to keep paying for horseback riding lessons I worked at the farm doing everything possible, be it gardening or dishwashing or organising the drinks storage. The drinks storage had a wall full of bottles of wine. I fell in love with the subject of wine and I started asking people about it. I met people along the way who helped me a lot and gave me the opportunity to learn from them, from their knowledge. At the age of 18 I’ve already managed a restaurant. After my military service I’ve already managed my second restaurant which was very very famous. And then the Intifada (Palestinian uprising) started and I went bankrupt, as nobody was travelling up north, neither tourists nor locales. So, I ran away to Tel Aviv and there my only choice was to do what I know, which is waiting tables. I also had debts and arrest warrants and policemen looking for me. Within half a year after I moved to Tel Aviv, I’ve already managed my first restaurant there, with a thousand sitting places.

Today I am the holder of controlling interest in a company of restaurants.

In hindsight I know that the people I’ve met along the way are those who led me. The owner of the farm where I used to work saw in me a person he could take under his wings and help develop. He used to tell me: ‘Come have a look, come and do this, come and learn’, and ‘you can do more than that’ and he led me to excellence and efficacy. I had a high school teacher who believe in me and told me, ‘You’re an exceptional child and you need to do more and you need to lead.’ One of the things that I remember is when my father worked as a school caretaker. In return for his hours at the school, he could get me into various extracurricular activities there, so I joined a piano class. After I started playing the piano, the piano teacher came to my parents and told them: ‘Listen, he has a special talent. I want to help him progress.’ Only that it cost money. So, my parents told him: ‘OK, but we can’t pay for extra classes.’ And then he said: ‘I’d teach him for free.’

When I worked as a kid in the farm, I’ve met well-known people, celebrities or artists or successful people. And I understood that they’re like me and you. They were born as ordinary people and they succeeded because they dared. And if you would dare, then you, too, can succeed.

There’s a project for which I’ve been volunteering for the last couple of years called ‘sparks’. In this project we bring to schools successful and brilliant people in their profession to tell the kids about themselves.

There’s a school that we’re adopting now, in which we use the culinary world to work with kids and show them that everybody can. The issue is how much you dare, are you willing to be there and what are you willing to do to get there, what you are willing to sacrifice, what you are willing to give from yourself.

When I was a kid, my goal was to open a restaurant and help my family make a living, OK? Then my goal was to work in the most exclusive restaurant, the biggest restaurant. I’ve always wanted the most. After I’ve achieved that, I looked for a different meaning. I’ve decided that my goal was to promote Israeli wines, but my goal today is already to promote Israeli products in general, not just wine. So, the meaning kept expanding. My goal today is to empower other people here in Israel and around the world. What’s important is to believe in a kid—that’s what strengthened me.

There are two significant elements in Y.’s narrative. The first element consists of some powerful personality characteristics. The second element is based on people who believed in him and saw his talent and exceptionality from an early age.

The inspiring personality characteristics of the first element were evident from an early age. Thus, at the early age of 12, he has already decided that he wants to have his own restaurant. And he did, eventually developed a career in the restaurant industry. He demonstrated diligence and willingness to work hard from an early age, and by the age of 14 or 15 he earned more money than his teachers and helped support his family. He also knew how to channel his passion hyperactivity to positive energy and to practice. He showed curiosity and willingness to learn in-depth various topics that interested him. In addition, he had highly developed social skills that were demonstrated in becoming the chair of the pupils’ council at a young age. He always set high goals for himself, for example, to excel or to earn money. And every time he achieved these goals, he set up for himself new challenges and new meanings.

When we examine external factors, although there were people like his school counsellor who conveyed a message that he does not fulfil his potential at school, most people that he met early in life believed in him. These were his teachers who said he was exceptional and believed that he will go far, or his piano teacher who saw his musical talent and agreed to teach him for free as his parents could not afford the piano lessons. Then there was the farm owner where he worked as an adolescent, who saw Y.’s curiosity about the world of wine and used every opportunity to teach him about this world.

Still, his family’s expectation of him to be a role model and to take his role as the family’s firstborn created an internal conflict: on one hand, it appears that his expectation drove him to excel and stand out, but on the other hand, it created an obstacle since he did not follow the conventional pathway and did not accept school and family expectations.

Another element that Y. emphasises relates directly to Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. Y. recalls that when he was working at the farm during his high school years, he met rich or famous people and these encounters helped him develop the insight that he, too, can work hard and succeed like them. Observing a successful model is one of the main factors that shape self-efficacy in Bandura’s theory.

Currently, he is at a stage in life in which he seeks a meaning beyond his personal career achievements, a meaning that will be based on a contribution to his society and country: Y. seeks to promote his world recognition of Israeli wines and to strengthen children’s self-efficacy so that they will believe in themselves. Thus, eventually, Y. fulfilled his parents’ expectation to serve as a role model for others.

We would like to conclude this section with a sentence that Y. emphasised throughout his narrative: All children need adults who believe in them.

5 Pupils with Blindness or Low Vision

While pupils with blindness, low vision, or partial sight are often considered as a homogeneous group of pupils, the aetiology of blindness or low vision can be explained by a multiple of conditions including congenital disorders or acquired blindness or low vision later in life. Various factors such as the level of residual vision, age of onset, the ophthalmological diagnosis, and comorbidity of other disorders may all influence the pupil’s development and school functioning. Naturally, like nondisabled pupils, one’s intelligence and level of cognitive functioning, as well as emotional factors such as motivation and sense of self-efficacy, vary widely and can significantly affect the pupil’s learning and functioning at school.

When children with low vision or blindness move about in the world, options for performing tasks and succeeding in performing various tasks through learning from other peoples’ experiences are limited. The complete absence of, or partial input from such an important sense as vision, can permanently alter a child’s emerging self-efficacy. If included in regular schools, pupils with blindness or low vision may have teachers who lack the necessary knowledge and skills about teaching them, using Braille and assistive technologies that can help them better cope with classroom demands. Additional challenges can be a sense of loneliness or cope with additional emotional issues or disabilities (de Verdier, 2016; de Verdier & Ek, 2014). According to a recent review of the literature on inclusion of pupils with blindness or low vision, mathematics, science, and physical education were the least accessible subjects at school, and participation in classroom activities was challenging (Miyauchi, 2020).

Surprisingly, the research on the development of self-efficacy of children and adults with blindness or low vision is scarce.

Pinquart and Pfeiffer (2011) conducted a one-year longitudinal study to analyse the connections between self-efficacy beliefs and psychological adjustment, attainment of developmental tasks, and academic achievements of German adolescents with and without blindness or low vision. Interestingly, they found only small differences between the two groups in levels of self-efficacy beliefs. Similar to other studies on self-efficacy of nondisabled students, Pinquart and Pfeiffer found that higher levels of sense of self-efficacy predicted positive change in psychological adjustment, academic achievement, and greater progress attaining developmental tasks. However, among pupils without blindness or low vision, they found emotional symptoms and a discrepancy between desired and current attainment of developmental tasks. Based on their findings, they recommended to support students with blindness or low vision by developing supportive external conditions for goal attainment and increase their self-management skills, so that these pupils could translate their sense of self-efficacy into positive feelings and goals accomplishment.

Similar findings were reported by Alsadat Makkiyan et al. (2016), who investigated sense of self-efficacy among high school girls in Tehran who had blindness or low vision. The study found that these girls’ academic self-efficacy was similar to sighted peers’ self-efficacy.

While listening to the inspiring life stories of some of our interviewees with blindness or low vision, we were curious to learn how they develop their self-efficacy like their sighted peers. What part of their upbringing helped one of them drive a bus, work in a heavy machinery workshop, or take a course in paragliding?

Given the appropriate training, such as self-regulation strategies, pupils with blindness or low vision can succeed in academically challenging courses, such as high school physics (Jabarian et al., 2016).

The following are some recommendations for schools regarding effective supports for pupils with blindness or partial vision.

Schools must accommodate students with blindness or low vision with valid educational and psychoeducational assessments, an accessible curriculum design, and instruction using alternative or adapted modalities of communication and presentation. In addition, an accessible and adapted curriculum for pupils with blindness or low vision should also include issues such as mobility, independence, Braille reading and typing, daily living skills, and, when necessary, adaptations of printed materials and physical education. Other important aspects that should be included in the education of pupils with blindness or low vision are social and emotional learning, to prevent social isolation and emotional difficulties. When pupils with blindness or low vision study in inclusive settings, the curriculum must also address age-appropriate inclusion training of sighted peers and the educational staff.

In Israel and elsewhere, some organisations focus on developing assistive technology and devices that could enhance the functioning of children with physical or sensory disabilities, including at school. For example, OrCam, an Israeli technology company, recently developed a special device that attaches to glasses and can read any text or identify faces. More recently, the company introduced in 2020 ‘OrCam Hear’, the world’s first artificial intelligence-driven, wearable assistive technology device for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. This device combines lip reading with simultaneous voice source separation. Such a device could greatly help pupils receive and comprehend classroom discussions and interact more freely with their peers.

M. is a woman with congenital blindness who shared her unique life story with us. She is at the age of 60, married with two children. She is a storyteller and a writer:

I was born in a city in central Israel by the coast in 1961. My parents came from Turkey. They were simple people, not educated. My father started working at age thirteen, as his family forced him because there was no choice. My mom, too, studied in Turkey till she was ten years old. I have two older siblings. My sister was fifteen years old when I was born and my brother was nine and a half years old, which means that there was a great age gap among us. Since I was born on the seventh month of pregnancy and I was in a difficult condition, they transferred me to the preterm unit in another city, which in those days felt like going abroad. The staff at the hospital told them: ‘don’t come, why are you coming to visit her? Don’t you have other children? We’ll tell you…if there would be anything to take home, we’ll tell you about it.’ Because I was born 1.25 kilos. And one day they came and told my parents ‘that’s it, you can take the baby home. She’s in a condition that would allow you to take her back home.’ So, they took me home after I spent 3–4 months at the incubator, and it took some time till they found out that I can’t see. In fact, they found out about it by chance. So, hysterically, they took me to the doctor, who also became hysterical. But after a period of mourning, they recovered. These are things I don’t remember personally but I know them. So, after they recovered, the house recovered, and in fact it was my mom who decided that life must go on, that it was destiny, it was her luck, something that repeated itself all the time. My mom said: ‘That’s my lot, that’s my destiny and I will raise this child like I raised my other children.’ By that time, I was three years old and my sister was married and left home when. But my brother took me as his project. He decided that I would be a regular girl, that I won’t be this poor exceptional girl and what not. So, he taught me how to ride the bike in the yard by the house and he taught me how to swim in the sea (in my town there was only the beach, there were no swimming pools at that time, so the kids learned how to swim in the sea).

My brother was crazy. My mom was sure that he’d get me killed at some point. That at some point that crazy guy will kill this girl killed. ’Cause he didn’t understand that not only that I couldn’t see, I was not his age and he wanted that girl to do whatever he was doing. I was his ‘parrot’, I was his little poodle. You see, he would take me to visit his friends. They would take me for a ride and I sat on the bar of the bicycle, and later on they’d take for a ride on their scooter. What other kid would take his nine-year-old sister who’s younger than him to see his friends? But he’d take me because I was very attractive and very sweet, a kid who can talk and act and laugh. And he taught me the names of capitals, so I knew by heart all the capitals, and he’d ask me and I would answer him. Well, he got himself a parrot. We lived in a very nice neighbourhood, all greet, and when I was six or seven years old, we moved to the city centre just across the central bus station because my parents said that when I grow up and I’d want to travel and come back, it would be easier for me. And it was a good idea.

When I was about three years old my mom put me in a regular nursery because she said ‘she’s bored at home, so…there’s a nursery in the neighbourhood’ and they put me there. And the teacher was a bit apprehended and later on she loved me so much, she even came to one of my shows, really. She used to come to my home and a few years ago I met her daughter at one of my shows and she said ‘you know, she loved you very much’. I knew that. When I have already left the kindergarten to first grade, she told me that she misses my hand…as she used to give me her hand when we’d walk to the orchard or to other places. And I also had an itinerant teacher (a rehabilitation teacher for the blind) who apparently also helped my mom. These teachers visited blind students so she, too, taught me a few things, such as how to play in the playground or how to recognise all kinds of coins, she taught me all sorts of things. I don’t remember very well but I do know that she was meaningful.

But where could I study? We had a visit from a woman who was related to the school for the blind and she told my parents: ‘There’s only one place where she could learn, and that’s the school for the blind in Jerusalem. That’s it.’ And my parents were shocked by the idea of separating from their daughter, because it was a residential school and my brother said ‘I’m running away…if you get her out of the house then I’m leaving, too, take that into consideration. I won’t be here.’ But they said: ‘OK, but should we leave her dumb without studying? What would happen?’ I remember that initially they sent me to a regular school and it was terrible. One day I went to school and all the kids yelled ‘blind, blind, blind’ and I came back home and I didn’t want to go there anymore. So, I stayed for another year in kindergarten because there was a problem, the city didn’t agree that I would get a ride to Tel Aviv at its expense. But then we found out that there was a model school in Tel Aviv which was a wonderful school, the first in the country to integrate seeing and blind pupils in the same class. That meant 1 or 2 blind students with 30 seeing students in the same class. And then I started studying at the model school, and it was a wonderful place for me, I really loved the school.

It was an inclusive school. It’s not that they’d leave the blind student in the class to his own resources. There was a class there, which we called ‘the Braille class’. And the teachers there that whenever there was any difficulty, first they copied all the tests for us in Braille, made sure that we had books, get us whatever we needed from the library for the blind, and everything else. They had there all you needed for geography, special maps and geometry tools. You could get help in anything you needed, in math, too. I didn’t know math, I don’t know math to this day, so I received a lot of help with math. And if you had to draw electrical circuits for science lessons and all that we could do it at that class. It means that everything we needed was there—the tools, the teachers. And it was integrated. The truth is that they usually took out kids from art class or from other kinds of classes. In physical education, I could practice with the seeing pupils and we had a physical education teacher for the blind with us and there was a lot of affirmative action. That means they took us to all kinds of tours and trips, whatever you wanted, and gifts for Hanukkah and tapes. There was a lot of affirmative action going on which the other kids didn’t like too much, as they said that we were pampered and they weren’t and it wasn’t very nice for them, not at all.

[Doing part of her show]: The model school was across a big park. Every free period that we had we’d run to play in the park. The park, at that time, was much nicer then than it is today. But I’m not going to tell you about the fun in the park but about math classes. Every Thursday at nine O’clock we had a math class. The teacher would ask ‘Who didn’t do their homework? You’d better tell me now because if I catch anyone…Z. [name of another pupil] please come with your notebook to the board.’ It was hot, and we’d hear the 5th graders getting out of school as they were learning how to swim in the pool every Thursday. We knew that next year it would be our turn to learn how to swim, but in the meanwhile, Z. was sweating at the blackboard and I didn’t do my homework, either. But I didn’t care. I quietly opened my school bag, took out a towel, a swimming suit, water wings, and got out. That’s how it went every Thursday at 9 o’clock. Because they used to take the blind kids at the school to the swimming pool every year, along with the fifth graders. The class knew exactly where I was going, and those who didn’t know could understand from my wet hair.

Then one day the teacher said to the class: ‘M. approached during one of the breaks and she said that during recess she’s all by herself. Nobody is playing with her, no one approaches her. I’d like to hear what you think about it, my darlings?’ And then Z. and another kid got up and said: ‘Teacher, do you think that she’s unfortunate? We’re unfortunate! Teacher, we need to read for her what’s written on the board, that OK, I’m willing to help with that. But, teacher, why do we need to carry around her heavy school bag, her Braille machine, or to pick up the chair and put it on the desk at the end of the day for her royal highness? What is she, a princess? Does she think we’re her servants? She has hands, doesn’t she?’ And the class repeated after him: ‘That’s exactly how it is! That’s exactly how it is!’ And another kid said: ‘Teacher, that’s not fair, you pamper her. We got our punishment and we didn’t join the fourth grade trip, but she—she did go on that trip, let alone her going to the swimming pool every Thursday.’

So, with great, great sorrow I ‘fired’ all the servants and started carrying things by myself. But deep in my heart I knew that even when I carry things around like a porter, in fact I’m a princess.

That’s part of my show.

I was the teachers’ pet and, as always, I studied whatever I liked, while I didn’t study those subjects I didn’t like, and it was all fine.

I used to write rhymes from an early age, from second grade on I wrote poems, and in fact I was kind of a wonder child and I’ve had a few good friends. My class didn’t like me and I didn’t like my class, either. I had friends; I wasn’t a lonely child or anything like that. Now, the two very important skills that they taught me at that school were: How to swim, in addition to what my brother had taught me, and the second thing was to touch type. Later on, I used to correspond with everybody. I corresponded with whomever I wanted, authors, etc. I would send letters to whomever was willing to read them. My mom and dad helped me with the envelopes and stamps. Someone else would write the address on the envelope, such as my niece or friends. Today it’s much simpler. That was it for the model school where I studied until eighth grade. I really liked the school and they really loved me there. I’m still in touch with one of my teachers.

Then I went to a high school in my city [in central Israel by the coast], which was nearby, you could say. I mean, it took me 20 minutes to get there, but it was nearby. It was a regular high school, with no integration services for students with disabilities. There was no resource room teacher or anything. And there were no specialised itinerant teachers for the blind at that time. Now, I did get help with math, and if I needed any other help, they took care of me. They did not desert me. Again, I was much loved there. I also had an excellent relationship with my bible teacher with whom I’m in touch to this day. He helped me a lot. He was also the coordinator of social life at the school so I did a lot of things that helped him. That means that once I organised a poetry reading evening, and once I prepared a revue for one of the holidays. We were very connected. And I had a good connection with other teachers, too. Then, during my senior year, I did a project with the bible teacher’s encouragement and it won first place in some competition. In short, I had a good time in high school. What I didn’t want to study I didn’t study, as usual. I used to stroll down the corridors in those times, and they let it go. I let it go. And it was all fine. Again, I had a few really good friends, only two of them from my class. You don’t need more than that when you have one or two or three good friends that you like, do you?

Of course, at that time the parties start, and the whole thing of ‘did they invite me for a dance’ or ‘did they not invite me for a dance’, boys and girls and all of that, with all the frustrations and falling in love and the like. And that was it, high school was over. At that time people with disabilities didn’t go to the army.Footnote 3 I had a blind friend who did serve in the army but she was really pioneering.

It’s important to note that until ninth grade, I didn’t get around by myself, they always took me everywhere, I was very dependent. And in ninth grade I told my dad that I don’t want any lifts to school and that I’ll walk to school with a white cane. That’s when my romance with the cane started. That was also the time when the rehabilitation teacher came. Without that help I’d be like a dead person, really. They taught me everything. ’Cause my mom didn’t know how to give me independence. Starting with walking down the street, they taught me how to cross roads, how to orient myself in places such as the high school, the university, a workplace, anywhere I need to go. Or to the health services or the grocery story, whatever was needed. And they taught me how to do the laundry and how to make myself an omelette and prepare a salad and peel vegetables and cook…everything, really.

My mom taught me how to clean the bathroom and the like. That she did. But not at the kitchen, God forbid. That was her kingdom. And then they taught how to put diapers on a baby and feed him and hold him and set his bed and carry him in a sling on my stomach and then on my back. These teachers would come to you whenever you needed them, say when you’re moving to a new apartment you want them to teach you how to find your way around in this new space. So, when I started my studies at the university, the teacher was like my mother. She’d come three times a week, which is a lot. She taught me how to make some food. You can’t buy food at the dining hall all the time, can you? I did buy meals at the dining hall, but I could also cook some for myself, you know—some soup, some stew, something not complicated, that students make for themselves. I needed help in how to buy things at the store, how to get to the university, how to find my way around it. I needed to learn where the classes are, or where the bathroom was. And that was in a campus where even seeing people find it hard to find their way around. And I remember that if anyone would try to help me, I’d refuse, only if he was going to my class, ’cause if he were wrong then he would mislead me and there was no chance I’d find my way. Nowadays they invite me to talk to these rehabilitation teachers during their training.

And then a big commotion started. I said that I will live in the dorms, I won’t come home every day, and all that. And my mom would come, mom and dad, or my mom and my sister would show up at the dorms every week to see me, to cook for me, to bring me food and to clean, etc. Every week or every other week they’d take the bus in the morning to the university and come visit me. Again, the rehabilitation teachers taught how to find my way around at the university, how to cook a little bit for myself.

I spent a lot of years at the university. I started at the eighties, and left in the nineties. I took a break for two years for completing all the papers I had to submit, and I dragged it on for many, many years. And for the master’s degree I said OK, I’ll do it for my mom. But I don’t want to write a thesis. I completed my degrees in literature and biblical studies and I also got a teaching certificate. I tried teaching but I can’t impose discipline on myself so how would you expect me to discipline children. Or other people. Very soon it was clear that it wasn’t for me. Kids would take their shoes off and leave the classroom to see whether…perhaps if I were less lazy…because, you know, teaching requires a lot of preparation and learning materials and if I were more determined…perhaps. I was a teacher of seeing pupils.

So, I completed my studies, with an extra year in Jerusalem for various course completions. It was a very important year for me from a social perspective. During my bachelor studies I had to study all by myself. That means that if there was a test, for example, how was I supposed to answer it? Someone had to read it to me. So, I had to figure out who would read it to me, where we would sit. Then I would read the test I wrote to my lecturers. I had to read books, articles. I had to find people to read them to me, to go to the library and get the books and all that. The library copied for me some of the materials, and for others I had volunteers who read to me. There were always volunteers. When I went to Jerusalem for my master’s degree, there was a lot of help there. They would pay the readers and I had people who read for me and there were people who took care of getting books for me. I didn’t have to go to the library to look for them, and I had people who read the tests to me. Lots of things, and that was a great relief. So, after having such a difficult time during my bachelor degree, it was all of a sudden so much easier.

After living in the dorms for one year and following the completion of my studies, I insisted on moving to an apartment. At first, I thought that I’d move in with other people and rent the apartment with them. But my parents were concerned that I would have to move from one rented place to the next and exactly at that time we received some financial help from a friend of my parents who passed away. In short, they managed to buy an apartment for on the main road in a central city so it would be easier for me. I lived there for 12 years. I got married there, I had my children there. So, I moved to that apartment and again every few weeks my mother and my sister would come, so the house would be up to their standards, which I really didn’t care about. Everything had to be shining, organised, clean and folded. In short, as if it were an army base, with very high standards of order and cleanliness which I rebelled against and I still rebel against.

After completing my studies, I thought to myself, ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ Then someone told me that there was an occupation called storyteller, and perhaps I should try it because I didn’t want to be a teacher and what else can you do with a literature degree? I didn’t want a master’s degree with a thesis in literature or a Ph.D. So, I started telling stories in some public library in my city which is in central Israel by the coast, and I really didn’t know how to do it well and I was really bad at it and they didn’t know at that time in Israel how to do storytelling properly. I was about 30 years old at that time, without a boyfriend, without a job. I wanted to publish a children’s book. The publishing houses kept returning my manuscript, it was really depressing. I my mom said: ‘The greatest darkness is a sign that the sun is about to rise.’

Then one day a kindergarten teacher called me and I was already beginning to publicise that I was a storyteller, whenever I managed to organise a performance or something. So, she called me and said, ‘I’d like you to come to my kindergarten for storytelling but not for the kids—for other kindergarten teachers. The first part should be related to Independence Day, and for the second part you can do whatever you want.’ So, we scheduled and I agreed and I had no idea what to do. I thought to myself that in the second part I’d tell them some children’s story, after all, they were kindergarten teachers and that’s the only kind of stories I could tell, that was it, and even that wasn’t too great. But what could I do for the first part about Independence Day? What could I do? I was pulling my hairs one by one, really, and I said, ‘Oh my God, how did I get myself into something like that?’ By the way I always do that—I say ‘yes’ and then I want to kill myself. Then one morning I got up and said OK, I know about this very famous poet in Israel and he’s related to Independence Day, isn’t he? And I love this poet so perhaps I could talk about him, read some of his poems that are related to Independence Day and it will be OK. But then I said to myself, ‘what am I, a lecturer?’ Am I going to lecture them about this poet? Nah, that’s not what was meant to be. So, I said to myself, perhaps I could tell them how I got to know this other poet (who is also the first poet’s daughter) and about our relation and all that. ’Cause when I was 14 years old, I picked up the phone one day and called his daughter. I’ve sent her some of my poems and a relationship started. So, I came to this meeting with the kindergarten teachers with notes in my hand, with red eyes from lack of sleep and without having the faintest idea whether what I’m going to tell them is worth anything. And I was lucky to start out with kindergarten teachers, because these teachers—when they love you, they’re like kids—they extroverts, they whistle, they call out loud and they hug you and kiss you, you know. So that was my great luck because with any other audience I would have started out they would say, ‘great, here’s your check. Thanks, it was very nice, you can go home’, and nothing else would have happened afterwards. But these teachers were crazy. I told them about this young poet and mixed in some poems of her dad and it was about Independence Day and it went great. And I told them about the time I called her and how she said to me ‘OK, send me some of your poems and we’ll be in touch’ and I sent them to her. She called me, and then she started calling me on Monday afternoons and instead of talking about my poems we talked about her, about her life. What was it like to be the daughter of a man who wasn’t at home, actually both parents weren’t at home. Her mom (a famous actress) was at the theatre, her dad was at the café and would come home late, all drunk, and that he had a mistress. Bit by bit, these conversations became harder and harder for me. I was a sensitive 14-year-old girl who loved her father, the poet. It became more and more difficult and one day she either jumped through the window or fell from the window and that was it. I just heard on the radio that she was gone. And only two days earlier I spoke to her. Then I wrote my senior year project on her father and I wrote a chapter about the relationship between her and her father, and these kindergarten teachers loved what I told them. They said to me ‘listen, this is your story. You should go on stage with your story, you have to tell it, you have to.’ I came back home, drunk with victory, and I told myself: ‘Well, then, let’s get on the stage.’ But then I heard an inner voice: ‘what stage? You’re blind, you can’t move, you can’t act—what stage are you talking about?’ But I was deaf, I didn’t listen to that inner voice. I said ‘no, no. I’ll perform on a stage.’ So, I called this singer and I told her: ‘Listen, I know you sing this poet’s songs and I have this story about him etc. Let’s perform together.’ And she said: ‘Listen, I spend a lot of time overseas and you sound like a serious person.’ And I also told her that I was blind to get her attention immediately. But then she offered that I’d contact someone else who takes her place when she’s overseas. And I went to that other woman’s house, and I didn’t realise that my luck was following me. So, I came in and she said to me: ‘Listen, I’m pregnant. I’m really tired. If I don’t fall asleep then it’s a sign that your story is good.’ So, I told her the story about this poet from beginning to end, it was much better composed by that time, and she didn’t fall asleep. So, we added songs to the story, and since she used to work a lot with the theatre and knew a bit how to direct, she directed me—how to sit, how to do this and that. So, we had a show. But now, how do we get an audience? How do we bring this show from darkness to light? She gave birth and I got more depressed because I already had something good in my hand, something that I thought was good, and I had no idea what to do with it.

Then one night I was listening to a radio show at midnight, and this blind guy from Jerusalem, whom I knew, went on air, and I said to myself—‘go ahead, if he can talk on the radio, why can’t I? I could tell them about the show and all.’ So, I called and said to myself, ‘now, that’s like an advertisement, as if I’m telling about the show. And I’m going to tell them that I’m blind and they’ll let me say whatever I want to say.’ So, I called the producer, told her I was blind and immediately she let me talk on air. I started talking about this show and the radio host remembered that many years ago I called another programme and told him about my connection with this young poet and all of that, and he remembered me. And I said that I have this show with a singer. It’s just that from all the excitement and my ego I forgot to say who the singer was. I simply forgot. So two minutes before the end of the radio show he asked: ‘And what about a boyfriend?’ And I said: ‘OK, do you want to fix me up with a boyfriend? Go ahead. Do that.’ So, he said: ‘would you be willing to tell us your telephone number on air?’ Now, at that time there were no mobile telephone, just a landline. So, I said to myself: ‘go ahead. Just do it’ and I did. From that moment on, the telephone started ringing. All the men in the country, smart, stupid, idiots, drug addicts, Arabs, Jews, inmates, free people, anyone you want, started calling me. Thin, fat, anyone. They all called for a romantic acquaintance. So, I put the answering machine on and I didn’t answer anyone for a week. Let alone that one night I switched the phone to a ‘follow me’ mode to the local mental health hospital. I thought that whoever calls me from two O’clock in the morning that’d the right place for him. One day I forgot to cancel that service in the morning, so when I finally did cancel it, my mom called and said: ‘Well, did they finally hospitalise you?’ So, this is how I met my husband, about a week later. When I finally started answering the phone again, he called, told me he was a student at a high-ranking technical college and we met and after a year we got married. He can see but he’s an albino so he’s visually impaired.

The morning after I got on air someone called from one of the southern villages in Israel, and said: ‘Listen, I’m interested in your show. We’d like to invite you to our village. Just tell me who’s the singer you’re performing with? You forgot to mention her name yesterday.’ When I told him her name, he said: ‘She’s been conducting our choir for the last 15 years!’ As you can see, she’s really bad in promoting herself. So, we performed in that village and on that same week they invited us again, this time for a teachers’ conference. Boom! We started performing all over the south because all around the place people knew this singer, as she used to conduct choirs. Boom, we performed here, boom, there. Then I was interviewed during a very famous night show, and the next day there was a conference of a government subsidised project of ‘Arts to the People’. Everything worked out like clockwork, what can I say? We performed a lot. There was one month in which we performed ten times with this show. And we ran the show for like four or five hundred times. We were lucky that it all happened twenty years ago—today no one would give us a chance, I think. Then I got married and had two children. When my son was born, I was in euphoria. I had a caesarean section with both of my kids because somehow that’s how it developed. I had the surgery during the night and the next morning I was up on my feet, and they asked: ‘Don’t you want to take a pain killer or something?’ and I said, ‘No.’ Because a baby was what I wanted. I love babies. I just love them. I was 38 at that time. At that time people told me: ‘let’s prepare another show.’ And I said: ‘I’m sorry, I only have breastmilk on my mind. I can’t.’ It’s as if nothing else interested me, only that baby. That’s it. But later I pulled myself together and we did another show called ‘mom’s princesses’ which is a lovely, lovely show that ran something like forty times. And we worked on it with a lovely female director, and then four years later, when I was 42, I had my daughter and we started doing shows in Ladino Footnote 4 and about Ladino culture, so we got into that as well, and it wasn’t just the two of us—other people joined us as well. Since then, we’ve done lots of things, until we got to our special show which we run today of blind and seeing people. Unfortunately, we’re not very good at promoting ourselves. But we’re having five shows soon, so we’ll see.

However, when I don’t work, I’m dead. When I work, I’m alive. And I took it to an extreme that if you don’t work, you don’t have the right to exist. I was very extreme. Now we have some shows, but later there’s nothing scheduled. But it doesn’t matter, I had to get up on my feet. Since I didn’t know whether I’d work or not, I scheduled for myself some workshops which were very important to me. One of them is an advanced writing workshop, and since this one will end after several meetings, too, I also took a belly dancing class, which is not going to be too easy but it doesn’t matter. And I registered for a workshop on how to use my voice and for proper speech. That way I get out of the house, you see? Because if I don’t, my girl is all grown up, and my son who will soon be drafted to the army affected me a lot. As I was saying, my girl is grown up so she’s hauled up in her room or with her friends or by herself, and she doesn’t want me breathing down her neck. My husband comes back later from work around 8 or 9 in the evening, watches some TV and goes to sleep. So, I feel alone, and I need to create work for myself so I’ve just decided that I’m going to make up some things for myself that would make me feel good. That’s why I took this workshop and others. I’m not going to take something that doesn’t interest me or only half interests me. I’m very picky about where I’m going and why.

The most meaningful people for me as I was growing up were my brother and my mom. At least until I was 12, as later it became difficult because I had to deal with standards I couldn’t deal with.

My mom, first and foremost, means a lot of love, lots, unconditional, endless love. Which is the greatest engine there is. She raised me and cared for me like any other girl. Then when I grew up…she was very proud although…I didn’t turn out as she wanted. She expected that I would be a model homemaker and…I’m not. But she was very very proud of me. She’d come to my shows and sit and cry and get excited and was very very proud of me. Still, she said: ‘What kind of occupation is that? You should be a lecturer, have a steady job, because lecturers have lots of vacations and they travel overseas a lot.’ And ‘what’s this nonsense? Being an actress?’ and all that. At that time my whole family would come to see me (although my dad didn’t get to see me on stage) and they would come lots of times, it was amazing. It’s hard for me to explain because I think about all this love, anything that I would ask for. M. only needs to ask and she’ll get it immediately, without even thinking. And it’s not that I was so stubborn, not like the kids today, but they bought a piano for me at the age of 10, I think, and I took piano lessons for four years at the conservatory. I had a niece whom they used to tell, ‘You should take M., you need to bring M. back, you must read to M., you need this and you need that.’ So, it’s true, I didn’t pursue my musical abilities, I’m very musical, really. I play the recorder but I didn’t really develop my musical side, I’m not a pianist as you can see. But it doesn’t matter, they made an effort, you could say.

My dad, quietly, without much talking and all that, did whatever was needed. He fought for me going to Tel Aviv to the model school, for example. Writing letters, meetings with the mayor, this and that. In fifth grade the city wanted me to stop studying there, that I would start studying in my home town because they opened a school with an inclusive class. We went on strike. I was at home for two months and I didn’t agree to transfer to the new school. I said, ‘no, it’s a religious school, I’ll never go there.’ But the truth is that the fact that it was a religious school wasn’t the reason. I simply didn’t want to leave the model school.

Then, when they bought the apartment for me, with the money from the will that this family friend left for my family, there was a whole war going on about that will. My father used to go to courts for months, he’d come back pale and depressed and I knew that he was doing it for me. That’s the person he was, a modest and shy person who didn’t speak much and I knew that he went there to the courts and get bashed just so that I’d have an apartment, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to buy it. Even after that I paid mortgage for 20 years.

And there was my brother, who was crazy, I told you. Really crazy. And some of the teachers, such as my bible teacher. Look, my sister left home when I was three and she moved to a faraway city in the south, but they used to host me even before they had children, and I used to spend the vacations with them. And she taught me how to groom myself. They gave me a lot of courage, both my brother and my sister. Lots of love. My sister is all about endless giving, to this day. It’s suffocating and it’s hard because it’s overwhelming. They don’t ask you what you want or what you don’t want, they just give endlessly. So mostly it’s family and good friends.

I have some friends with whom I’ve had very long-term relationships. I have a friend with whom I went to the university, since 1980, who would help me a lot with books, and getting books out of the library and read to me. She took the same bible course with me and to this day we’re very good friends. G., the singer, is my soulmate, she my life, my right hand. Like a hand. We became real soulmates. So, if we don’t talk for two days then we ask ourselves what happened, and if everything’s OK.

The inner resources that helped me along the way were humour, that’s for sure, and optimism, because I’m an optimistic person. With all my terrible anxiousness I’m optimistic. I have a real joy of life. G., the singer, says that I’m hyperactive, but I’m not, not at all. But I have energy, lots of energy. That’s when I’m not in an extreme mood. I think I’m very naïve. I believe in people, though you sometimes get burned. And resourcefulness. I think I’m a resourceful person. I know how to get out of all sorts of situations…’cause I have no choice. ’Cause, let’s say that I need someone to quickly read for me an article within a week and its urgent, and I don’t have someone right now who could read it to me so I’m really solving a lot of issues that other people don’t… I mean, everyone needs to solve problems, everyone has these situations they have to cope with, but I have more, more than what others need to cope with. So, I already know how to get along.

We chose to present M.’s complete narrative because it presents, in a clear and rich way, the external and internal factors that strengthened M.’s sense of self-efficacy as a blind performer who appears on stages.

5.1 Environmental Factors

M.’s narrative gives a lot of emphasis to her parents—their history, their grief when her blindness was diagnosed, accepting blindness as her and their fate, deciding that life continues after grieving, and supporting her over the years. Her mother provided physical and logistic support (arranging apartments she moved into, bringing her food) and emotional support (encouraging her during difficult times and telling her how proud she was of her). Until today, her mother, who is an elderly woman, accompanies M. to her various performances.

M. describes her father as a shy and silent person. Still, he fought for her for many years against the educational system so she could study wherever she wanted and fought in court about her right to receive an apartment she inherited from a relative. Her parents made sure that she will go to inclusive settings from age three, but an inclusive school proved to be challenging, so they insisted on not sending her to a boarding school away from home. Thus, eventually she went to a school that included blind and seeing pupils.

Family decisions helped her become independent, for example, her parents moved to a different apartment that was closer to a bus station so she could get around by herself.

Another family member who supported her was her brother, who has decided that she will grow up to be just like everyone else. So, he taught her to ride the bicycle and swim in the sea, took her with him to spend time with his friends who were much older, and gave her world knowledge. In addition, her sister, who M. defines as a person of endless giving, accompanies her throughout life by giving her practical support.

Outside the family, there were educational figures who loved her very much and helped her through the school years. For example, the early childhood teacher who loved her very much and her teacher for the blind who taught her various practical skills and who was very meaningful to her.

The educational system provided accommodations for blind pupils that were very helpful: the teachers wrote in Braille the class’ texts, gave her special tutoring in math which was a difficult subject for her, made sure that in sports and art classes blind and seeing pupils will be together in class, and also made sure that the blind pupils will have fun, too, such as running freely in the park. In addition, when she went to the university, the library copied study materials for her and thus made studying at the university more accessible.

In the informal education system, there were the blindness specialists who accompanied her in several stages of life. They taught her activities of daily living and later how to take care of her baby.

Another group of people who were loyal companions throughout life were her good friends. Although M. mentioned several times in her narrative that she was not socially popular, that her peers sometimes mocked her or refused to do various chores for her such as carrying her school bag or lifting her chair on the table at the end of the day, there were always two to three good friends who stood by her. Even when she studied at the university, there were people who volunteered to read the study materials to her. M. also mentions one of Bandura’s sources of self-efficacy—vicarious experiences provided by social models. She listened to the radio to a man with blindness who was interviewed and decided that if he can be on an interview, so can she.

Besides all of these influential factors, M. gives place to another factor—luck. Thus, for example, she says that her first job offer—to perform to early childhood teachers—or the meeting with the singer who accompanies her to this day in various performances were all because of her good fortune.

5.2 Internal and Personality Factors

One characteristic that M. describes was that from an early age her image was of a sweet and lovable girl, to the extent that later she says she was a princess in her own view. Another talent that was clear from an early age was her writing talent. She even sent her poems to famous poets to provide her with feedback.

Her sense of humour is clear throughout her narrative. Indeed, she testifies about this quality in the first person. Humour makes it easier for people you interact with to accept you and creates a pleasant atmosphere. In addition, being a resourceful person helped her avoid unpleasant situation such as mathematics classes which she did not like and instead go to swimming lessons although she was too young to join these lessons. She has optimism and has a lot of energy. Another important quality was her determination to be independent. For example, she insisted on going alone by bus to school, and as a young woman insisted on moving to an apartment on her own.

She says that she did not listen to a hindering inner voice and fulfilled her goal to become a storyteller who performs on stage. Another quality that characterises her was being an open-minded and cooperative person. This ability helped her to get to know her husband, since when she was young, she agreed during a radio interview to publicly broadcast her phone number so she could meet some men. Even today she is not stagnating and continues to challenge herself with new courses that can help her in her performances, such as belly dancing and singing.

Her narrative, thus, reflects a complex and rich tapestry of a combination of environmental factors and personal characteristics that helped her develop her sense of self-efficacy.

So far, we’ve discussed the social and academic challenges that students with disabilities face and how personal traits and environmental factors both contributed to these challenges and, in some case, helped ameliorate them. However, important as these environmental factors may be, the individual’s unique character, motivation, and inner strengths are crucial in helping that individual become successful. The theory of positive psychology focuses on the individual’s strengths and successful experiences in coping with life’s challenges and attaining emotional states of happiness, wellness, and satisfaction. This approach emphasises positive emotions, strengths, inner resources, personal skills, and other positive traits (Seligman, 2002). Enhancing these resources could prevent the development of psychopathology and help the individual fulfil his potential (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to study how these resources enhance these individuals’ coping and enable them to become successful (Carr, 2011). It is particularly important with people who became successful despite significant challenges such as a childhood disability.

6 The Consequences of Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis

Mel Levine, a well-known author and paediatrician, in his books A Mind at a Time (2012) and The Myth of Laziness (2003) wrote about the importance of an accurate diagnosis that how it helps reveal these children’s strengths as well as their needs and to receive the help they need to succeed. However, he also wrote about the implications of misdiagnosis on the children and their parents.

Children with various childhood disabilities, especially a few decades ago when diagnostic tools were not sufficiently accurate and awareness of various diagnoses was low, were often misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed. Still, it appears that some children with disabilities receive and accurate diagnosis later than nondisabled children. For example, Tuominen-Eriksson et al. (2013) found that children with neuropsychiatric disorders, who did not have a developmental disability, were referred on average 30 months later than their nondisabled peers. Misdiagnosis of disabilities still occurs among gifted children or those who live in developing countries or belong to a minority group (Mullet & Rinn, 2015; Poon-McBrayer, 2011; Shojaee & Khamooshi, 2015). Others found that delayed diagnosis may occur among children with autistic spectrum disorder when they do not display early communication deficits, or among women due to less obvious presentation of communication, interests, and social differences and greater likelihood of imitating neurotypical people (Chester, 2019; Gesi et al., 2021; Sicherman et al., 2021). Delayed diagnosis can stem from diverse reasons: parents’ education and socioeconomic status, availability of resources and services, accessibility and proximity of clinics and experts, use of early screening, and the strength of parents’ organisations. It may also be affected by the type of welfare policy and the state’s history of de-institutionalisation for intellectual disabilities (Sicherman et al., 2021; Strosberg et al., 2008). Other researchers found that identification of autism spectrum disorder among minority groups is lower compared to the general population (Tromans et al., 2020)

Within the school system, there are many reasons that can obstruct an accurate diagnosis, stemming from lack of professional knowledge, ability, or training, shortage of professional personnel with the necessary diagnostic background, large classes, and lack of resources in general.

Many of our participants recalled difficulties created by the formal educational system’s failure to diagnose their disability and to provide them with appropriate supports.

A senior scientist with autistic spectrum disorder said:

The school’s psychologist didn’t know how to digest it because he found that there was a discrepancy between my intellectual age and my emotional age, and he didn’t know what to recommend to my parents. And in addition, there weren’t any classrooms for these things so.… (G.)

A difficulty recalled by many of the participants was the formal educational system’s failure to diagnose their disability. Without a clear, well-defined diagnosis, the educational teams did not know how to provide the necessary and sufficient support. A media professional with cerebral palsy and stuttering with normal intelligence said:

I was in a kindergarten for retarded children because they didn’t know if my problem was only physical retardation or if, in addition, I had what was called social mental retardation. (Ay.)

In addition, a veteran member of parliament with mobility difficulties and learning problems recalled:

Still, I was a kid with problems. In addition, [to my physical disability], they found after many years (in my time there was no evaluation) that I was also hyperactive and dyslexic and I had a few other problems that were not always evident. (I.)

A senior scientist with autistic spectrum disorder recalled his experience with the school’s psychologist:

[He] didn’t know how to digest it because he found that there was a discrepancy between my intellectual age and my emotional age, and he didn’t know what to recommend to my parents. And in addition, there weren’t any classrooms for these things so … many times it was just dreadfully boring for me at school. (G.)

When the educational system did not provide a professional evaluation and did not know how to help the student, it sometimes tried to transfer the student to other schools or to blame the children for their difficulties. Mu., a businessman, shared this: ‘My IQ was always above average, nearly genius, and my grades were low. It didn’t fit together and every time they tried to throw me out to other systems [special education], I didn’t fit in there, either.’

Similarly, H., A social activist, recalled painfully:

They always used to call me lazy at school ’cause I didn’t know things, but it wasn’t out of laziness, because I studied real hard but simply my brain didn’t know how to construct things, so in sixth or seventh grade the school counsellor called my parents and they found out that I had all Fs ’cause I didn’t go into the school, simply because it didn’t interest me. I used to play volleyball outside and they said that nothing would come of this girl.

Martha Thurlow, the director of US National Center on Educational Outcomes, stated: ‘All schools should be striving to hold students with disabilities to the highest standards and supporting them on the path to a regular diploma. We know that students with disabilities are highly capable of meeting high bars when we set them. And with the right supports, accommodations and services, it can be done. We should be giving every student the same opportunity for success’ (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2017a).

The educational system has the responsibility to identify both the skills and abilities of pupils and their special educational needs. Or, perhaps, it should have that responsibility. The purpose, of course, is that pupils will gain positive emotional, social, and educational experiences throughout the school years, given the necessary supports and accommodations. Still, sometimes the educational system fails to accurately diagnose the needs of children and to provide them with whatever will enable them to fulfil their potential.

Delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis often leads to delayed habilitation, which can be critical, given children’s sensitive period of acquiring various language, cognitive, and academic skills. In addition, as a child with disability grows up, one of the consequences of misdiagnosing a student’s disability can be teachers incorrectly labelling the student as ‘lazy’ (cf: Levine, 2003). One of our participants, a social activist with learning disability and ADHD, said:

They always used to call me ‘lazy’ at school ’cause I didn’t know things, but it wasn’t out of laziness, because I studied real hard, but simply my brain didn’t know how to construct things. (H.)

Her experience echoes narratives of other adults with disabilities who were diagnosed in adulthood, only after undergoing negative experiences in school and later in life (Fleischmann & Miller, 2013).

Following is the story of a successful businessman, who had severe dyslexia that was not diagnosed early, and his life is still affected by the implications of that late diagnosis. Mu. is the owner of a very large and prosperous tourism company with numerous branches around the world. But his story reflects the challenges he faced from an early age:

Until I started school my life was peachy. Everything was going OK. And then, when I had to start reading it just didn’t work, so in fact I couldn’t read until sixth grade, I didn’t read at all. Dyslexia at the highest level, I think. And if it weren’t for my mom, I probably wouldn’t read to this day. When I was in sixth grade, there was this educational or learning system from the US, which was an afternoon school where they actually taught me to understand or to begin to get reading in an organised way. So, it was in sixth grade that I started reading books, but I wasn’t there for the school, anymore. School was not for me.

I became a wild (uncivilised) child. I was wild because the teachers didn’t know how to accept me. My definition was ‘he’s lazy’. My IQ was always much, much above the average, at a level close to ‘genius’, but my educational attainments were very low. It didn’t fit together, so every time they tried to throw me out to external systems, that is, special education schools, I didn’t fit it there, either. I didn’t fit there ’cause my IQ didn’t fit there….

I mostly remember [others] laughing and kidding and making jokes at my expense…it wasn’t pleasant to be around. Everybody’s favourite game was mocking each other. That’s what I remember as a child, everyone making jokes at the expense of whoever was weaker. They’d all sit around on the terrace and each time mocking someone else. It wasn’t just me, every time it was someone else, but I couldn’t take it, I couldn’t stand it. I don’t know what it’s like in other villages but around here it wasn’t something great. The people around here aren’t great, either, but that’s another story. I studied in high school X, and they kicked me out. [Then] they placed me in vocational education and I guess I was wild there, too, and that was it. And then I got out in tenth grade, actually I was at a youth village [for children at risk] because they accepted me there and I didn’t like it, it wasn’t good for me there. I couldn’t stand that environment, it was hard and I left after three months, and my parents told me you’re not going to sit at home [and do nothing].

So, they arranged a job for me as an apprentice at the Israel Aerospace Industries and it was good till the point when the summer vacation started and I wanted to have one, too. So, they said, OK, you want to have a summer vacation? Go back to school one way or another and I went to work, in a work-study programme of vocational training for kids like me in a city in the southern part of the country. I had to complete math and I completed it in two months up to the level of eleventh grade. I wanted to learn how to be a mechanic but they said that I didn’t fit, that I was too smart for that—[they said] go study electricity, be an electrician, study electricity and industrial studies so I studied for eight months at a course of ten months and then I found out that once I complete it, I’ll be drafted to the air force and I didn’t want to go to the air force. So, I got up and left. I left two months before completing my certification, so I didn’t get a certification at that place, either. Then I worked with a tractor for a year until I was drafted to the army, and it was good for me. I would smoke cigarettes, hang out without my shirt on, I made money, I had lots of money in my pocket, I had a really nice time. I joined a combat team in the army and it was the first place for me where you were tested, a game changer in fact. The game changer was that without any prior history, your studies were of nobody’s business, you were assessed whether you’re good and had the ability. And the cohort to which I was drafted was the cohort of all the hooligans and my basic training was very very difficult. Socially, it was very difficult-not that anyone was giving me a hard time—the contrary—but it was simply a very very violent environment, very aggressive, very physical, but. That environment tested you based on your abilities. I completed basic training and I got to my battalion and in fact immediately they sent me to a military combat medics’ training. I was pretty much the only one around at that time who could both read and write. In fact, after medics’ training, I returned to my battalion as a medic and in the army, I was at a time when they had all these operations and special ops because at that time they did all sorts of special things and we got an article in a newspaper about it and in fact it helped me build my confidence and my pride so my dad suddenly started being proud of me. Not that my dad was a [good] pupil, dyslexia is hereditary. My dad completed six years of school. And he, too, succeeded very well. But I didn’t have much pride until that point. So, at that point when I was a combat soldier and highly appreciated and all that, that did a lot of good to him. And when I completed my service, I was a different person.

And all of that can be credited to this military unit that definitely instilled the people with pride. Suddenly you had something to be proud of, you were no longer a hooligan, and the environment, too, let us feel that this unit was something.

I guess they believed in me in the army, ’cause they took me as the only medic from the entire battalion for those operations, so I guess they did believe in me. At that time, they also wrote about me in the paper following some operation and it definitely builds your ego. That was the first milestone. After my military service I travelled, I worked as a medic for several months, got injured at a car accident and then I went to the US. I didn’t know the ABC, I could talk and chat, but I didn’t know how to read and write in English, I didn’t know the difference between I and E and A, I didn’t know anything. In fact, I’ve learned English all by myself. I went there for three months, and I stayed there about half a year, and after four or five months in the US of course I spoke fluent English. I managed to recognise the words better because I had to look up the map to see how to get from one place to the next. We drove by ourselves so I learned English by myself. My dad had a tourism company and I started working in it as a courier and then with groups and then I started handling bus reservations and hotels and bit by bit I’ve learned the trade, in fact step by step. Until from ’81 to ’87 there was a crisis in incoming tourism and then I move to work in outgoing tourism and I started working on my own, to make some progress on my own. So, I’ve learned a new trade that my dad didn’t know anything about and my mom didn’t know anything about and it was the first time that I took organised [formal] studying, to study for a certificate. That means I have two diplomas, one as a medic and the other as a tourism specialist. They didn’t even check if I completed my high school diploma, I just said I did, and I looked like a nerd, a good boy, it couldn’t be that I was a hooligan. It wasn’t easy studies. So, I was dealing with outgoing tourism which is not what I’ve learned from my dad. I took it upon myself, and I expanded the company greatly. It was already something that I understood and knew and I built it by myself and I continued in a very complex family business. I couldn’t have made it and what I am with regards to extent of the business and operations if I would have stayed with the family and if my dad was alive. ’Cause he relied too much on me and he ‘suffocated’ me. I wouldn’t have the ability to make independent decisions. It meant that my dad thought that he knew better than me. After the business fell apart, I used my own savings, and in fact started the company from scratch. All the companies-it all collapsed. I sold the incoming tourism component of the company. In 2004 I started from scratch everything I have today. Me and my partner, the two of us by ourselves. We used all our savings to build the company. Until now we’re working without relying on the banks. That is, we have no loans for the company. It was all based on personal capital. We built this personal capital and everything by ourselves. And with all of that I think that one of the most significant things is having a solid relationship [with his wife]. For example, that I had someone who believed in me. I think that one person who believed in me was my business partner, the other is my wife. No one beyond that, neither my parents nor I.

My parents said: You won’t overcome the difficulties. My mom, though she loved me very much and really tried, she didn’t believe that I could make the transition to overcome the real difficulty and making it, definitely not at that scale. Although my dad thought that I could do good things in tourism and he helped build my abilities, I did better than I could possibly dream of in my wildest dreams. And I also had an enabling partner, because I was the more creative one from his perspective, so the big advantage of being dyslexic with problems is being creative.

I was diagnosed in primary school and the diagnosis was a very severe dyslexia. In primary school there was a principal who was catastrophic and made me crazy, made my life hell, just abused me. He just abused me. There are also life changing experiences that I remember except from the fact that on a regular basis he used to humiliate me in from of everyone, he would laugh at me in front of the whole class, etc. I remember two teachers who were good teachers. One of them really loved me and tried to help me but it didn’t work out. She really loved me. The other teacher was a very powerful teacher, that is, she kept the class well in line, but she was warm. I can’t explain, she was OK and the other one was really really OK, but I was a hooligan. In the end, she was the only teacher I that I felt who really believed in me, but I was already ‘marked’. I was marked by the system. I was funny, I’d disrupt lessons, I’d make a mess in class. Because it was a way to stand out, to be funny, to be. I was totally marked.

School is a period that I’m suppressing, I don’t know, I just don’t remember. Just don’t remember, and I even don’t remember how I moved from one class to the next, I just don’t remember. God knows how I made it to ninth grade, I really don’t know. The whole school for me, I don’t remember anything from school except that it felt bad. My parents accepted it with a lot of understanding and a lot of support. Whether it was attempting to get me a tutor or trying to support me one way or another.

At school they knew I had dyslexia but no one in the system knew what it meant. At school they did not understand. They told my mom: ‘what are you blabbering about?’ The principal told her: ‘He’s lazy, he doesn’t like studying, he doesn’t feel like studying, and he’s a hooligan, and that’s all. What you’re telling me is bullshit, you with all your modern ideas…’

By sixth grade I could already read at a reasonable level, because my mom heard about this private organisation that they imported from the US and I was treated there. They’d give reinforcement lessons to kids who were not formally diagnosed. I’d go to Tel Aviv by bus all by myself three times a week to build myself. They didn’t really work with us on reading or something like that, but mostly they worked on building your capacities. They worked differently there, simply worked differently, I can’t remember exactly, but I do remember that it was pleasant for me there. It was pleasant, and there were intelligent guys there, all with these or those problems, pretty similar to what I had. And I was diagnosed there, and it was very clearly defined as dyslexia and they knew what it was, they handled it that way and they were mostly busy checking your other abilities than deal with the other stuff.

The kids I grew up with—they don’t interest me anymore today. But I have a drive to prove them wrong, and it’s definitely a meaningful drive. I have a luxury car and it has a very important role: So, everybody could see [that I made it]. It’s showing them the finger. I’m lucky to have my wife and my partner who are both very meaningful people because they believed in me. Today I wouldn’t give up dyslexia, because it’s due to the dyslexia that I’m very creative in business. I see the people who started with me, at some point they get stuck because they are stuck in axioms. I don’t have axioms. I live in a world that’s not in any frame, except for home and family. Conceptually I don’t have any frames [limits]. I am not bound by anything.

I have also been blessed with a lot of luck. And audacity, I think. To do things others wouldn’t do ’cause…’cause others aren’t there. To be innovative. Over the years I’ve also became very knowledgeable. I have a lot of knowledge, almost endlessly, definitely culturally. And I also have the ability to change over time, things are happening all the time and you must be able to change as things evolve. It’s the ability to think differently. All the time to develop ideas and move along with them, to get burned with some of your ideas, being bold on one hand but cautiously bold on the other hand.

Mu.’s narrative represents themes and factors that contributed to the development of his self-efficacy and were evident in other narratives as well (such as M.’s narrative; see Chap. 7.5).

Two factors played an important role in shaping his self-efficacy and as he was building himself as a person and later as a businessman: first, environmental factors, mainly meaningful figures that supported him and believed in him. Initially, his mother played an important role in his life, containing his difficulties and searching for a programme or training that will help him learn how to read. Later, these were teachers in primary school who loved him and accepted him, and the programme for children with learning disabilities in which other abilities and capacities were supported and enhanced. Then, he had high school teachers who believed he could do well in more challenging vocational education tracks. After joining the army, he was trained in a tough environment but was evaluated solely based on his current abilities. In his own words: ‘it helped build me in a different way.’ The opportunity he received to become a military medic opened up new possibilities and opportunities for him, which later helped him develop pride in himself when his story was published in the newspaper. He was later very proud of his ability to master English within a few months. This pride in himself and especially his father’s pride in him for the first time can resonate one of Bandura’s influences on self-efficacy–verbal persuasion, which is sometimes manifested in an inner voice, based on one’s accomplishments. In addition, it was also the first time his father was proud of him, and apparently, that appreciation was very meaningful to him. Again, he mentions how his success in the military helped him become a different man, which reflects successful experiences when performing a task as one of Bandura’s major influences on the development of self-efficacy. Later, he mentions his ability to complete a formal certificate programme for the first time and then expanding his father’s company on his own. These accomplishments echo another one of Bandura’s influences on the development of a high sense of self-efficacy–performance outcomes.

Having people in the military and then his wife and business partner who believed in him also provided important support and efficacy-enhancing messages to his developing self-efficacy and entrepreneurial success. He built his business from scratch, based on his resourcefulness and personal financial capital.

The second influential factor was his personal qualities and traits. Mu. prides himself on his high intellectual ability but also in his creativeness. In fact, he developed an understanding that because of his dyslexia he was able to develop creative thinking—not thinking in axioms. Mu. also mentioned another trait that helped him—the audacity to do things that others would not. Cultural and world knowledge is another trait he is proud of, as his ability to change over time and be able to take calculated risks. Still, there was something else in Mu.’s narrative that propels him—the drive to prove to others, especially those who mocked him in his early years, that he succeeded in business. This perhaps serves as a corrective experience for him.

Similar to M.’s narrative, Mu. also contributes some of his success to luck. The understanding that good fortune has its place in success is an issue yet to be tested regarding people’s sense of self-efficacy, as luck is often attributed to an external locus of control, while self-efficacy is attributed to an internal locus of control. On one hand, it can be argued that attributing some aspect of personal success to luck is deterministic and hinders one’s sense of self-efficacy. On the other hand, people who perceive themselves with a high sense of self-efficacy and who made it on their own, having luck on their side can strengthen their self-efficacy.

In sum, in the last two decades, we have seen much progress that has been made with early screening efforts in many countries and as more knowledge, tools, resources, and training are dedicated for evaluating the special educational needs of pupils at all school levels. The model of response to intervention in the United States revolutionised the process through which many pupils nowadays receive supports and accommodations in schools. In addition, we have seen a significant increase in the diagnosis and treatment of pupils with ADHD and autistic spectrum disorder (Russell et al., 2015; Sayal et al., 2018). Although these advances are laudable, many children, especially those with mild disabling conditions, or from minority or disadvantaged groups, still do not have the access to timely, accurate diagnosis of their needs and consequently do not receive the support they need and deserve.

The issues discussed in this chapter leave us with several questions: How can we increase awareness among parents to the need to refer the child to professional evaluation? How can we improve parent training to refine the skills of educators of children of all ages to identify mild disabilities as early as possible? How can we help parents and communities overcome cultural barriers that prevent them from referring their child to professionals for assessment? A final question is how can we increase the linguistic, cultural, and geographic accessibility of professional services for disadvantaged populations across the globe?

7 Current and Future Trends in Inclusive Education

While many countries and organisation adopted a framework for an inclusive action in schools in 2019 at the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Special Needs in Education in Salamanca, Spain, it should be borne in mind that a shared policy will be applied differently in different political, historical, economic, and sociocultural contexts. In addition, it should be noted that a comprehensive discussion of this important issue is beyond the scope of this book. Thus, we provide the readers with a brief summary of current and future trends in inclusive education for pupils with special needs.

Inclusive education has increasingly become a common buzzword around the world, although there is no consistent or consensual definition of what it means or how to best implement it. Another common practice that began to gain attention and implementation is differentiated instruction and universal design, which will be discussed later in this chapter.

Differentiated instruction can be implemented in classrooms through the use of curriculum modifications in content, teaching methods, and evaluation. However, teachers often find it difficult to implement them due to class size, a common standardised curriculum imposed by the administration, and national exams. These conditions create critical impediments to the extent of modifications that teachers can make in the curriculum.

In many teacher-training programmes around the world and in various special education laws and policies, the conventional conceptualisations of ability and disability are still prevalent. In many schools, differentiation based on the students’ abilities (that can be defined and interpreted in many ways) is still considered as a key teaching strategy for inclusion of pupils with special educational needs. Teachers may also confuse inclusive education with diversity and multicultural education, which are very different concepts. Thus, for education to be truly inclusive for all learners, teacher training programmes, schools, curricula, and teaching practices must be re-evaluated and reorganised.

Future trends in inclusive education must also address the implications of Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, n.d.). Along with General Comment 4 to this article, it clearly outlines the right of every person to an inclusive education—at every educational level. However, according to Cologon (2020), this noble and idealistic policy is very challenging to realise when discussing the inclusion of pupils with severe, profound, or multiple disabilities.

A recent call for papers of the 2022 International Conference on Inclusive Education and Collaboration (n.d.) included the following topics: inclusive education (but also integration and mainstreaming), fully inclusive schools and special education policies, classification of students and educational practices, alternatives to inclusion programmes, common practices in inclusive classrooms, children with extensive support needs, selection of students, and finally social and cultural inclusion. These topics represent the variety of topics that currently occupy researchers in this field.

Other promising trends in inclusive education can be seen in recent reforms in Finland (Malinen et al., 2012). Based on these reforms, students with special educational needs receive intensified learning support only after the school clearly demonstrated that measures were taken to modify the inclusive classroom environment to enable all students to learn. Thus, in Finnish inclusive classrooms, teachers are responsible for providing this type of universal support.

According to a publication of the National Center of Learning Disabilities (NCLD) in the United States (National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2017b), the model of response to intervention (RTI), developed and implemented in the United States, suggests that such a multi-tiered system of supports can help both individual pupils and school systems. Using this model can identify learning challenges of all pupils at an early stage through universal screening and to provide them with early intervention. Subsequently, it can identify pupils with learning disabilities according to their response to the interventions provided. According to NCLD, using this tiered intervention system can enable a higher percentage of pupils with disabilities experience meaningful educational inclusion, as they are often co-taught by a collaboration of general education and special education teachers.

Despite the advantages of Response to Intervention model, the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) recognises that a smaller percentage of students with disabilities will still require supports in resource rooms. The organisation recommends that ‘general education and special education teachers will receive more professional development and monthly coaching related to teaching students’. Another school-level suggestion of NCLD is to encourage creativity and learning among teachers and encourage innovation for effective classroom learning (both teaching and studying). Yet, it is not only at the school level that NCLD views a need for change. Other recommendations of NCLD include policy changes that can enhance the inclusion and success of pupils with disabilities. Among the other recommendations of NCLD are changes to policies that could help students with disabilities be more included and successful. Changes include expanding the early detection of learning difficulties and empowering both children and their families.

Rogers and Johnson (2018) cite the US National Center on Educational Restructuring and Inclusion’s (NCERI’s) effective teaching practices in inclusive classrooms:

  1. 1.

    Multi-level instruction design for students at various ability level.

  2. 2.

    Mastery learning designed for achieving mastery of skills and knowledge.

  3. 3.

    Activity-based learning rather than rote learning.

  4. 4.

    Cooperative learning that can promote peer learning and social interactions.

  5. 5.

    Incorporating technology into teaching and learning.

  6. 6.

    Peer support to increase social inclusion.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, universal design or more specifically universal design for learning is an evidence-based approach to teaching and learning. It includes several components such as explicit instruction, differentiated instruction (which was discussed above), peer-mediated instruction, assistive technology, and curriculum-based evaluation (Rogers & Johnson, 2018).

When considering the inclusion of pupils with severe/multiple disabilities, Rogers and Johnson recommend the proper use of several additional instructional methods that include augmentative and alternative communication devices and use of specific technologies such as micro-switches and embedded instruction (which consists of multiple, brief teaching interactions between a teacher and pupil that are incorporated in to daily classroom activities). The also recommend the use of appropriate specialised instruction during inclusion.

Finally, following developments in recent years of communities and organisations of people with disabilities requiring that must be part of decision-making processes and policy changes (‘nothing about us without us’), we recommend that it will be wise to explore with pupils with disabilities and their families who had participation and inclusion means for them. As Ginis et al. (2017) suggest, the subjective perceptions and experiences of individuals with disabilities must be considered and include aspects that can be critical for people with disabilities such as autonomy, belongingness, mastery, challenge, engagement, and their meaning of inclusion and participation.

Recent political events in Syria, Africa, and Ukraine and the subsequent streams of refugees and asylum seekers to Europe only heightened the need for inclusive education to all. In that respect, inclusive education is key to the development of a civic and humanitarian society, by transforming schools into equal, accessible, and equitable venues for all students. Still, while many policymakers, principals, and teachers accept inclusive education in principle, they recognise numerous proximal and distal barriers (economic, educational, historical, sociocultural, and political) that need to be addressed in order to implement inclusive education in a meaning way.

8 Recommendations for Practitioners

According to Klassen (2010), remedial instruction alone, which is the common practice for supporting pupils with special needs, must focus on developing self-regulatory skills, as well as the confidence to use these skills, or in other words, self-regulatory efficacy. It implies that at least some of the pupils with disabilities exhibit low performance not only because of insufficient or ineffective learning skills but because they lack the confidence to manage and regulate their learning.

In addition, Klassen’s results suggest that the home environment can greatly affect the pupils’ own self-regulatory efficacy, especially those pupils who come from homes with lower levels of paternal educational attainment. It is not surprising, then, that pupils who come from working-class families may require additional supports to help them develop their academic self-regulation. They will also need to develop self-efficacy to apply these skills and others they may already possess.

Thus, pupils with disabilities will need to learn strategies, and practice these strategies across different contents and subjects, and guidance, to help them develop a sense of self-efficacy that they can regulate their learning. This can be achieved by adapting Bandura’s four hypothesised sources of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997) to pupils with disabilities.

The first source of self-efficacy that Bandura proposed is individuals’ interpretations of their mastery experiences, or in other words, their prior successful experiences. Gaining successful educational experiences will be particularly important to pupils with a disability, due to their likely past experiences of difficulties in reading, writing, and math, which could undermine their academic self-efficacy. Bandura’s second source of self-efficacy is observation of successful others. Since pupils cannot always receive immediate performance feedback at school, observing others’ attainments and strategies when coping with various academic tasks provides important information about the pupil with disabilities’ own relative competence. Pupils are more likely to imitate social models whom they perceiving as sharing similar characteristics with them. These characteristics could be ethnicity, gender, age, or learning ability. Regrettably, it is difficult to directly observe self-regulated learning practices and strategies especially when one is struggling with his or her own tasks. Similarly, it would be difficult for pupils with disabilities to observe how successful pupils manage their learning environment at home or in class. Therefore, it would be most useful if teachers of pupils with disabilities will draw attention to these pupils’ successful self-regulated learning practices. Teachers could also provide these pupils with opportunities to discuss what works for them and what does not when they are required to perform certain tasks and manage their learning environment.

A third source of self-efficacy hypothesised by Bandura is social persuasion. It means that teachers and parents of pupils with disabilities must persuade them repeatedly that they are capable of applying self-regulated learning behaviours and practices while exhibiting perseverance and effort when they experience difficulties and distractions. Social persuasion and frequent opportunities to discuss self-regulated learning will help pupils with disabilities shift their focus to their self-regulatory capabilities. When they receive praise for their effort to apply self-regulatory and practices, it increases the pupils’ self-efficacy as well.

The fourth self-efficacy resource offered by Bandura is physiological and affective arousal. It suggests that self-efficacy in individuals’ ability to regulate their learning activities and environment is influenced by their interpretation of various indicators of arousal states, such as anxiety, stress, frustration, fatigue, and the like when thinking about their abilities to cope and manage academic challenges. Guiding pupils to anticipate and manage (e.g., through relaxation techniques) their natural physiological and emotional reactions to learning situations that induce anxiety will help them gain control over these situations and in turn increase their self-efficacy.

Since teachers play such an important role in helping pupils develop their learning and academic self-efficacy, it is important to note that teachers’ support and facilitation of self-regulated learning is affected by their beliefs, knowledge, and attributions of pupils’ characteristics (Peeters et al., 2016).