Who Benefits From Inclusion?
Friend-of-Tikvah Jason Lieberman has written an interesting post on blog.matankids.org. Here's an excerpt:
When Matan began it was generally understood by those involved that Jewish education was a gift and that by putting it in a form in which children with special needs could participate, we would be able to provide access to the Jewish community for these individuals and their families. In other words, inclusion was seen to benefit primarily people with disabilities and their families. The new tagline, while acknowledging the benefits of inclusion for people with disabilities and their families, also acknowledges the far more profound, and in my opinion, important benefits of inclusion, those experienced by the community as a whole. By understanding that the mainstream population, whom should be more accurately described as those who have yet to be diagnosed with a disability, can learn something from us, the people with disabilities, it empowers us and more accurately reflects reality.