Black disabled pupils face systemic barriers and injustice at school, says new report

A new report has shown how black disabled pupils in mainstream schools are exposed to “systemic and structural barriers and injustice”.

It calls for disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and racial justice movements to work together to amplify the voices of black and global majority disabled children and young people within mainstream schools.

Pupils interviewed by The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) for the research* described a sense of “separation and differential treatment” in their experience of mainstream education.

They “consistently believed their voices went unheard” by their teachers, while they wanted choice and control over their support staff.

They also spoke of how disabled pupils were often placed in different parts of the school building than other pupils.

One of those interviewed described how the part of their school that was used by disabled pupils was kept locked and could only be accessed by a teacher with a security card.

Policies like this create “internalised oppression that reinforces the marginalisation of racialised and non-racialised Disabled people”, the report says.

It says the young people they spoke to wanted an end to the separation of black, disabled pupils because it “reinforces stereotypes, stigma and discriminatory behaviour” towards them.

But they also want their intersectional experiences to be recognised, to have a say in writing school rules and policy, and to feel “a sense of belonging”.

The pupils described how nuances of their impairments, such as differences in communication styles or movement habits, were often “misinterpreted as misbehaviour” and frequently led to disciplinary measures and “increased surveillance”.

The report points out that disabled and black pupils disproportionately experience disciplinary procedures and surveillance, which has led to the use of restraints, being placed in seclusion, excluded from school, and sent to alternative provision, special schools or pupil referral units.

Parents of black disabled pupils, who were also interviewed, were often concerned about racial and disability injustice within school disciplinary procedures.

They spoke of the “disproportionate use of disciplinary procedures and practices of surveillance” towards black disabled pupils, which led to “negative consequences, school exclusion or removal to alternative settings”.

The report calls for DPOs and racial justice movements to work together to “strengthen campaigns to end disciplinary procedures and acts of surveillance that lead to exclusion and discrimination”.

ALLFIE had carried out interviews with black disabled children aged from 11 to 16, and parents of black disabled children.

The pupils told ALLFIE that none of them could remember having any lessons in school that included examples of black and other global majority disabled people.

The report calls for efforts to diversify the teaching workforce, and to introduce more “diverse identities” into the curriculum, promoting learning about the intersections between disability and racial justice.

The report on the small-scale study concludes that the absence of advocacy support makes it hard for black disabled pupils and their families to “obtain knowledge, make informed decisions, and address any tensions around the intersections of ‘race’ and disability”.

The report calls for local DPOs to be funded to provide advocacy support for children and families with their education, health and care plans, to ensure they put independent living principles at their centre.

Parents interviewed for the research spoke of focusing on a school’s SEND [special educational needs and disabilities] services when choosing a school for their child, which meant they often overlooked “the complex intersections of disability, race, gender, and other experiences”.

The report says that – despite its duty to move towards a progressive realisation of the right to inclusive education under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the presumption of a mainstream education under the Children and Families Act – the government was “actively constructing a divided society”.

This is “perpetuating segregation” as well as disablism, racism and other forms of discrimination, says ALLFIE.

It concludes: “Inclusive education is a human rights issue; it requires the removal of barriers and the recognition of intersectionality and cross-movement working.

“We have found systemic and structural barriers and injustice in the educational system.”

Dr Navin Kikabhai, ALLFIE’s chair, said the research could be “a powerful tool to drive the campaign for inclusive education forward, ensuring that no-one is left behind.

“Our collective social justice efforts must confront intersectional erasure head-on.”

Michelle Daley, ALLFIE’s director and one of the report’s co-authors, added: “The writing of this report was made possible through unity and collective action of activists committed to inclusive education as a human rights issue for everyone.”

The research was supported by ALLFIE’s Disabled Black Lives Matter campaign, and funded by Runnymede Trust.

*The report, Lived Experience of Black/Global Majority Disabled Pupils and their Families in Mainstream Education, was written by Dr Navin Kikabhai, Dr Themesa Y Neckles, Tasnim Hassan, Michelle Daley, Saâdia Neilson, Iyiola Olafimihan and Okha Walcott-Johnson

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