Paper – Inclusive Education: Opportunities for Redesign, 2010

This paper was written for 2010 CAPSLE Conference in Calgary on Inclusive Education and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

In 2010, Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), affirming its commitment to inclusive education.

In this paper, ARCH discusses universal design as an emerging international legal obligation and as a mechanism for achieving and implementing inclusive education. In the international law context, ARCH considers the CRPD and the implications of Canada’s ratification of the treaty for inclusive education. Next ARCH discusses universal design as a concept and provides examples of the ways in which it has been applied to education. Finally, ARCH outlines the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), Ontario’s accessibility legislation, and discusses the role it can play in enhancing the implementation of inclusive education. ARCH suggests that adopting a universal design approach to the AODA obligations can facilitate the creation of inclusive school cultures.