Translator: Peter Walker Reviewer: Leonardo Silva
Your business is doing well.
So much so that you decide to advertise for a new position.
The applications start coming in and they're looking good.
As you're going through the short-listing process,
flicking through the CVs,
you notice something on one of the applications
that you hadn't noticed before.
One of the applicants, Phillip, has disclosed that he's autistic.
You hold his application in your hand,
perhaps looking at it a little bit differently.
What are you thinking?
Does this change things for you?
What if I was to tell you
that how you might look upon this disclosure
is likely to be heavily influenced by your own schooling experiences?
Let's explore this by considering
one possible educational pathway that you might have taken.
You attend your local high school.
It is much sought after.
So much so that your family moved into the area
so that you would fall into the enrolment zone.
The school's website promises a rigorous learning program.
And on 'MySchool' they tick all the right boxes,
thanks to their high-stakes testing results.
The truth is
that not all students at the school participated in the high-stakes testing.
Some of the students with disabilities were encouraged,
'Well... maybe you should stay home for the day...'
Not that there were many students with disabilities at your school anyway.
Sure, you remember those in the inclusive unit.
You know, those three classrooms on the other side of the oval.
Yeah, the ramped ones, yeah,
with the separate playground and the big fence around it, yeah.
(Chuckling)
And there were other students with disabilities also,
that you noticed when you were first beginning high school.
But a lot of those students seemed to encounter difficulties, early on,
with the school's academic and behavioural expectations.
And, when that occurred, the principal duly suspended them
because, 'It's important that we have consistent expectations across a school
and sometimes "examples" need to be made'.
When those suspensions became longer and more frequent,
the families responded to the advice they were given
and they withdrew their children
and they transferred them to the local special school.
Now, let's imagine that was your schooling experience.
That places you at this moment with this application in your hand.
'Phillip, eh? Autistic.
Oh, gosh, what does that mean?'
You've got a million questions zooming through your head.
'Oh, my gosh. What does it mean?
Umm... oh, I think I remember watching Rain Man once.
What was that about?
QANTAS!? That's not helpful...
(Laughter)
Umm... tantrums. Lots of tantrums!
That's right. Oh, Oh, Oh'.
You decide it might be best
to just slide Phillip's application onto the 'reject pile'.
Let's be clear:
What you've just done is discrimination
according to the Disability Discrimination Act.
It is illegal for you to place Phillip's application onto the reject pile
if you've done so because of the disability that he has disclosed.
It's also a prime example of ableism,
which is where you might systematically preference people without disability
over people with a disability.
Now, the good news is there's a remedy for ableism,
and that remedy is something that Australia has committed to as signatories
to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It's called 'Inclusive Education'.
Sound good?
Let's consider what your schooling pathway might have looked like
if it was an inclusive one.
For a start,
in an inclusive school,
there would be an incredible sense of belonging, for all students.
And in an inclusive school,
you would have incredible diversity across all year levels.
So, you would have students from different cultural backgrounds,
religious backgrounds, different gender, different abilities,
and diverse disabilities.
All in the one school.
And that difference wouldn't be considered to be problematic.
It would be considered as something that would be enriching for the school.
All of the students in an inclusive school
would be learning in the same accessible classroom.
They would need different support, yes,
but that support would be provided
in a way that doesn't provide an additional social barrier
for those students.
An inclusive school doesn't have a Teacher's Aide
kind of perched over the shoulder of a student.
An inclusive school also might help you develop an understanding
of what it might mean to have a disability.
You make a friend. Mariko, her name is.
She tells you that she has Asperger's Syndrome,
and you're not sure what that means.
You know that she's not a very good conversationalist,
but she kills at chess.
You meet her at chess club.
When she's playing against you, she reads your playbook,
like she wrote it.
When you look around the school now and then,
you do notice that Mariko becomes a bit overwhelmed and has a meltdown.
When that happens, you give her space, time, and dignity.
She develops some friends at the school,
and those friends check in on her, including you, to make sure she's OK.
And sometimes she checks in on them as well.
When Mariko has her meltdowns,
the principal of the school doesn't suspend her
because there's no educational value in suspension
and because disability factors should be considered when making such decisions.
Let's imagine that was your schooling experience.
Quite a different one.
An experience where you were with so many different, diverse pupils,
different friends, different students.
And here you are now:
'Phillip, eh? Autistic.'
Yeah, you might still have some questions,
but those questions might be fewer
and they would be informed by your experiences.
You know that there can be some challenges with autism.
But there could be some strengths there as well,
like a really focused skill set
that might be perfect for that new project that you want to get up and going.
Good for you, good for business.
You put Phillip's application on the 'interview pile'.
Three days later, there he is, bang on time.
(Laughter)
During the interview, he doesn't give the best eye contact,
but you know that's not rudeness.
Your inclusive experience has helped you develop an understanding.
You know it's not rudeness,
it's more likely to be a characteristic that he has.
One schooling experience has led you to uncertainty and fear.
And the other schooling experience has led you
to an understanding and a valuing of difference.
The research shows
that inclusive education is strongly beneficial
for students with and without disabilities.
Academically and socially.
We learn better together.
Inclusive education is also about change.
It's about making change in us and, therefore, change in our society.
Now, listening to me, you might think,
'This sounds fantastic, Peter! Do we do this everywhere?'
Umm... we don't always practice what we preach.
In the last census, we found out
that the growth of regular schools was about 3%;
the growth in special schools was 17%.
It is boom time right now in special schooling.
In South Australia,
our special schools are filled to capacity.
In fact, this year we opened our very first special school
for students on the autism spectrum.
Our local paper described it as the first school for autistic students.
Not even the first 'special school'. The first 'school'!
I think we should fact-check this.
At the end of this year,
this school is likely to have about 45 students enrolled.
Now, in South Australia,
we have 3,400 students with autism, in our system.
It's quite a discrepancy.
So, where are the rest of these students?
Well, the vast majority are in regular schools.
Some of them are in special schools.
What we don't know
is to what degree they're experiencing quality inclusive education.
And I think we should be looking a bit deeper at their experiences.
I say this because, in a national survey this year,
which looked at the experiences of students with disabilities,
it was found that one in two had experienced bullying during school,
one in three had been excluded from school activities
because of their disability,
and one in five had been either secluded or restrained
during their schooling,
In South Australia,
students with disabilities represent under 9% of our student population,
but they represent over 22% of suspensions.
So the students who are most at risk of being marginalized in our system
are being nudged and nudged closer to the edge.
Now I think we can do a lot better than that.
I'm not here saying inclusive education is easy,
because it's not.
It takes time, and it takes strong leadership,
strong leadership to change a school culture
from one that pushes kids away to one that holds them in.
Now on the first day that this school opened,
one of the students was asked, 'Hey, how was your first day?'
To which he replied,
'It was awesome. The teacher didn't shout once'.
So, what I ask is this:
Do we need to be building more and more and more and more and more special schools
or should we be applying some of our time and some more of our attention
on why some of our teachers are still yelling at some of our kids?
I think we need to challenge
why so many students with disabilities are leaving regular education.
Is it best for them? And is it best for us?
Phillip disclosed his disability in that job application,
but he didn't need to do that.
He disclosed it trusting that we would look at it
and it wouldn't become a deal-breaker;
we would follow the legislation and it wouldn't become a problem.
But Phillip is only one person.
We've got 3,400 students, just with autism,
in our state education system.
That's a lot of jobs that we need to find,
a lot of meaningful educational pathways that need to be made,
a lot of people that we want to see embraced in our society.
If all of us in this hall
are fortunate enough to live till we are 80 years of age,
then, by then, half of us will have a disability.
You. The person next to you.
When that happens,
do you want to be living in a society that keeps disability at arm's length,
or an inclusive society?
You need to think about it now,
because it begins with our schooling, and it begins with our education system.
We need to start thinking differently about difference.
Thank you.
(Cheers) (Applause)