I am really unsure what to make of ofsteds claim today that too many kids are being described as having special needs. It says most kids just need better support and teaching. This might well be true: it may be the case that the SEN label is being used true liberally, and then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

With kids with physical disabilities, I guess it’s simpler. I have moderate to severe cerebral palsy, but no learning disabilities, so my needs at school were quite obvious: a lightwriter to communicate and a computer with a keyguard and rollerball, and I was pretty much fine. I know it wasn’t quite that simple, but you get the idea. With the right equipment and a half decent PA, I could do anything. I think it’s slightly more difficult fore those with problems which areen’t so physical and more to do with thought, intelligence and emotion.

This I have less experience and knowledge of. My gut says it’s an entirely different kettle of fish. I kind of think that such kids should be dealt with by an entirely different body, and not placed in the same broad category as kids with physical disabilities. Two bodies serving two separate categories of children could be more focussed. Indeed, I think disability itself has become too broad a term; part of me thinks it should refer only to physical conditions like CP or MD, and a word like impairment should be used for those with things like autism. The problems both groups face are often vastly different. The fact is, part of me thinks that the disability rights movement has become, to a certain extent, hijacked by people with things like autism.

This will strike some as tantamount to blasphemy, of course; but the fact is there are two types of disability – physical and non-physical – with different requirements. On the other hand, many people span this divide, having both physical and non-physical conditions. It is certainly true, too, that two split the disability rights movement into two groups would be folly: it would lead to fights over resources and political leverage – or at least escalate the fights there are already. To spit one civil right movement into two movements would mean that neither achieves its goals. Yet, to go back to where I started, if too many kids are being labelled as having SEN, perhaps one solution would be to treat physical and non-physical disabilities as entirely different entities. The thing is, this would have a semiotic effect, on certain levels, of splitting one community into two.

As usual, I need to ponder this further.