Good morning and thank you very much for allowing me to share my experiences and thoughts with all of you. It's my privilege.
I'm co-founder and president of Fundación Visibilia, a self-advocate organization with a consultative status with the UN and a member of Inclusion International.
We work for inclusion through reading and literacy. The barriers that children and adolescents with disabilities face when attending regular schools are many. In my country, Argentina, these barriers are significant and are mainly of an attitudinal nature.
There is still a misconception that children with intellectual or development disabilities hold back the progress of other children. This idea ignores the principles behind supports, reasonable adjustments and the work of support teachers. In addition, these teachers—who make inclusion real and effective—face many institutional barriers, for example, to understanding that inclusion is not limited to class time work.
Every learning process is based on three essential pillars: the student's interests, the relationship with the teacher and adequate materials. If we do not address and eliminate barriers in these three key aspects, inclusion will continue to be a significant challenge and mask serious contradictions.
I would like to focus on adequate learning materials, which has been neglected in inclusion in common schools. At Fundación Visibilia in Argentina, we have focused on the creation of easy-to-read materials and easy-to-understand communication materials. Initially we designed these resources for students with intellectual disabilities. However, we observed that these materials not only improved the educational performance of students with intellectual disabilities, but also of many others, for example, students with other learning difficulties or who had different linguistic levels due to other circumstances such as those who drop out of school to work or whose native language is not the official language.
However, the use of materials prepared with universal designs for learning faces many myths and purisms that only create more barriers to innovative solutions.
I witness today to highlight the importance of applying easy-to-read and easy-to-understand materials as a universal design for learning to promote inclusive education. This tool not only benefits students with disabilities, but also contributes to achieving real inclusion for all students, regardless of their condition. Inclusive education requires diversity in the classroom, and diversity benefits from universal design. Let's advocate for real inclusive education.
I strongly believe that is the shortcut to creating more respectful and peaceful societies and leaderships.
I am very brief. Thank you so much and thank you, Canada, for leading on.