The date of April 28 marks World Education Day, established by leaders from 164 countries to establish a global commitment to guarantee educational rights for all people. An important element in this mission is the process of inclusion of people with disabilities, which is based on the assumption of integrating this public into the general education system, but promoting adaptations of space, attitudes and methodology, in order to establish equality in learning and education. socio-educational experience.

Law No. 4024 of 1961 was one of the first in Brazil to contemplate the integration of people with disabilities into the general education system. Since then, public policies for inclusion have grown in quantity and scope, with the introduction of measures such as the Salamanca Declaration, from 1994, and the Brazilian Inclusion Law, 2015. For the pedagogue preceptor at the Santos Dumont Institute (ISD), Luzia Guacira, these milestones are part of a historical process that requires multiple agents to continue progressing.

“The inclusion of students with disabilities requires a change in structure, relationships, concepts. The school is invited to observe the specific needs of each student in order, in addition to welcoming, to provide conditions for participation, permanence and continuity of studies, which is one of the great challenges of education today. Within this challenge, professional training is needed, from the school doorman, the management and technical team, to the teacher who deals directly with the student”, explains Guacira.

At ISD, the pedagogue is one of those responsible for the line of care in visual rehabilitation, in which health and education professionals work side by side to promote the social inclusion of visually impaired people. Similar work is carried out in other ISD lines of care, where activities in partnership with professionals from the public school network are frequent, with the aim of adding health knowledge to education to promote a more inclusive and accessible school environment.

The ban on denying enrollment to people with disabilities, curriculum adaptation and the creation of a specific pedagogical project are measures provided for by law and seek to prevent, in the inclusion process, people with disabilities from being placed in the classroom without an eye on them. for individual potential. In addition, they seek to end segregation, placing students with and without disabilities in the same space, promoting interaction and coexistence with students without disabilities.

“Policies with 'special classes' end up being a setback in terms of inclusion. For example, it is not just by placing blind people in the same space that we will make that person open up to the world and understand the world beyond that room. It is up to us to look for ways to make this world reach people with disabilities in a complete way”, reinforces Luzia Guacira.

Health and education in inclusion 

Something that caught Luzia Guacira’s attention during her time as a university professor, when she taught subjects on the inclusion of people with disabilities, was noticing undergraduate professionals in training, coming from multiple areas, attending these modules to understand how to expand learning possibilities inclusive. Now, he sees the same need among health professionals. For her, “the professional cannot avoid seeking knowledge”.

Uniting perspectives through training and health education: for the ISD pedagogue preceptor, this is one of the essential tools in the search for quality development and inclusion of people with disabilities.

“We join hands in this sense of training, which is essential. Much of what I have learned here at the Institute has increased my perception of this combination of professionals. We don't need to walk apart, we need to walk hand in hand, taking information to people, whether at the health center or at school, to do work that directs, that guides, and that gives people the conditions to have a healthier life ”, points out Guacira.