“It's Not Like You're Going to College Anyway”

I believe that access to education is a fundamental human right, and I am not alone in this conviction. According to the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights, passed in 1946, every individual has a right to a free public education, at least during the fundamental years of childhood development. In the UN Declaration of Human Rights of Disabled Persons, passed in 1975, this right was extended to persons with disabilities. And in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, passed in 2006, this right is specified as including physical access to educational facilities (Harpur 2012; Priestley 2001).