ABSTRACT
This has not been an easy chapter to write, because we cannot generalise about disabilities, nor about their effects on people, and we certainly cannot generalise about the way that people who have disabilities learn. In fact, as Lynne emphasises later in this chapter, uniqueness is a central feature of having a disability. It
may also be why people who do not have a disability frequently have problems responding to disability appropriately; we are scared of difference. We often just do not know how to relate to people with disabilities, and that includes those responsible for providing them with what they need in order to be able to learn to the best of their ability. We need to let go of our assumptions about the cohesion of the grouping of disabled people and open
out a much richer range of explanatory possibilities. This means looking seriously at the diverse, discrete and interconnected worlds of unique individuals (Corker, 2000).
