ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the influence of traditional empirical and scientific research on the perception of the educational needs of physically disabled individuals. Children and young people who are disabled are thus further disadvantaged, along with their teachers, and marginalised. Inevitably any consideration of equal opportunities in both education and research necessitates a good hard look at the way in which educational and associated structures and systems have been set up in relation to their impact on individuals. Scientists, doctors, educationists and practitioners have pursued their research projects, usually with good intentions and subject to the current ethical codes of their institutions but with scant regard for the actual views and feelings of the subjects. A different set of research questions is beginning to remove disability and associated endeavours from the hands of professional practitioners alone and place it firmly back into the community and with disabled people where it belongs.
