ABSTRACT
Academics in the field of inclusive education have been reluctant to define inclusion. It is often described as a journey, not a destination, or as a process, not a place. Overcome barriers is a direct reference to the social model of disability in which disability is conceptualised as an outcome of the interaction between a person with an impairment and the social, political and environmental barriers that impede their access and participation. Integration is defined as: a process of placing persons with disabilities in existing mainstream educational institutions, as long as the former can adjust to the standardized requirements of such institutions. The history of inclusive education varies across the world. Some countries are just discovering the concept for the first time. Others, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, have been engaging with its foundational concepts since the 1970s.
