ABSTRACT
The active participation of persons with disabilities in society is of fundamental importance given the unique contribution they can make to challenging negative and deficit views and representations of disability. Nevertheless, teachers with disabilities remain under-represented in schools and, as a topic, understudied. This chapter aims to address this gap by examining the experiences of a selection of teachers with disabilities and showing their central role in building inclusive schools. We begin by summarising key themes from a review of the literature, demonstrating the dearth of research in this area. Then we present the main findings of an exploratory study conducted in Portugal examining the experiences of 12 teachers with physical, visual and hearing disabilities. We conclude by arguing for the importance of including teachers with disabilities as a central topic on the inclusive education research agenda, as it contributes to the social recognition of this workforce in schools, and to developing public policies that support more persons with disability who are, or aspire to become, teachers.
