Abstract:

Background: Regardless of devastating trend of inclusive education, students with disabilities are not being accepted by the typical developing students as well as teachers. Somehow the rejection by their peers and teachers hinder in their social inclusion, achieving academic success, and becoming more independent.

Objective: The aim of the study was to see the effect of disability awareness education program on a regular school.

Methods: This study develops and implements a disability awareness program in 8^th to 12^th grade students and their teachers, through action research, determines whether the program was influential in shaping attitudes towards students with disabilities. The students were exposed to 21 disabilities and more focused on physical disabilities, and blindness, and accessibility. The program was designed and implemented in three steps beginning, middle and end, began with questionnaires on disability knowledge.

Result: As regard to attitude, the school environment became more inclusive, more welcoming environment for disabled students, and nurtured better friendships among all students. After getting knowledge about different disabilities, students without disabilities became more accepting and understanding of individual differences. The individual activities and discussions enabled students to think critically about how to deal with disabled individuals and the significance of inclusion to enhance their overall development.

Conclusion: Disability awareness programs are powerful to overall environment of a school. These programs foster acceptance, understanding and promote knowledge about different disabilities. Therefore, disability awareness programs must be incorporated into the regular school curriculum and received by the all individuals to create a more accepting and positive environment for disabled students which in turn will help them to achieve emotional wellbeing, social inclusion and academic success.

Keywords: Disability awareness program, Regular school, Inclusion, Typical developing students, Students with disabilities.

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