Preamble
Living and learning in society are the fundaments of human coexistence. Inclusion is not just an act of humaneness, but also an integral component of an open and equal society.

Inclusive education means that children with and without disabilities learn together in a class. Inclusive education also makes possible mutual experiences to promote mutual understanding, and to remove potential barriers.

Inclusive education requires forms of learning from which all children can benefit. Children learn best through their own experience – a fact that has been also acknowledged by the school system. Thus, traditional education has become ever more replaced by open forms of learning – especially in primary school.

The acquisition of knowledge and skills is not being neglected. Only the mode of teaching has changed. First of all, children should acquire knowledge in a playful way, learn from each other and work together. Step by step, they should be directed to a conscious, autonomous and goal-oriented learning.

In inclusive classes, attention must be paid to each individual child. This is because there, more than in any other kind of learning environment, children differ, for example, in their development, their previous knowledge and their learning aptitude. These differences are taken into account, and form the basis for different learning provisions and requirements. This is the only way to avoid challenging individual children too much or too little, and to establish the basis for successful learning.

Source:
BMBWK (Ed.): "Learning from One Another, A Guide on Integration", Vienna 2000 www.cisonline.at/ueberblick/integration.html

Kindergarten
In autumn 1978 the first Austrian ‘Kindergarten with inclusive education’ was founded in Innsbruck as a model kindergarten without a corresponding legal basis. The legal encompassment of inclusion, however, was not first established for kindergarten, but in 1993 in primary school. This is why the kindergarten system has lagged behind the quantitative and qualitative developments of inclusion in school for years. Meanwhile, children with disabilities can gain experiences together with children without special needs in almost all Austrian provinces.

Inclusive education is based on working with very different children in a group, and thus rejects any differentiation in “children who can and cannot be included”. A non-segregating pedagogy shall renounce any labelling, which is often in contrast to what the law states.

Inclusive education is not confined to getting together children with and without disabilities at places of common play and learning, but includes provisions of joint care and support to be able to cater to the individual needs of all children.

In order to optimise the practice of inclusion, it must be ensured that the favourable conditions for learning and socialisation of the pilot projects can be provided and expanded for all children. (Table 2. Comparison of the practice of integration and inclusion. According to Zettl & Wetzel 2001.)

Practice of Integration	Practice of Inclusion
Integration in mainstream kindergartens, admission of children with disabilities	Living and learning in the general kindergarten
Diagnosis and appraisal by experts	Co-operative problem-solving by the kindergarten teacher team
Two-group-theory (children with and without disabilities)	Theory of the heterogeneous group (many minorities and majorities) Resources for children with labelling Resources for systems
Resources for children with labelling	Resources for systems
Individual curricula for individual children	Individualised curricula for all children
Focus on the “labelled” child	Focus on the heterogeneous group
Special education teachers as support for children with disabilities	Special education teachers as support for groups and kindergarten teachers

Source:
Zettl Michaela, Wetzel Gottfried, Schlipfinger 2001: "Qualität der Integration von Kindern mit erhöhtem Förderbedarf in Kindergärten des Bundeslandes Salzburg - eine empirische Studie". In: Behinderte in Familie, Schule und Gesellschaft, Nr. 3/4, 63-72 and www.kindergartenpaedagogik.de/830.html

Compulsory Schools
In the 1980s a parents’ movement emerged in Austria whose objective was the inclusion of children with disabilities and severe learning difficulties in mainstream school. Committed parents have been co-operating with teachers and educationalists for many years to grant children and adolescents with special educational needs access to primary school and schools of lower secondary education. Several education models for children and adolescents with and without disabilities were tested in pilot projects. The School Acts of 1993 brought about a significant change of the situation: from then on, parents have been able to decide whether their child attends primary school or special school. Since 1997/98 pupils with special educational needs have been entitled to attend lower secondary school and the lower grades of schools of general secondary education (AHS).

At the time when children with special educational needs were explicitly educated in special schools, the regions supported them via mobile support provisions for children with disabilities, such as behavioural or speech disorders. With the legal encompassment of inclusion, the Special Education Centres were also established, which are responsible for the implementation of the provisions of regional special educational support.

Detailed information can be found on the legal basis and framework of inclusive measures at www.bmukk.gv.at and www.cisonline.at.

Further readings:
Specht Werner: "Jedes Kind ist Mittelpunkt, Ergebnisse und Gedanken aus der Evaluation der Schulversuche zur Integration behinderter Schüler in der Sekundarstufe I", in: Behinderte in Familie, Schule und Gesellschaft, 4/97, pg. 17 and
Feyerer Ewald: "Behindern Behinderte?" in: Behinderte in Familie, Schule und Gesellschaft, Vol. 4/1997, pg. 43