Instructional material has been recognized globally as means to offer access to learning content, so as to stimulate community development. There is still limited understanding about the potential of learning materials and the contribution that instructional development can offer to both urban and rural communities in Africa. This chapter provides an overview of instructional learning material for physical challenged learners in an inclusive environment. It shows the major strategies in design principles for leaning materials, such as multimedia elements, and approach components that represent inclusive assessment in rural communities. The physically challenged learner in this study is non-mental disorderliness: the hearing-impaired learners and the low vision learners. It also demonstrates that the inclusive multimedia instructional material has been created in concert with the grassroots community.
TopIntroduction And Background To The Study
Across the globe, an extraordinary importance has been given to the instructional learning material in promoting and intensifying the course of educational development and serving as means of lowering difficulties facing physical challenged people in all nations of the world. As a matter of fact, it is now generally believed that, any nation that fails to utilize the instructional learning material is slowing down the speed of its educational development (Abdulrauf, Ariffin & Sobihatun, 2016). However, there is a wide digital difference between non-physical challenged people and physical challenged people that live in Africa rural areas. In the developing nations, inclusive educational systems and technological advancements have improved the learning system for physical challenged people, perhaps it is yet to reach the people in Africa rural communities (Abdulrauf, 2018). Whereas, Multimedia learning instructional materials can make significant contributions to the enhancement of the standard of living of the people in the rural areas with reference to community development (Becket.al, 2019). Deficiency in access to inclusive education system still exists in both urban and rural areas, which is making this statement unrealizable (Arkorful et. al, 2019). Many studies have shown that different methods have been used in implementing learning and teaching such as learning materials, educational games, Power Point presentations, virtual classrooms, whereas inclusive learning system have been left out in Africa communities (Abdulrauf et al., 2016).
The parental activism in the Nordic countries in the 1960s leads to the beginning of Inclusive Education (Walton, 2018). Parents with physical challenged children and learners with special needs are displeased with the special education settings that segregate their children from mainstream educational system. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948), UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994), the UN Standard Rules for the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities 1993, Malaysia Education Blueprint 20151 and the Green Paper “Excellence for All Children” published in October 1997 affirm the right of all children to be valued equally, treated with respect and provided with equal opportunities within the community system. The United Nations’ policies have established the inclusion of children with disabilities in mainstream settings so that these children could enjoy equal educational opportunities.
This idea(s) of inclusive educational system is practiced in most Global North countries (such as Australia, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, Macau, New Zealand, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United States and all of Europe) through various policy mandates. The first country to use the term Inclusive education is Canada (Thomas & Vaughn, 2004; Walton, 2018), and this term is generally preferred to integration and mainstreaming. According to the statement of Salamanca in UNESCO (1994), it supports inclusive education by saying that “those with special educational needs must have access to regular schools which should accommodate them within a child-centered pedagogy capable of meeting these needs.”
In addition, the study of Kozleski, Artiles and Waitoller (2011) state that most countries have adopted inclusive in their education system. Those countries are mostly in the “developing world”. Developing countries have grappled with the implications of implementing inclusive education in contexts of developing the rural communities. South Africa is one such country in Africa. After the democratic elections in 1994, the Constitution (1996) of South Africa lays the foundation of inclusive education system through establishing the right of all citizens to basic education. It endorses equality, human dignity and outlawing discrimination (section 9.4). The South African Schools Act (1996) endorses the possibility of inclusive schooling by affirming that where it is “reasonably practicable,” learners with “special education needs” should be allowed in the mainstream and instructional materials and other relevant supports should be provided for these learners (section 12.4).