“If he has education, there will not be any problem”: Factors affecting access to education for children with disabilities in Tamil Nadu, India

seated in the front row. Some had come up with workarounds to gain the required informa- tion, such as by asking their peers for their notes: “In school, anything written on the board will not be visible for me. . .. Only partially it will be visible, Sir. When classmates write, I look at that and write.” (A boy, visual limitation—“a lot of difficulty”) Children with profound hearing impairments faced challenges in learning without adapted communication. Some were managing to communicate basic information with friends and teachers with gestures, but communication of more complex concepts such as lessons were challenging without formal sign language. A mother said, “She will not read. . . she writes the words. . .All the teachers understood that this child cannot hear. . . they arrange a person to write [her exams] and get her to pass. . . she is studying in 10th, what is the use? She will just go to school. . . they (teachers) will tell patiently and if she did not understand that they will just leave it.” (Mother of a girl, hearing limitation–“a lot of difficulty”) The lack of accommodations could lead to poor learning outcomes for some children. As reported by caregivers, most children were average in their school performance. Still, some caregivers had received complaints from teachers about their children regarding their home- work, poor performance in studies, or not being able to complete parts of the lesson (e.g. per- forming recitations because of a hearing or cognitive impairment), and had advised parents to

help the children to learn at home. There was also an indication that class level and marks do not always accurately reflect the actual learning of children with disabilities, particularly chil- dren with sensory or intellectual impairments. For example, some children were in secondary school but could not read and write. Further, the use of scribes was reported in seven instances amongst children with sensory and intellectual impairments, in which the school appointed a scribe to write for children who were appearing for board exams so that they would be pro- moted to the next class: “Teachers made someone to write her exam and passed her. . . she does not know to answer so that they are appointing someone to write for her; she only knows the question and not the answer.” (Mother of a girl, cognitive limitation—“cannot do”) “The headmaster said to stop sending her to school, and they will deploy either a child or scribe to write exams for her. . .. she was promoted automatically till 8th standard; they are saying a scribe will write because she is in 10th standard” (Father of a girl, cognitive limitation–“a lot of difficulty”) Relationships with peers. The experience of children with their peers at school varied from being helpful to distressing. Caregivers and children alike reported instances of peers playing important roles in social and academic inclusion, such as by carrying their school bag, helping in climbing stairs to reach the classroom, taking them to the toilet, fetching drinking

water for them, protecting them from other children who might bully them, and sharing PLOS ONE Access to education for children with disabilities PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0290016 August 16, 2023 10 / 19