A new policy on disability published by the Educational Institute of Scotland says disabled children often face discrimination because of badly designed school buildings and a lack of technology to help them take part fully in class work. The deputy general secretary of the EIS, Fred Forrester, said: “All important bodies in Scottish education are now committed to ending discrimination arising from sex or ethnic origin, yet discrimination against disabled children continues, not from any consideration of principle but for reasons associated with the design of school buildings or the absence in schools of new technologies which are readily available”.
The Scotsman, March 8, 1995.

Disabled schoolgirl Molly McIntyre takes Lambeth Council to the High Court because she says it has failed to provide adequate wheelchair access in her school. Molly, ten, has been missing many of her classes at Sudbourne Primary which is built on two levels with no lift to the first floor. Molly’s mother, Lesley McIntyre, says Molly has the right to be educated at her local school and it is inhuman to expect a disabled child to cope with mainstream education without disabled access. “I see this case as a symbolic one. By no stretch of the imagination is Molly enjoying ‘equal opportunity’ if she is segregated because of her handicap. I am tired of the pro-integration rhetoric with no budget attached”.
Times, February 5, 1995.

Shadow Education Secretary David Blunkett has called for a review of special needs provision to integrate more blind children in mainstream schools. At a national conference of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in Leeds, Mr. Blunkett spoke of the need to reduce the stigma of visual impairment and increase contact with the wider community.
Yorkshire Post, March 27, 1995.

In Parliament The Minister for the Disabled, William Hague, promises amendments to the Government’s Disability Discrimination Bill to achieve greater access to mainstream schools. The announcement came as opposition MPs attempted to introduce additional provisions to secure rights for disabled people but these were defeated in a series of votes.
The Guardian, March 28, 1995.