1. Enhancing Accessibility to Education through
Curriculum Adaptation for Students with
Deafblindness
17th Deafblind International World Conference 2019
Australia
Author: Mr. Sachin Rizal, Senior Manager – Training
Co- Author: Mr. Srinivasan Prasannan, Assistant Manager- Training
Sense International India

2. Introduction
India implementing a new law- Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Act- 2016
An Act to give effect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
Earlier to this, Persons with Disabilities act covered only 7 categories of
disabilities
Now, Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 covers 21 disabilities
Deafblindness recognized as a disability under multiple disabilities

3. Sense International India
The only national organization exclusively catering to persons
with Deafblindness across the country since 1997
About ½ million persons with Deafblindness in the country
So far Sense India has reached out to more than 78,000 persons
with Deafblindness
Working with 59 partner organizations in 22 out of 36 states

4. Educational Boards in India
India primarily has 5 educational boards namely,
CBSE – Central Board of Secondary Education
ICSE – Indian Certificate of Secondary Education
IB – International Baccalaureate
State Board – Each state across India has its own board of education
that sets curriculum for the schools (Though there are
36 states but 52 state sanctioned boards in India)
NIOS – National Institute of Open Schooling is most welcoming to
students with special needs

5. Need of Curriculum Adaptation
Enrolment of children with Deafblindness in regular schools has
been increased
Limited opportunity for children with Deafblindness to learn and
acquire concepts from the existing regular curriculum
Curriculum adaptation is vital to facilitate education of students
with Deafblindness
Increased willingness and positive attitude among the teachers

6. Background
Sense India has come out with a “Handbook on curriculum
adaptation for inclusive education of students with Deafblindness”.
2015 Sense India formed a national core group of senior
professionals in the field of Deafblindness
The core group adapted first & last units of National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books from class I to V
The subjects chosen for adaptation were English, Mathematics, Hindi
and Environmental Studies

7. Purpose of Curriculum Adaptation
To develop adaptation in- learning content, learning approach,
learning aids and evaluation process
To develop and design an inclusive classroom with an adaptive
environment
To develop teaching approaches and use of teaching learning
materials (TLMs) required in a class room
To develop a tool to understand the level of a child and provide
appropriate need based adaptations and educational intervention

8. Method of Curriculum Adaptation
Nine Point Adaptation and Rationale:
Used in National Curriculum Framework
Most suitable in context of Deafblindness
Input Size
Output Degree of Participation
Time Alternative goals
Difficulty Substitute curriculum
Level of Support
Substantially altered by Diana Browning Wright with permission from Jeff Sprague, Ph.D. from an original by DeSchenes, C.,
Ebeling, D., & Sprague, J. (1994). Adapting Curriculum & Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms: A Teachers Desk Reference.
ISDDCSCI Publication. Diana Browning Wright, Teaching & Learning 2005

9. A photograph of the handbook
on curriculum adaptation.
There are four students, one
girl is with deafblindness, a
boy with low vision and two
other students with
non-disability attending the
class happily.

10. A photograph of the
curriculum adaptation
handbook explains
how the lesson/poem
can be taught to
students with
deafblindness.
Teacher can teach as
per the instructions
given in the bubbles
and no need to teach
the entire sentence of
the lesson.

11. The photograph of the
adapted lesson of the
poem from the
curriculum adaptation
handbook

12. The photograph
explains how the
evaluation can
be executed for
the lesson.

13. Photograph of adapted
mathematics lesson about
the concept of
Inside-Outside is given.
The concept is explained
with the story of An Arab
and the camel.
A big camel sitting
outside the tent, Arab
sitting inside the tent in
the desert in the picture.

14. Photograph gives
the details of the
adapted mathematic
lesson of
Inside- Outside

15. The photograph is the
evaluation page of the
lesson Inside-Outside

16. Suggested Strategies to Teach
Best- 1:1
Tailor made adaptation
Maximum use of residual senses
Large print/Braille
Use the communication which is known to the student
Activity based with maximum use of real objects
Direct and realistic experience for better understanding of concepts

17. Recommended adaptation for evaluation
Continuous and ongoing evaluation
Evaluation after each topic
Activity based evaluation
Equal or more weightage for knowledge than giving answers in
writing
More of the objective type questions
Provision for extra time

18. Challenges in Curriculum Adaptation
Lack of awareness among policy makers and teachers
Inability to understand various learning styles
No or very little awareness about different modes of communication
Absence of Teacher Assistants in schools
Very high Teacher : Student ratio
Enrolled at various ages and only few of them may have some sort of
intervention prior to admission

19. Chances for having children with various disabilities in one class
room is high
Majority of boards follow rote method
Both the students with Deafblindness and the teachers of class
nine face difficulty because of “All pass system” till class eight
Challenges- continued……

20. Training on Curriculum Adaptation
Trained more than 450 regular school teachers on using the
handbook on curriculum adaptation
They were also taught to specifically choose a particular lesson
from different subjects and make adaptation
Opportunities were given to create teaching learning materials for
the lesson chosen to adapt
The training also focused on various methods of adapted
evaluation

21. Strategies to assess the efficacy of curriculum adaptation for
inclusive education of students with Deafblindness
Sense India is undertaking a research project wherein, the
objectives of the research are as follows:
To understand the status of classroom inclusion under Samagra
Shiksha for Children with Deafblindness (CwDb)
To train school teachers including resource teachers under
Samagra Shiksha on Curriculum Adaptation (CA)
To validate the efficacy of curriculum adaptation as a strategy for
facilitating classroom inclusion for CwDb in mainstream schools
To evaluate the academic performance of children with
Deafblindness, before and after the training on curriculum
adaptation

22. Sample Size
200 participants
50 Students with Deafblindness (SwDb) (6-18 years) under
Samagra Shiksha
100 teachers, resource teachers and peers
50 families of students with deafblindness
School Management Committee (SMC) members who are
parents of non-disabled children

23. Tools
Checklist on Infrastructure and resources
Observational checklist on pedagogy practices used by teacher
Observation of curriculum content
Focus group interviews of functional SM
Structured tool on checking awareness of teachers on training
requirements
Pre- post training questionnaire
Classroom observation tool for child
Formative assessment of child

24. Thank you
Srinivasan Prasannan
Assistant Manager-Training
srinivasan@senseintindia.org
www.senseindia.org.in

25. Reference
• The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) of 1975 and the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (P. L.101-476)
• Amitha, V., & Ahm, V. (2017). Multiple intelligence approach in the school curriculum : A review
article, 3(3), 324–327. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl050384x
• Browning Wright, D. (2005). Nine types of curriculum adaptations. Teaching & Learning, (1994),
2005. Retrieved from http://www.snipsf.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/NineTypes.pdf
• Lane, C. (2001). Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved from
http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html
• Minsitry of Law and Justice. (2016). The Rights of Persons with disability Act. Government of India,
(Dl), 1–35. Retrieved from http://www.tezu.ernet.in/notice/2017/April/RPWD-ACT-2016.pdf
• NCERT. (2014). Including children with special needs- primary stage. Forum American Bar
Association. Retrieved from
http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/upload_document/specialneeds.pdf
• Sense International India. (2017). Handbook on Curriculum Adaptation for Inclusive Education of
Students with Deafblindness (1st ed.). Ahmedabad: Sense International India.