:

1
 Chapter 4: Promoting Inclusive Culture

4.1. Definition of Inclusive Culture

Inclusion is a sense of belonging, connection and community at work. And inclusive
organizations help people feel welcomed, known, valued and encouraged to bring their whole,
unique selves to work.
Culture is ―the ideas, customs, and social behavior of a particular people or society.‖ An
organization‘s culture is the culmination of the priorities, values and behaviors, which support
their employees in how they work singularly, in teams and with clients. Culture plays a huge role
in shifting the diversity needle and forming truly inclusive environments. Hence, an inclusive
culture involves the full and successful integration of diverse people into a workplace or
industry. Additionally, inclusive cultures extend beyond basic or token presence of workers who
have disabilities. They encompass both formal and informal policies and practices, and involve
several core values:

Representation: The presence of people with disabilities across a range of employee roles
and leadership positions
Receptivity: Respect for differences in working styles and flexibility in tailoring positions
to the strengths and abilities of employees and
Fairness: Equitable access to all resources, opportunities, networks and decision making
processes.

4.2. Dimensions of Inclusive culture

There are three dimensions/ elements of an inclusive culture:

1. Universal Design
2. Recruitment, Training and Advancement Opportunities
3. Workplace Accommodations and Accessibility: Policy & Practice
 1. Universal Design
One of the most heralded concepts in disability advocacy and cultures in the last decade is the
concept of “universal design”.
Universal design refers to the construction of structures, spaces, services, communications and
resources that are organically accessible to a range of people with and without disabilities,
without further need for modification or accommodation. While accommodations procedures
remain a needed function of most contemporary institutions and industries, forward-thinking
approaches to disability inclusion will frequently involve developing sites and resources that
require no accommodation to be fully usable and receptive to people with disabilities.
A few examples of ways universal design practices may apply in the workplace include:
Routinely providing manuals, materials and forms to all employees in a variety of digital formats
that are as readily accessible to people who use adaptive computer technologies as to other
employees.

Building workspaces accessible to people who use wheelchairs or other assistive devices, as well
as to all other employees. Providing employees with a variety of flexible schedule and work
options. This allows employees who have energy or functionality limitations to organize their
time and strengths, and all employees are better able to manage time and life/work balance.
2. Recruitment, Training, & Advancement Opportunities
A. Recruitment:
Effective recruitment of people with disabilities involves two components:
Accessible outreach and hiring practices and
Targeted recruitment of workers with disabilities.
Accessible outreach and hiring practices essentially entail making sure that outreach materials,
networking and recruitment sites, communications, and application processes all include a range
of accessible options, or are free of barriers that might inhibit people with disabilities from
participating. Wherever possible, outreach and hiring resources generally should be equally
accessible to workers with and without disabilities.
For example, making recruitment literature and job applications readily available in digital and
large-print formats, or holding outreach events in spaces without stairs or other barriers and with
accessible communications technology, helps to ensure that people with disabilities will be
included in recruitment practices.
Targeted recruitment involves specific outreach to people with disabilities. Although making
general recruitment practices more accessible goes a long way towards building an inclusive
hiring structure, individual employers are not always able to overcome existing barriers for
instance, when recruiting via externally sponsored job fairs that are not accessible. Therefore,
targeted recruitment enables employers to reach and interview qualified people with disabilities.
In turn, having accessible recruitment practices relative to hiring, materials and communications
helps to ensure that targeted recruitment will be successful not just in identifying qualified
candidates, but by making sure there are no barriers to effective outreach and eventual
employment.
B. Training: Training plays a dual role in the creation of inclusive workplace culture. The first
consideration involves the degree to which people with disabilities have equitable access to
training sites, events, and materials.
The second concern relates to the training of managers, particularly middle management, and
human resources staff, to work effectively with all people, including those with disabilities. The
consequences of inadequate training are substantial, in reducing job satisfaction, with
corresponding negative consequences for productivity and retention. In turn, companies favored
by employees with disabilities make a concerted effort to create equitable and accessible training
resources.
C. Advancement: Research demonstrates that in order to have equitable opportunities for
promotion and professional development, like most employees, workers with disabilities
typically require access to mentoring.
As with recruitment, mentoring and coaching involves a dual dynamic in which:
- Existing mentoring programs are advertised, implemented and maintained with
attention to inclusion of workers with disabilities, and
- Targeted mentoring and coaching programs specifically assist employees with
disabilities.
These may include the creation of explicit disability affirmative action policies related to
promotion, targeted professional networking opportunities, and the establishment of disability
affinity networks and related supports to encourage full integration into the workplace culture.

3. Workplace Accommodations and Accessibility: Policy & Practice

Policy plays a critical role in generating meaningful inclusion of people with disabilities. In
addition to recruitment, training and advancement, workplace policies need to carefully plan for
the provision of reasonable accommodations.
When assessing the effectiveness of existing accommodations policies, employee experiences
can be described based on two measures of equity.
The first indicator of an inclusive workplace culture involves the perception of ―procedural
justice‖, meaning that employees with disabilities perceive the accommodations policy as fair,
accessible and functional.
The practice of negotiating and providing accommodations constitutes an additional opportunity
for generating an experience of ―interactional justice‖. Interactional justice refers to the
experience of feeling that the managers or colleagues with whom one is interacting are behaving
fairly, reasonably and respectfully.
Experiential and Bottom Line Outcomes: The Benefits of Inclusive cultures are specifically
beneficial for employees with disabilities, but also have positive results for all employees, as
they include a number of elements of a healthy work environment.
Specific positive outcomes include:
- Reduced expenses corresponding to reduced employee turn-over
- Increased worker commitment to and identification with organizational success
- Improved employee health and well-being
- Improved productivity
- Increased employee investment in work performance
- Reduced perception of discrimination and inequity
- Improved cooperation and collaboration between co-workers, and between employees and
management.
-Creating an inclusive organizational culture is challenging but extremely advantageous.

Here's why and how, however, the business benefits and the outcomes of an inclusive
organization fairness and respect, value and belonging, safe and open, and empowerment and
growth should be compelling enough to push forward.

These are some of the benefits of an Inclusive organization that needs to be considered:
- Higher Job Satisfaction
- Lower Turnover.
- Higher Productivity
- Higher Employee Morale
 - Improved Creativity and Innovation
- Improved Problem-Solving
- Increased Organizational Flexibility.
Inclusive education, when practiced well, is very important because all children are able to be
part of their community and develop a sense of belonging and become better prepared for life in
the community as children and adults. It provides all children with opportunities to develop
friendships with one another.

4.3 Building inclusive community

What is an inclusive community?

An inclusive community:
- Does everything that it can to respect all its citizens, gives them full access to
resources, and promotes equal treatment and opportunity.
- Works to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
- Engages all its citizens in decision-making processes that affect their lives.
- Values diversity and Responds quickly to racist and other discriminating incidents.
An inclusive society aims at empowering and promoting the social, economic, and political
inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic, or
other status. It is a society that leaves no one behind. We work to ensure that societies are open
and inclusive to all.
Here are things an organization can do to create a more inclusive workplace and, therefore, a
more appealing place to work:
- Appropriately Connect with Employees
- Interact with Different People
- Create Employee Resource Groups
- Place Importance on Inclusion
 - Hold Better Meetings
- Invest in Diversity Training
- People have opportunities to experience a variety of social roles that include
friendships, contributing to the community and gaining new skills.

Some of the benefits of inclusion to the person are: Improved feelings of well-being and self-
esteem.

Why is building an inclusive community important?

Acts of exclusion and injustice based on group identity and other factors should not be allowed
to occur and/or continue. All people have the right to be part of decisions that affect their lives
and the groups they belong to and Diversity enriches our lives, so it is worth our while to value
our community's diversity. An inclusive community can be built at any time. The need to have
an inclusive community, however, is most obvious when there has been a decision or an incident
that caused harm to a particular group of people.

It is important to consider the motivation behind an individual, a group, or a community's desire

to build an inclusive community because the motivation affects the following:
- Types and sequence of strategies selected: if there were a crisis, you might have to
start with a strategy that transforms the conflict. If there were no crisis, but rather the
vision of a community leader that sparked the effort, you might consider starting with
a public education campaign.
- Resources available: more resources could be mobilized if the motivation came from
a large institution or a local foundation.
- Amount of support and obstruction: if the dominant group in the community is just
as motivated as any other group, there is likely to be more support. If, however, the
dominant group has no interest in changing the status quo, there are likely to be more
barriers.
- Rate of progress: if the major leaders and groups support the effort, progress is likely
to be faster.
- Expected outcomes: if the goal is to raise awareness, everyone involved is likely to
be satisfied if they learned new things about other groups. If the goal is to promote
fair treatment of every group, everyone involved is more likely to be satisfied by
policy change.
Characteristics of an Inclusive Community
Inclusive communities do have the following set of characteristics:

- Integrative and cooperative: inclusive communities bring people together and are
places where people and organizations work together.
- Interactive: inclusive communities have accessible community spaces and open
public places as well as groups and organizations that support social interaction and
community activity, including celebrating community life.

- Invested: inclusive communities are places where both the public and private sectors
commit resources for the social and economic health and well-being of the whole
community.

- Diverse: inclusive communities welcome and incorporate diverse people and cultures
into the structures, processes and functions of daily community life.

- Equitable: inclusive communities make sure that everyone has the means to live in
decent conditions (i.e. income supports, employment, good housing) and the
opportunity to develop one‘s capacities and to participate actively in community life.

- Accessible and Sensitive: inclusive communities have an array of readily available

and accessible supports and services for the social, health, and developmental needs
of their populations and provide such supports in culturally sensitive and appropriate
ways /essential services identified include good schools, recreation, childcare,
libraries, public transit, affordable housing and supportive housing, home care, crisis
and emergency supports, well coordinated and comprehensive settlement supports/.

- Participatory: inclusive communities encourage and support the involvement of all

their members in the planning and decision-making that affects community
conditions and development, including having an effective voice with senior levels
of government and
- Safe: inclusive communities ensure both individual and broad community
safety and security so that no one feels at risk in their homes or moving around the
neighborhood and city.
 4.4. Means of establish inclusive culture

An organization is inclusive when everyone has a sense of belonging; feels respected, valued and
seen for who they are as individuals; and feels a level of supportive energy and commitment
from leaders, colleagues and others so that all people, individually and collectively can do their
best work.

To create an inclusive culture in which everyone feels they belong and is comfortable expressing
their uniqueness,
There are four key inclusive leadership behaviors:
- Empowerment: Enable team members to grow and excel by encouraging them to
solve problems, come up with new ideas and develop new skills.
- Accountability: Show confidence in team members by holding them responsible for
aspects of their performance that are within their control.
- Courage: Stand up for what you believe is right, even when it means taking a risk.
- Humility: Admit mistakes, learn from criticism and different points of view, and
overcome your limitations by seeking contributions from team members.
How inclusive culture establish?
There are five stages in establishing inclusive culture:
1. Consider what you want to achieve and what the benefits will be.
This first stage of the process involves looking at your organization: its size, the type of work it
does, where it is located, who it employs, who uses its services, and what its goals are; and
thinking about how it could become more inclusive.
2. Undertake an inclusion review of your workplace
When reviewing inclusion and equality in your organization, you should consider the following
areas:
- The demographics of your organization and customer base.
All organizations are different, so the first thing you will need to do is examine what the
demographic make-up of your workplace is. Compiling and analyzing data on your staff by age,
gender, ethnic group, religion or belief, sexual orientation and disability, and noting where in the
organization‘s structure employees belonging to different groups work, will help you to identify
any under- represented groups and areas of occupational segregation.
You should check employees‘ salaries according to membership of different groups, and check
rates of progression within and through the grades. It is also useful to look at retention and exit
rates by these groups.
If possible, you should also collect information on the make-up of your customers. Finding out
who uses your services and what their needs are is important if you are to ensure you have the
right people, skills and approaches to meet these needs.

Your formal policies and procedures.

The formal policies and practices of your organization can tell you a lot about how much you
have previously thought about inclusion, human rights and equality. When reviewing these
policies, you will find it helpful to look at:
- Policies to deal with discrimination, bullying and harassment
- Procedures to deal with tensions and difference between groups
- Informal or unwritten working practices and
- Arrangements for staff consultation and participation
3. Decide where work is needed and create an action plan.
Having reviewed your workplace in terms of equality and inclusion, the next stage is to decide
upon the action you will take. Set out the key changes you would like to make as a result of your
review. Prioritize these changes to help you decide where to start. Some measures you may wish
to consider as part of your action plan are:
- Actively involve all employees
- Consultation and participation
- Encourage employees to take part in monitoring, and promote the reasons for doing
so.
- Extra measures and adjustments

- Build a culture of inclusion and respect

- Ensure the organization‘s core values include a commitment to equality, human rights
and inclusive working.
- Create, extend or improve policies on equality and human rights and make sure other
policies are equality proofed.
- Take immediate action to address and tackle discrimination, harassment and bullying.
- Ensure the organization‘s core values include a commitment to equality, human rights
and inclusive working.
- Create, extend or improve policies on equality and human rights and make sure other
policies are equality proofed.
 - Take immediate action to address and tackle discrimination, harassment and bullying.
- Training for all staff on inclusive working, human rights and equality.
- Make inclusion a key management approach.
- Encourage and appoint equality and human rights champions.
- Encourage employee networks and forums.
- Promote culture-changing initiatives.

- Take an inclusive approach to recruitment, promotion and development

- Make equality, diversity, human rights and inclusive working part of job descriptions.
- Monitor applicants and staff at different levels within the organization.
- Equality and human rights training for all staff involved in recruitment and a fair and
transparent selection process.

- Attract candidates from the widest pool available.

- Reward talent and achievement rather than stereotypical indicators of success.
- Value skills achieved outside the workplace.
- Encourage and enable development for all.
- Offer mentoring opportunities to junior and new staff.
- Offer work placements
- Conduct exit interviews

- Encourage engagement with the local community

- Employer assisted volunteering.

Communicate the plan with staff and put the plan into action.
Actively involve all groups of employees
In order to create a working culture of inclusion, respect and opportunity for all, it is essential
that everyone in the organization, from senior management to the most junior staff, is engaged
with and involved in the process of creating this culture, and feels that their opinions and
experiences are valued. Measures to promote inclusive working need to be thought of positively
among employees, not as something that is ‗done‘ to them. There are several things to think
about in this respect.
Participation and consultation
Before drawing up a plan of action it is essential to involve and consult employees to find out
about their experiences, what they feel are the key issues affecting them and what action they
would like to see taken to address these issues. Staff and any unions or other employee
representatives should also be consulted at different stages in the plan‘s implementation, in order
to get their feedback on the progress being made. The action plan should be a living document,
capable of being adapted and developed over time.
There are many different ways that you can consult and involve employees and their
representatives. Some examples are:
- Staff surveys can be used to gather information on a range of subjects, including the
make-up of the workforce, responses and attitudes towards equality and human rights
issues, and levels of job satisfaction among employees. Surveys can be designed so
that responses can be analyzed according to membership of equality group or other
relevant factors. Confidential surveys will attract a higher response rate.
- Focus groups provide more opportunity for in-depth consultation and debate with a
smaller number of employees. They could be a useful forum in which to collect
feedback on draft policies and action plans, and can be an indicator of wider staff
attitudes.
- Engagement with employee networks and forums can utilize an important
representative voice of staff from minority groups and can provide useful input into
policies and action plans.

Review, monitor and evaluate the plan’s impact and use what you find to plan future
Action

4.5. Ten Characteristics of an Inclusive Organization

1. It accepts diversity and inclusion as a way of life.
In an inclusive organization, one sees diversity at every level within the institution. Many
cultures, traditions, beliefs, languages, and lifestyles are prevalent in both the workforce as well
as the customer populations, and are respected without judgment. People are viewed as
individuals who have come together to coordinate action towards the achievement of common
goals.
It evaluates individual and group performance on the basis of observable and measurable
behaviors and competencies.
Employees have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. They are evaluated
based upon their actions, not the opinions of others. Goals and expectations are achievable.
 3. It operates under transparent policies and procedures.
There are no hidden rules of behavior that may be apparent to some groups and unknown to
others.
4. It is consistent in its interactions with everyone.
There is no double standard. Rules are applied appropriately and regularly throughout the
institution. No one group is favored over another.
5. It creates and maintains a learning culture.
Career development is encouraged and supported for all employees by management. Mentoring
programs are robust, and include both formal and informal systems that meet the individual
learning needs of all employees. Mistakes are recognized, and their consequences addressed, but
they are viewed as learning opportunities rather than character flaws.
6. It has a comprehensive and easily accessible system of conflict resolution at all levels.
It recognizes that conflict is inevitable in a complex multicultural organization, and it has
systems in place to address conflict in a non-confrontational manner that respects the dignity and
confidentiality of all parties.
7. It recognizes that it is part of the community that it serves.
Employees, managers, and customers all come from the community. An inclusive organization is
an active participant in community activities, and plays a vital role in addressing its needs.
8. It lives its mission and core values.
People work for an organization because they believe in its purpose and goals.
An organization that promises one thing and delivers other risks losing the trust and confidence
of its workforce as well as its customers.
9. It values earned privilege over unearned privilege.
Employees are recognized for their actions and accomplishments, not simply because of their
titles or degrees. Customers are treated with respect regardless of their socioeconomic status or
class.
10. It accepts and embraces change.
Change is inevitable. An inclusive organization recognizes that current and past practices must
constantly be reviewed and updated to meet the changing demands and needs of the industry,
workforce, and customers.
 4.6. Inclusive values

Inclusion is most importantly seen as putting inclusive values into action. It is a commitment to
particular values which accounts for a wish to overcome exclusion and promote participation.
The seven Pillars of Inclusion:
- Access: Access explores the importance of a welcoming environment and the habits
that create it.
- Attitude: Attitude looks at how willing people are to embrace inclusion and diversity
and to take meaningful action.
- Choice, partnership, communication, policy and opportunity

Values are fundamental guides and prompts to action. They spur us forward, give us a sense of
direction and define a destination. We know that we are doing, or have done, the right thing
through understanding the relationship between our actions and our values. For all actions
affecting others are underpinned by values. Every such action becomes a moral argument
whether or not we are aware of it. It is a way of saying ‗this is the right thing to do‘.
Hence, inclusive values are appreciating diversity, equality and equity, cooperativeness,
participation, community, and sustainability are examples of inclusive values that are
fundamental for successful inclusive education.
Appreciating diversity, equality and equity, cooperativeness, participation, community, and
sustainability are examples of inclusive values that are fundamental for successful inclusive
education.
A careful piecing together of a framework of values has resulted in a list of headings concerned
with equality, rights, participation, community, respect for diversity, sustainability, non-violence,
trust, compassion, honesty, courage, joy, love, hope/optimism, and beauty.
A values framework can be considered as a universe of interconnected meanings.
 4.7. Indigenous inclusive values and practices

The term “Indigenous‖ refers to a better understanding of, and respect for, indigenous cultures
develops an enriched appreciation of the existing cultural heritage.
Indigenous ways of knowing were often discounted and discredited as non-scientific because
they were rooted in the story of the people, their language, culture, art, mythology and
spirituality. It was important to recognize the right of indigenous peoples to land, resources and
sacred sites.
Incorporating Indigenous ways of learning into educational practices has potential to benefit both
Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners. The 21st century skills needed in modern curriculum
include: collaboration, creativity, innovation, problem-solving, inquiry, multicultural literacy,
etc.

What is indigenous inclusion?

Indigenous inclusion defined as an organizational state that is embraced as a cultural norm, with
enterprise-wide workplace strategies as well as a culture which invites the full participation of
indigenous people into all aspects of business operations.
It is where leadership and employees are welcoming of indigenous people, their experience and
outlooks, where diversity is valued, the spirit of reconciliation has been embraced and calls to
action have been acted on in meaningful ways.
Features of an indigenous inclusion:
1. Inclusion has been embraced as a core competency and embedded into the
organizational culture;
2. Companies share their organization‘s experience and achievements with inclusion and
explain how it has helped their performance;
3. Human rights and responsibilities are promoted and respected. Employees are free of
concerns related to basic equity issues;
4. Comprehensive Indigenous procurement, recruitment and corporate social
responsibility strategies have been developed as part of an enterprise-wide
coordinated approach;
5. Indigenous people are employed and retained in all areas of the organization including
the senior leadership and executive positions;
6. There are significant revenues and jobs gained by Indigenous people and businesses
through the organization‘s supply chain;
Indigenes community sustainable gains have been realized as a result of the
relationships built between the company and the community;
8. High levels of Indigenous employee engagement are seen and experienced in the
organization;
9. Leadership has put into place the resources needed to sustain its Indigenous inclusion
strategy and it may have introduced an inclusion policy framework or statement;
10. Indigenous inclusion is integral to the mission and vision of the organization.
A seven stage model to indigenous inclusion:
Indigenous Works has developed a 7-stage workplace model of Indigenous inclusion which is
called the Inclusion Continuum.
The model depicts the roadmap that organizations follow to become more inclusive, gradually
enabling more effective workplace and employment strategies to be developed. The Continuum
describes the organizational features and competencies needed at each stage

to achieve elevated levels of performance in Indigenous employment, business development,

community relations, etc. Movement along the continuum depends on companies developing
their cultural competencies, improving their understanding of Indigenous people, their history
and culture. Companies‘ position on the Inclusion Continuum can be measured from year to year
to track and assess progress.
Types of indigenous inclusion policies
There are quite a range of Indigenous inclusion policies in use by companies and organizations
throughout Ontario and Canada. The diagram below illustrates how some of those policies align
with workplace needs. Some inclusion policies have a targeted application to specific areas of
the workplace such as employment, Indigenous community relations, Indigenous business
development or procurement. Other inclusion policies strike across the organization, providing
an ‘enterprise-wide’ approach to inclusion.

What are inclusive practices?

Inclusive practice is an approach to teaching that recognizes the diversity of students, enabling
all students to access course content, fully participate in learning activities and demonstrate their
knowledge and strengths at assessment.
The aim of inclusion is to embrace all people irrespective of race, gender, disability, medical or
other need. It is about giving equal access and opportunities and getting rid of discrimination and
intolerance (removal of barriers). It affects all aspects of public life.

Inclusive practice is about the attitudes, approaches strategies talent to ensure that people are not
excluded or isolated. It means supporting diversity by accepting welcoming people‘s differences,
promoting equality by equal opportunities for all. In addition inclusive practice involves having
an understanding of the impact that discrimination, inequality, social exclusion can have on an
individual. Having an understanding of this ensures appropriate personalized care, support can be
given. This enables the individual to develop self-respect, self-worth, also to maintain a valued
role in society, the environment surrounding them.

When we compare inclusive practice with practice which excludes an individual, inclusive
practice gives an individual more confidence in the care that they were receiving, it gives them
the option to have an input with the care they are having as they are being given the opportunity
to do so. In the long run, this could improve the service user‘s health as they still have
confidence in the careers.

Practice that excludes the service user could have consequences on their own health, for example
if they spoke English and were provided with a care worker that spoke and understood poor
English could result in them not being able to
communicate, from that they would like for dinner to whether they are feeling ill and may need
to see a doctor meaning that their health could deteriorate

Inclusive practices in education are based on seven principles:

- Diversity enriches and strengthens all communities
- All learners‘ different learning styles and achievements are equally valued, respected
and celebrated by society
- All learners are enabled to fulfill their potential by taking into account individual
requirements and needs
- Support is guaranteed and fully resourced across the whole learning experience
- All learners need friendship and support from people of their own age
- All children and young people are educated together as equals in their local
communities

Inclusive teaching strategies refer to any number of teaching approaches that address the needs
of students with a variety of backgrounds, learning modalities, and abilities. These strategies
contribute to an overall inclusive learning environment in which students feel equally valued.
Benefits of Inclusive practices
The benefits of inclusive practices are numerous for both students with and without disabilities.
Benefits of Inclusion for Students with Disabilities
- Friendships
- Increased social initiations, relationships and networks
- Peer role models for academic, social and behavior skills
- Increased achievement of Individual Educational Plan goals
- Greater access to general curriculum
- Enhanced skill acquisition and generalization
- Increased inclusion in future environments
- Greater opportunities for interactions
- Higher expectations
- Increased school staff collaboration
- Increased parent participation
- Families are more integrated into community
 Chapter Summary

An inclusive culture involves the full and successful integration of diverse people into a
workplace or industry. Additionally, inclusive cultures extend beyond basic or token presence of
workers who have disabilities.
There are three dimensions/ elements of an inclusive culture: these are Universal Design,
Recruitment, Training and Advancement Opportunities and Workplace Accommodations and
Accessibility: Policy & Practice
Inclusion has been directly advocated since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948
and has been acted at all phases in a number of key UN declarations and conventions.
An inclusive society aims at empowering and promoting the social, economic, and political
inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic, or
other status. It is a society that leaves no one behind. We work to ensure that societies are open
and inclusive to all.
An inclusive community can be built at any time. The need to have an inclusive community,
however, is most obvious when there has been a decision or an incident that caused harm to a
particular group of people.
Major Characteristics of Inclusive communities are Integrative and cooperative, Interactive,
Invested, Diverse, Equitable, Accessible and Sensitive, Participatory and Safe
An organization is inclusive when everyone has a sense of belonging; feels respected, valued and
seen for who they are as individuals; and feels a level of supportive energy and commitment
from leaders, colleagues and others so that all people, individually and collectively can do their
best work.
There are four key inclusive leadership behaviors: (i.e., Empowerment, Accountability, Courage
and Humility)
Inclusive values are appreciating diversity, equality and equity, cooperativeness, participation,
community, and sustainability are examples of inclusive values that are fundamental for
successful inclusive education.

Appreciating diversity, equality and equity, cooperativeness, participation, community, and

sustainability are examples of inclusive values that are fundamental for successful inclusive
education.
Indigenous inclusion defined as an organizational state that is embraced as a cultural norm, with
enterprise-wide workplace strategies as well as a culture which invites the full participation of
indigenous people into all aspects of business operations.
Inclusive practice is an approach to teaching that recognizes the diversity of students, enabling
all students to access course content, fully participate in learning activities and demonstrate their
knowledge and strengths at assessment.
Inclusive teaching strategies refer to any number of teaching approaches that address the needs
of students with a variety of backgrounds, learning modalities, and abilities. These strategies
contribute to an overall inclusive learning environment in which students feel equally valued.

Reference
Ainscow, M. (2005). ―Developing inclusive education systems: What are the levers for change?‖ In Journal of
Educational Change, 6(2): 109-124.
King, L. and S. Schielmann (2004) The Challenge of Indigenous Education: Practice and perspectives.
Paris: UNESCO.
Florian, L. (2008). ―INCLUSION: Special or inclusive education: future trends‖. In British Journal of
Special Education, 35(4): 202-208.
Lourens, H., McKinney, E. L. and Swartz, L. (2016). ―Disability and Education: More than Just Access‖. In
The Palgrave International Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Social Justice. London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Martin 2007. Inclusive Education as extracted from Special Educational Needs Act of Ireland (2004)
Martin, K. (2007). "The institutionalization of the life course: Looking back to look ahead." Research in
Human Development 4:253-271
Stanley I. And Greenspan M. D. (2012). Meeting Learning Challenges: Creating an Inclusive classroom.
Ministry of Education (now named Education, Arts and Culture) (2013). Sector Policy on Inclusive Education.
Windhoek: Ministry of Education. (The policy document is available for download
at www.moe.gov.na/downloads.php.)
Peters, S. (2003). ―Education for All: Including Children with Disabilities‖, Education Notes, World
Bank, accessed at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/10380.
Thordardottir, E. (2010). Towards evidence-based practice in language intervention for bilingual
children. Journal of Communication Disorders. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2010.06.001