Educate Don’t Segregate: Disabled People Demand Their Human Rights

19 December 2025

On 10 December 2025, International Human Rights Day, The Alliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE) held its first online rally using our campaign slogan ‘Educate Don’t Segregate’. ALLFIE mobilised over 60 people including Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs), Young Disabled people, Disabled activists, parents of Disabled children, the Inclusive Education Movement and supporters. 

The aim of the rally was to end injustice that segregated education causes, as well as to raise ALLFIE’s concerns about the government’s proposals for the Schools White Paper on SEND reform. 

The virtual crowd demonstrated their feelings with a consistent stream of emoji reactions in solidarity with the speakers. The energy throughout the rally was high, further amplifying the feelings of unapologetic anger, and determination to challenge the harmful injustice that segregated education brings to society.  

The rally was co-chaired by Rick Burgess from the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People, who with a strong opening reminding us that this Human Rights Day was:

“Unfortunately commemorated by the government saying they want to reduce human rights as per the ECHR. However, we are expecting the White Paper next year with some good words from the government, but we need that to be backed up by actions. That’s also why we are campaigning for the Inclusive Education Act.”

Additionally, setting the scene for the opening of the rally was ALLFIE’s Director, Michelle Daley, who made a powerful statement: 

“When Disabled students are excluded, there must be an expectation that we will fight back. We are here to demand an education system that respects, includes, and values us.” 

Speaker after speaker, each with just three minutes, made it clear: Disabled children and Young people are being systematically failed by an education system that chooses segregation over inclusion and exclusion over dignity.

All of the speakers spoke on different topics, demanding an immediate end to: 

• The building of new special schools and SEN units; 

• Delays to the Schools White Paper on SEND Reform; 

• Funding structures that actively favour segregated schooling; 

• Cuts to SEND resources in mainstream schools; 

• The use of force, restraint, and seclusion in educational settings; 

• Systemic barriers that exclude Disabled people; 

• The government’s ongoing failure to uphold Article 24 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). 

Marsha de Cordova MP made a call to attendees at the rally to write to their MPs about their concerns about the White Paper and to influence it as much as they can. Don’t wait for publication, the fight needs to happen now to influence that document. However, there was a backlash from the crowd in the livestream chat box when she stated that she “strongly” believes “there is a space for special schools, but we shouldn’t be building anymore, and they should be a minority.” This point does not fit within ALLFIE’s agenda. 

Edmore Masendeke, ALLFIE’s Policy and Research Lead, powerfully highlighted the hypocrisy at the heart of the UK government’s position. On Human Rights Day, when the world claims to reaffirm dignity and equality, Disabled children and Young people are still denied one of the most basic rights of all: the right to Inclusive Education. The UK signed and ratified the UNCRPD and then spent years ignoring it. The continued failure to implement Article 24 is not an oversight, it is a political choice that deepens inequality and strips Disabled children of their legal protections, Edmore concluded. 

Simmy Kaur, a Young Deaf activist from Deaf Ethnic Women Association and a member of ALLFIE’s ‘Our Voice’ Young People’s campaign group, spoke about the reality of education for Deaf students. She described how being part of ALLFIE has provided a new platform to speak out against the barriers Deaf Young people face in education. While Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) can provide some support, they often come with segregation from mainstream classes and low expectations. Access remains a “grey area”, with unqualified or insufficiently trained professionals providing inadequate support. Simmy was clear: access to language is a right, not a favour, and poorly qualified support staff undermine Deaf students’ education and futures. 

Inclusive Education is a human right. When Disabled children and Young people are pushed out of mainstream education, placed in segregated settings, or denied the support they need to participate equally, that right is being violated. Segregation does not solve barriers, it entrenches them. ALLFIE is deeply concerned that proposals and current practice of expanding SEN units in mainstream schools will simply normalise segregation and give it the false impression of mainstream inclusion.  

Yewande Omoniyi, ALLFIE’s Our Voice Co-lead amplified our concerns when she said:

“At ALLFIE we believe the current government’s use of the term “mainstream inclusivity” is not inclusive at all, in fact it is oppressive. There is a lack of clarity around the term. One point it does not address is how many Young Disabled people will end up in SEN units within mainstream schools being taught in separate classes away from their non-Disabled peers”. 

Yewande concluded that we want the upcoming White Paper to address this confusion around the definition of Inclusive Education, calling to action that the White Paper must apply the UNCRPD Article 24 definition of Inclusive Education. 

Sharon Smith, from SEND Jungle, also shared her experience of visiting schools with SEN units when she was looking for a mainstream school for her Disabled daughter. What she saw was deeply concerning: lower quality provision, isolation from peers, and environments where Disabled children are treated less favourably than their non-disabled peers.  

Richard Rieser, World of Inclusion, argued that the issue at the heart of the White Paper is how we view special educational needs and disability. We already have the solutions in the Equality Act 2010, but they are neither being implemented nor policed. We therefore need to remove the restrictions on schools not being able to become fully inclusive as a matter of law, removing physical barriers, which they currently don’t have to do. Schools have legal duties, yet time and time again these duties are ignored, leaving Disabled children excluded, restrained and being treated with indignity. 

Simone Aspis, Inclusion London, spoke about the ‘Bring Our People Home from Hospital’ campaign, drawing attention to the detention of Disabled people in psychiatric hospitals which is similar to the routine use of force, restraint, seclusion, and so-called “calming rooms” in schools and aligns to our End Torture of Disabled People Campaign. These practices cause profound harm and mirror the inhumane treatment Disabled children and Young people experience within the education system. We continue to use our End Torture of Disabled People Campaign and articles to speak out against these harmful practices against Disabled people, including Disabled children and young people segregated away in so-called special schools. ALLFIE insists that the use of behaviour policy, disproportionately used against Disabled pupils, is a legal mask to inflict torture on them. 

This rally was a declaration: enough is enough. We reject a system that deepens harm, normalises segregation, and denies Disabled children and Young people of their futures. 

The message was loud and clear. Inclusive Education is not a favour. It is not optional. It is a right. 

And to conclude, as Svetlana Kotova from Inclusion London said:

“Rights are not handed down, they are demanded, defended, and taken back through struggle, solidarity, and collective power.” 

Educate, Don’t Segregate!