Students’ Voices: How Does Education in Iceland Prepare Young Disabled People for Adulthood?

This paper is based on one part of an extensive research project, conducted in 1998–2002, into young disabled adults in Iceland who have grown up with the ideology of integration and inclusion enshrined in law. This is a qualitative study of the experience of being a young disabled adult (16–24 years old) in Icelandic upper-secondary schools, university or equivalent educational settings, in the job market and in society. Attention is focussed on the young peoples’ experiences of schooling in compulsory and upper-secondary schools, general education schools and classes, special schools, and in special classes. The study looks at how the structure and practice of the educational environment, including the organization of teaching, learning and evaluation, and students experiences of participation in school community life, hinder or promote their full active participation in school. This paper also discusses to what extent the young people's experiences of schooling prepare them for adulthood. The main conclusion indicates that schooling is a powerful agent for placing these young people on vastly different tracks, independent of their disability labels, either on a track that leads them to an interdependent adulthood or on a track within a special world for “eternal children”