Zoë Wundenberg | Inclusiveness must be more than hollow words

This letter really connected with me because it dives straight to the heart of the issue: the human cost of funding cuts seems to always be invoiced to our most vulnerable community members.

The Visiting Teacher Service is a program that funds visits specialist teachers with expertise and experience in specific disabilities and impairments across Victoria to provide teachers and schools with guidance to improve engagement and participation of students with disabilities and additional needs.

These teachers aren't just about classroom strategies, curriculum and learning adjustments, or support in the creation of individual plans tailored to the unique needs of each student, although they certainly do all that. The most powerful part of this program is the promotion and support of inclusive, accessible educational practices in schools, which has the power to change a child's life.

I was staggered to learn the unemployment rate for people who are blind or have a vision impairment is 70 per cent. Seventy per cent. Just let that sink in for a moment.

Programs like the Visiting Teacher Service prepare students, like Zoe, for life after school - it's not just about classroom experience. Giving them the opportunity to learn braille in the classroom, teaching them how to use the iPad accessibility features, voice to text software features, touch typing, and the correct use of electronic magnifier tools sets these students up for lifelong success.

Even more than that, it teaches their fellow students that people with a disability belong in their cohort, working, learning and engaging alongside them. It empowers social inclusivity through normalising educational and work adjustments to allow these students to contribute and participate not just in the classroom, but in the world as they grow up.

Much of our social stress in our communities lie in "othering" people with disabilities, who are "different" in some way to the mainstream. When we segregate, we "other" and we "stigmatise" and this damages the fabric of our society, pulling threads from its structure until we fall apart.

Another mum, Emily Shepard, whose son Louis has Usher syndrome (which affects both sight and hearing), has similarly been stunned to learn of the cuts. Both Ms Shepard and Ms Dodson said the parents had been blindsided by the changes, without consultation, conversation, or opportunity to give any input into the program changes. Ms Shepard doubted the thought process behind the move had the kids' best interests at heart. And I must say, I agree with her.

The Victorian government is rolling out an "inclusion program' worth $1.6 billion, so they haven't completely abandoned the concept of inclusion in Victorian classes - at least at first glance. However, 325 full-time equivalent jobs are being cut in the overhaul and the number of visiting teachers will shrink from 117 to just 32, drastically affecting 1000 students across 300 Victorian schools currently benefiting from the service.

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While the creation of 82 inclusion outreach coaches as part of the $1.6b inclusion program are to be filled by learning specialist teachers, disappointingly, they are not student-facing roles. These coaches will "undertake training to support schools in data-based decision-making", according to the position description, with a focus on implementing "preventative evidence-based strategies that benefit all students". This is a far cry from the hands-on, empowering and individualised approach visiting teachers have taken.

Perhaps if the government had engaged with the parents before making this monumental decision that affects their children, they would have seen things differently. Perhaps the affected families would have felt less in the dark, had the government shared the coming changes transparently, instead of maintaining silence on these cuts and leaving it unclear as to whether their children will be looked after or abandoned in Victorian classrooms.

After all, inclusion is a top-down thing, and at the moment, they don't seem to be modelling it at all.