Teacher's perspective on infrastructure of special education's classroom in Malaysia

To provide children with special needs with comfortable, safe, and controlled learning, it is important to create continuity in the environment so that they would have equal access to education like typical students. Therefore, the specific infrastructure, such as barrier-free facilities, wheelchair access, a comfortable classroom, and safety aspects, should be taken into account for purposes of teaching and learning. Studies conducted in the form combine qualitative and quantitative aspects and involve observation, interviews, and questionnaires, with teachers and school administrators as respondents. The findings showed that 37.7 percent of the respondents are not sure about the classroom space needed by each special education student. Approximately 30 percent of the respondents also are uncertain, given the financial allocation for special education integration program. In addition, the majority of respondents (53.6%) are satisfied with the location of the special education program at their school, located on the ground floor of each building. Approximately 55.8 percent of the respondents agreed that the special education classroom in their schools have adequate lighting, and 52 percent agreed that there is good air circulation. However, 41.9 percent of the respondents did not agree with the space available for learning process because it does not match the capacity of students and teachers at a time. Some respondents indicated that insufficient infrastructure, especially for basic amenities, such as chairs, tables, fans, teaching aids (BBM), LCD facilities, computers, and others. In conclusion, the integration of special education programs needs much improvement especially in the accessibility of special needs students so that their right to have an education does not remain neglected. Therefore, the development of infrastructure and special education classroom modifications should be done using a certified standard. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.