The educational inclusion of forced migrants with a disability: A critical analysis of the Washington group questionnaires

The identification of disabilities is commonly considered a preliminary step in ensuring protection and assistance for forced migrants, as well as in meeting their educational needs. The WHO encourages authorities and agencies to use a set of questions developed by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics as a tool for screening and classifying disabilities. However, literature shows the use of classifications inspired by diagnostic models can have unintended negative effects on the ability to participate in education. The chapter critically examines the role the Washington Group questionnaires can play in the development of opportunities for inclusive education among forced migrants with disabilities. Reports and documents issued in connection with the development of the Washington Group questionnaires are studied through infrastructural inversion and intertextual thematic analysis. The findings critically review the use of the Washington Group questionnaires as a tool for assessing the disability conditions of forced migrants and their possibilities for inclusion in education.