For introductory courses in Special Education.

Widely recognized for innovation and accessibility, this text is a tribute to the authors' vision of equipping general and special education teachers with principles, values, and practices that support educating the majority of students with disabilities within general education programs. Through four engaging themes universal design for learning, inclusion, collaboration, and multicultural responsiveness the text explores the processes necessary for implementing "best practices" to achieve the goals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997. The authors showcase real students with real disabilities letting their stories illustrate, as nothing else could, the characteristics and causes of disabilities, the challenges faced by people with exceptionalities, and the myriad factors educators must consider when making decisions about how, where, and what to teach.