By definition, special education is the practice of educating students with special needs in

a way that addresses their individual differences and needs. The most common forms of
disabilities include learning disabilities, communication disabilities, physical disabilities,
emotional and behavioral disorders and developmental disabilities. Students with these
kinds of special needs specifically adopted teaching area and equipment, use of technology
and individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures.
Before any of these special educational services can be provided, the children with special
needs have to be identified first, and herein lies the first issue faced by children with
disabilities: poor identification of their individual needs. Without proper identification of the
disabilities, the educational services cannot be individually tailored to the unique needs of
the children.
Some children can be easily identified as needing special education as they may have been
diagnosed with genetic conditions, intellectual disabilities such as brain damage or
developmental disorders such as hearing and visual disabilities, but those with less obvious
disabilities such as learning difficulties may not be identified as needing special education.
Therefore the educational system must have trained professionals in place, capable of
identifying even the less obvious disabilities so that every child gets a fair chance and no one
is at a disadvantage.
The second issue is the lack of trained instructors in schools. They need to be able to
determine the specific strengths and weaknesses of the child so that adequate support
based on their individual needs could be provided. The other major issue is the lack of
equipment and facilities to provide special education. Ideally, there should be separate
schools with modified education programs. These may include changes in curriculum,
supplementary aides and provision of specialized physical adaptations that allow students to
participate in the educational environment as much as possible. For example, a computer
could be provided for students with physical disabilities who cannot write by hand or allow
them to answer the questions verbally instead. Special arrangements could also be made to
help ease the students access to the facilities such as building wide ramps at entrances,
accessible toilet and sanitation facilities.