Education related to the field of (intellectual) disability - we have to do better!

Focus for me my research background is an investigation on the professional encounter or meeting between different professionals in a broad field of social work and adults with an intellectual – and sometimes invisible – disability. Working in this field means on one hand demands on effectivity, documentation and New Public Management. On the other hand we think of this field including ethics and values as recognition, respect, understanding.
The UN Disability Conventionsee e.g. article 4 and 8 (: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/conventionfull.shtml), states the obligations for the state to secure suitable education to ensure that the intentions in the conventions can be fulfilled and to raise a general awareness. Looking into educational orders in Denmark for professional bachelors in this area it seems not at all evident, that this is going to happen. For all programs it relates to the choice of the students if they want to know more about the area of disability – and following research on awareness and accept of people with disability you easily see a lack of fulfilling the convention.
My theoretical framework for this work has been inspired from social philosophy with names as Emmanuel Lévinas, Axel Honneth and Jürgen Habermas, but also Løgstrup, Buber and Foucault contribute. How can we – in spite of structural, governmental and economic barriers – work with ethical aspects and values as recognition and understanding.
My main methodology has been a phenomenological approach letting people in the field talk. This means people with intellectual disabilities giving voice to their experiences with professionals and systems and letting the professionals tell about their experiences and dilemmas.
A phenomenological approach also means that you cannot draw a line and say that this is the result. My findings show different perspectives in this field that are very rarely in focus of any research. Structural barriers are quite important. Among others educational gaps - in general - but also more specific on e.g. ethics and knowledge of legislation. Adults with intellectual disability experience infringement in different ways and from both professionals and related to structures. Professionals on their side experience also infringements and dilemmas and sometimes because of the same structural barriers.
My point is to show that the topic for this conference with a focus on “learning and education – material and technological conditions and consequences – cannot be seen without a basic knowledge of and education in the field of intellectual disability including a level of values and ethics! Otherwise – as my research also shows – you might end up with easy and technical fix’es and solutions. This is not a good solution – neither for the citizens with intellectual disabilities nor for the professionals in the field.