Every year in Poland more and more school students are being diagnosed with disabilities, e.g. dyslexia, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, etc. which results in the growing need to meet their diverse special educational needs (SEN). The changes in the situation of Polish SEN school students started in the late 1970s. Since then the public awareness of SEN students has been slowly growing and they have been granted support at school and in specialised centers. Unfortunately, the support granted by the law is not enough: at schools and universities, SEN students have no freedom of choice of the educational materials (i.e. textbooks/coursebooks) or teaching methods that would be the most suitable for them. The real change in the situation of SEN school students in Poland dates back to 2009 and the introduction of the new core curriculum (Regulation of the Ministry of National Education 2008). Since 2017, in theory, all school students have to be diagnosed in their first years at school so as to be given a chance of early professional support if needed (Pawlak-Kindler 2016).

SEN school students group is not homogeneous and consists of, i.e., mentally disabled, physically disabled ones, those with IQ lower than average, those with disabilities related to senses (sight, hearing, etc.), with speech problems, those different because of their language, increasing numbers of children with experience of exile and migration (Górak-Sosnowska, Markowska-Manista 2023), as well as gifted and talented ones (Zawadzka-Bartnik 2010, Bogdanowicz & Adryjanek 2005, Lewis & Doorlag 1987, Selikowitz 2012, Brzezińska 2014). In our research, we concentrate on two groups: children with a certificate of SEN on the example of dyslexics and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) ones and students without a certificate of SEN on the example of central auditory processing disorders (CAPD). Children from the certificate of SEN group are diagnosed and then given some institutional help, whereas the CAPD is not diagnosed and not given any support in Poland.

In our presentation, we will concentrate on our (scientific) protest (manifesto) against the indirect unequal treatment of some school students of different ages in the present Polish school system. Our research interest is related to research-based solidarity with and the fight for children human rights to sustainable and equal access to proper educational conditions (especially didactic materials and teaching methods and strategies) of school students with SEN  who attend public schools in Poland. However, the problem is that the Polish educational system is based on the theory of integration, not inclusion, despite the fact that the issue of inclusive education is one of the priorities of contemporary educational policy. Integration can easily be done and manifested but inclusion is something those in need have to fight for (Zawadzka-Bartnik 2010). Usually, the fight is based only on passive resistance but with the help of our research findings, it can be materialise in the form of recommendations and implementation of inclusive approaches..

Our research questions were as follows:

-        how big and diverse is the group of SEN school students who attend public schools in Poland?

-        what  kind of challenges are addressed by the representatives of SEN students and researchers dealing with this issue?

-        what strategies and actions can be implemented to support them in looking for solutions of their problems?

The research methods qualitative and quantitative (i.e. eye tracking; questionnaires, interviews). The literature review gave us an overview of the problem in Poland. The total number of children with disabilities receiving special education in primary school was about 165,000 (5.3% of the total number of children in primary schools; in 2021 – 4.8%, in 2020 – 4.6%; Statistics Poland 2021, 2022, 2023), but it seems still to be not enough. In the study by Szumski and Firkowska-Mankiewicz (2010) no significant differences in academic achievements were observed between children in special, integrated, and regular schools “whereas in the West it is usually superior”. However, the pupils from special classes achieved slightly higher results than those from integrated and regular schools. The first group (children with certificates of SEN) was represented by 120 school students (including 60 neurotypical ones). Our eye-tracking results show that in the case of dyslexic and ASD school students, the graphic layout of the didactic materials is of huge significance. A proper choice of colors, fonts (both types and sizes), spaces used, number, type, and location of pictures, etc. were identified in our research and it was proved that it can stimulate and influence the results achieved by the students. Their scan paths also show different ways of completing reading comprehension tasks and the consequences of it (Andrychowicz-Trojanowska 2018). The second group, i.e. children without a certificate of SEN, was represented by CAPD students. It should be emphasised that according to ICD-10 that is still used in Poland, it is not possible to diagnose CAPD as a separate disorder, as it is in the case of dyslexia. Many authors underline the importance of supporting CAPD students (Czajka et al. 2021) in the learning process. In our speech, basing on a questionnaire study, we will briefly present the learning difficulties for school-aged students with CAPD and parental suspicion of these difficulties, as well as some important teaching and learning recommendations.

All the above findings need to be popularised among school and academic teachers (especially teacher-activists), parents, and all those who are related to school systems and are involved with SEN children, teenagers, and adults. The reason to popularise them is the number of scientifically based findings that support the need to fight for equal chances for different SEN students and show easy and cheap solutions to support inclusion. Our findings promote inclusive education, solidarity, rights of SEN students and their active participation in the educational system, equality, and freedom of choice related to the way SEN school students are taught and help raising awareness of serious problems of SEN.

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