School experiences through the narratives of adults with disabilities

In Hungary, Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education provided the opportunity to start integrated pre-school and school education for children with disabilities, and the widespread dissemination of this was supported by Act XXVI of 1998 on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and Ensuring their Equal Opportunities. The process of integration is determined not only by the condition of the children and the choice of the parents, but also by the availability of receiving institutions, demographic changes (Bánfalvy, 2007), and the general characteristics of public education. The time that has elapsed since the introduction of the law offers an opportunity to learn about the school experiences of adults who have attended school as children with special educational needs (in national terminology). In this article, we seek to bring out the voices of those concerned, analysing interviews with them on the basis of their experiences in education. It seems that, regardless of the age of our interviewees, we found similar patterns in the functioning of the Hungarian education system, in addition to individual experiences and differences. In their life course interviews, segregated and integrated educational institutions appear in different ways, while inclusive education does not appear in any
form in their narratives.