Social needs in the secondary school environment through the prism of students with physical disabilities

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on the social needs of individually integrated students with physical disabilities during their secondary education. The aim of the research, conducted through the semi-structured interviews, was to identify the social needs of the participants and with the use of partial processes of the situational analysis to determine, which elements are involved in shaping of those needs. The data shows that the need for acceptance is a basic social need of the informants, since it is based on the need for friendship, equal approach and status and the need for belonging. The results also clearly showed that explored social needs and their saturation with individually integrated pupils are determined by the lack of information of intact students about their specific needs, the lack of interest in interaction and cooperation from the part of nondisabled classmates, but also by the presence of an assistant in the classroom. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.