Education in times of conflict and the invisibility of disability: a focus on Iraq?

Education has come to be a key focus of the humanitarian response of international agencies in countries affected by conflict, but disabled children tend to be excluded from these education initiatives. Yet the reconstruction process can provide governments with a unique opportunity to reassess the way they educate disabled children, and consider moving towards more inclusive educational approaches. Indeed, crises can be seen as opportunities to ‘build back better’. A review of the limited literature is followed by an account of a disability study in Iraq, and reflections on the way forward for collaborative research on educational reconstruction in post-conflict societies.