Inclusive Education in Times of Crisis: A Qualitative Study of Disability Representation in English-Language News

Abstract

The main research interests of inclusive education have been policy, pedagogy, access, and school-based support. There has been less focus on the representation of the educational rights and support needs of learners with disabilities in public communication in security crises. This study examines how digital news in English was reported on education-related disruptions in Jammu and Kashmir following the attack in Pahalgam on 22 April 2025 and the subsequent security escalation in May 2025. The data analysis method used was qualitative comparative content analysis, which was carried out using a purposive sample of 14 digital news items from public sources available from April 22 to May 15, 2025. The items were categorized in terms of educational access, disability and special education visibility, vulnerable learners, psychosocial support, source use and headline/lead framing. Results: Education was primarily mentioned in terms of administrative disruption, whether that be closures, postponement of examinations, reopening notices, notices regarding mobility in border regions, or safety notices. The selected corpus contained no explicit mention of learners with disabilities, special educators, accessible transport, assistive technology, reasonable accommodation, counselling or examination accommodations, nor mention of the perspective of parents of learners with disabilities. Regional reporting had greater sensibility towards local disruption, while national/wider reporting expected education to be approached from a security, official order and system level disruption perspective. Conclusion: The results indicate that while crisis reporting can make schooling visible, the disruption of schooling is not necessarily equalled. The paper makes a contribution in special education scholarship by elaborating the role of media silence in reducing the population's awareness of inclusive education in emergency situations and suggesting a checklist for education departments, journalists and the school for responding to crises in an inclusive way.