“Communication is a right, not a privilege” — Lessons of inclusive education from Lublin, AMUSE project

In December 2025, our SOFT tulip delegation travelled to Lublin, Poland, as part of the AMUSE project — a European partnership focused on inclusive education and AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) in Ukraine. What we saw over those four days reshaped how we think about our own work.

When inclusion stops being a concept

There is a difference between reading about inclusive education and standing inside a classroom where it actually works. In December 2025, our delegation travelled to Lublin, Poland, as part of the AMUSE project — a European partnership focused on inclusive education and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) in Ukraine. What we brought back is harder to put in a report than in a reflection.

Lublin was chosen deliberately: close enough for our Ukrainian partners from Odesa to reach, even in wartime. That detail alone set the tone for everything that followed.

Inclusion starts earlier than we think

Our first visit was to Lublin’s first integrated kindergarten — a place where children aged three to six, with and without additional support needs, share a classroom as a matter of course. Groups of twenty children, roughly five of whom have a physical, intellectual, or sensory disability, learn together from the very beginning.

What struck us most was not the setup, but the atmosphere. Two teachers and a special educator work side by side in each group, backed by a full multidisciplinary team: psychologists, pedagogues, physiotherapists, speech therapists, and sensory integration specialists. The focus is not on the diagnosis, but on what each child can do and where they are headed.

We watched a speech therapist work with a young child using a tablet app to produce words — a quiet, ordinary moment that carried enormous weight. For our partners from the Early Intervention Centre in Odesa, that same tablet represents a daily obstacle: at the time of our visit, their city had been without electricity for eight days. They were running on generators. And yet they were there, in Lublin, fully present and deeply engaged. That kind of commitment does not have a professional term. It is simply courage.

The goal was always adulthood

At the MOZAIKA Community Self Help Centre, we saw what inclusion looks like when it works over a lifetime. Adults with autism, intellectual disabilities, mental health challenges, or dementia spend their days in an environment built around dignity and meaningful activity — gardening, music, ceramics, office skills, and even sailing in summer.

For many of the clients, verbal communication is not accessible. AAC is not a supplement here — it is the foundation. We were shown an eye-gaze speech device, a technology we know from the Netherlands, but seeing it in this context reminded us of something important: children learn these tools far more easily than adults. What we invest in early, we give back tenfold later.

The afternoon brought a theatrical performance by neurodiverse artists, inspired by Shakespeare and built around Kelly Hunter’s Heart Rhythm Communication Method. The rhythm of the heartbeat as a structuring principle — offering safety, familiarity, and space to be fully oneself. It was one of those moments that stays with you not as a professional observation, but as a human one.

A shift in how we see disability

Across every centre we visited — the kindergarten, MOZAIKA, and the Early Development Support Centre Lolek — one shift was unmistakable: the move away from a medical model toward a biopsychosocial, holistic approach. Not “what is wrong with this child” but “what does this child need to live a full life, and who is part of making that happen.”

Family involvement is not an afterthought in this model — it is structural. And the long view is always present: these children will become adults who deserve an integrated, meaningful place in society. Every decision made today is made with that future in mind.

Building something together

One of the most tangible outcomes of the visit was a working afternoon dedicated to developing an AAC-based textbook specifically for Ukrainian preschools. In small groups, we debated the right sequence of developmental steps, agreed on methodological principles, and mapped out responsibilities.

We advocated for materials that do not depend solely on screens — pictograms, sensory learning, and supportive gestures that remain functional when the internet is unavailable and the power is out. For Ukraine, this is not a hypothetical. It is the reality our partners navigate every day.

The final day ended with a hands-on session in the Boardmaker programme at a Special Educational Centre on the edge of Lublin — a school where AAC is at the heart of every lesson, and where we saw teachers pour genuine passion into groups of four students. We left with a Polish-Dutch version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a clearer sense of what dedicated practice looks like.

What we are taking home

SOFT Tulip joined this project because we believe that knowledge does not stay still — it grows through exchange. Lublin confirmed that. We returned with new ideas for our own work, renewed commitment to the AMUSE partnership, and deep respect for colleagues who continue building something meaningful under conditions most of us will never fully understand.

Communication is a right. Not a privilege, not a milestone to be reached — a right, from the beginning. That is what Lublin taught us, again.

Shannon Lagerweij & Sandra Zaal on behalf of Cordaan Youth and SOFT Tulip