“I have also been told that there is fear — fear that disability is contaminating, infecting the lives of the non-disabled community with sight, sound, and behaviour that might disturb and interfere with non-disabled lives,” Dr Galbally said.

“For example, I have been told that there is fear that having disabled students in mainstream classrooms will be detrimental to the education of non-disabled students … yet, research presented to the commission shows this fear does not have any legitimate basis.”