Mainstream Education

The practice of educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms alongside non-disabled peers, rather than in separate special education settings. Mainstreaming emerged from disability rights legislation like the U.S. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which requires students be educated in the "least restrictive environment" appropriate to their needs. While mainstreaming provides social integration and access to standard curriculum, it creates accessibility challenges—deaf and hard-of-hearing students in mainstream classrooms must divide attention between instructors, visual materials, and interpreters or captioning, often missing content that hearing peers receive effortlessly.