Including students with severe disabilities in mainstream classrooms has become more and more common. These severe disabilities include both physical and intellectual, and the Downing project tackles the most common subject area for inclusion - literacy. Covering a wide age spectrum the author looks at:

- accessing the general curriculum;

- literary activities;

- parental involvement;

- pre- and post-assessment;

- IEPs;

- peer support;

- school-wide approaches;

- evaluation and grading;

- goal-setting.

The project also includes very practitioner-oriented pedagogy, including Frequently Asked Questions, chapter by chapter references, bibliography with short summaries, and relevant websites.

June Downing is a Professor at California State University, Northridge, where she prepares teachers to work in the area of moderate/severe disabilities. She has been the project director of numerous federally-funded projects to train teachers. For the past 16 years, her focus in teacher preparation has been in the area of inclusive education.

After receiving her BA in Sociology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Dr. Downing went on to pursue her training at the University of Northern Colorado where she earned an MA in special education with an emphasis in visual impairments. Her Ph.D. in special education with an emphasis in severe and multiple disabilities, including sensory impairments, is from the University of Arizona.

She is currently on the editorial board of The Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps and Augmentative and Alternative Communication and has published numerous articles, monographs, training modules, and book chapters in her areas of expertise.