The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, UNESCO (2002) defines
culture as “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional fea-
tures of society or a social group”. Culture “encompasses, in addition to art and
literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs”
(UNESCO, 2002). The rights to cultural identity are integral parts of human
rights as stated in major international human right documents. For example,
the Convention on the Right of the Child (United Nations, 1989) states that
education should aim at developing respect for the child’s own cultural identity,
language, and value. The rights to cultural identity for person with disabilities
are also recognized in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
(United Nations, 2006), stating “persons with disabilities shall be entitled, on an
equal basis with others, to recognition and support of their specific cultural and
linguistic identity” (Article 30).
Culture is a social phenomenon, as it “results from human interaction”
(UNESCO, 1968, p. 3). A thought or an action must be shared by at least two per-
sons to be considered a culture (Ferraro, 1998). Culture is not inherited biologically
(Haviland, Prins, McBride and Walrath, 2010) but is learned. Rather than from
active teaching processes (Henderson and Bryan, 2011), culture is learned through
socialization with others, such as “listening to, observing, and assessing those social
interactions” (Bonder and Martin, 2013). However, cultural ideas or behaviors can
be so well learned that they seem natural (Andersen and Taylor, 2007) because from
a very young age, or even from birth, children start learning their culture from their
parents. Once a behavior is adopted as a culture, the behavior is enforced by the
social approval of people within the group. In order to be a member of a group, an
individual needs to adhere to the expectations of the group, and a failure to do so
may cause the individual to be socially excluded (Keillor, 2012).

12

INFLUENCE OF CULTURE ON

SOCIAL INCLUSION OF CHILDREN

WITH AUTISM

Kanokporn Vibulpatanavong