Playwright Kath Duncan was born with only half her left arm and half her right leg.
"The other limbs are sort of there but they're a bit wonky too - parts of me are wonky," she told AAP.
In 1961, her disability meant low expectations and schooling in a special education institution from the age of three.
Built on the site of a former dump and fenced with barbed wire, Duncan describes the school as a place where children were given hours of dull activities and could be removed from the classroom for testing at any moment.
"I hated every second - in my little kid head, it was a torture place," she said.
After six years of desperation, she managed to transfer to a public school, which Duncan said was like breaking out of jail.
But her shame and anger at her time in special education lasted decades, and in 2000 she began developing a dark comedy titled Specials! about revenge on the system.
The play, which is Duncan's first full-length work, might just be an Australian first.
"We think this is the first time a person who actually went to special school has written a play that went anywhere - let alone a play about special education," she said.
It's being developed through a Warehouse Residency at Arts House Melbourne, with a cast of five disabled performers and a mostly disabled crew.
In September 2023, the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability delivered 222 recommendations - but after more than four years of looking into disability issues, it could not agree on the fate of special education.
Commissioners Barbara Bennett, Rhonda Galbally and Alastair McEwin recommended winding up the system by 2052 with no new enrolments from 2032.
But the chair and commissioners Andrea Mason and John Ryan disagreed, recommending more interaction between the mainstream system and schools for students with disabilities.
In its official response, the federal government noted these differing views and said states and territories are responsible for schools.
The government said it had provided an estimated $3.6 billion in additional funding for school students who have a disability, to support inclusive education.
Even after the royal commission, the opinions of special education students are hard to find in the debate about its future, Duncan said.
She hopes her play will become part of the dialogue.
Duncan happily describes Specials! as angry agitprop theatre, in which disabled performers are given the chance to mock the powers that be - bosses, nurses and teachers.
"We've seen a lot of non-disabled people playing disabled people," she said.
"This is flipping that and it's hilarious.
"I've spoofed the hell out of those boss-type, ableist, non-disabled characters - that's my favourite bit."
Specials! has a surreal premise: two former special education students - one who left the system and one who stayed - break into their former campus and find themselves in a time warp.
In October, Duncan will stage a half-hour development showcase of Specials! as part of the Alter State festival and hopes to mount a full production in 2026.
She is also raising money to provide accessibility measures such as support staff for the cast, crew, and audience, as well as audio descriptions and tactile tours.
About one in five Australians, or 4.4 million people, identify as having a disability, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
The number of students with a disability in public schools has increased by 29 per cent since 2015, and they now make up almost one-in-four students, according to the Australian Education Union's For Every Child report.
The Warehouse Residency commissions at Arts House have been running for four years and are designed to facilitate the creation of new work by deaf and disabled artists.
The development showing of Specials! by Kath Duncan runs from October 8 to 12 as part of the Alter State festival.
