A NEW WAY OF THINKING? TOWARDS A VISION OF SOCIAL INCLUSION

Social inclusion in context:
From experiences of exclusion to a vision of inclusion

by Catherine Frazee

Background:

In June of last year I was invited by the Laidlaw Foundation to prepare a working paper examining the relationship between social inclusion, diversity and disadvantage on the one hand and the well-being of children, youth and families on the other. The paper that has evolved from this invitation explores the relationship between equality and inclusion, grounding this inquiry in an active consideration of the experiences, perspectives and voices of children and youth. It takes as its starting point, a series of e-mail dialogues with six young people from Alberta, ranging in age from 15 to 18. Two of these young people have disabilities; four are involved in some close relational capacity with a disabled peer.

I approach the topic of social inclusion as a disabled person and a long time human rights activist. It is my belief that through the lens of disability we can most clearly perceive the limitations of an exclusive focus upon rights and legal entitlement, and recognize the essential contribution of social inclusion to the challenge of promoting, respecting and protecting lives of dignity and equality for all citizens.

Research Highlights:

• The experience of inclusion for participants in this study was universally regarded as both personally emancipatory and socially rewarding. In the experience of these young people, the link between well-being and inclusion is straightforward and irreducible.
• Robust networks of social relationship such as peer friendships correlate strongly with the development of childhood resilience and ability to cope with external stress. Operating as a kind of "natural intervention", feelings of connection to others contribute to a sense of security, integration and purposefulness.¹
• The exercise of adult authority in the lives of disabled children undercuts the compelling logic of inclusion with the blunt violence of stereotype, foreclosure and devaluation. Adult behaviour and social settings too often define, reinforce and legitimize categories of difference and inferiority that disabled children must actively resist in their attempts to construct autonomous, competent and interdependent identities.
• The pursuit of equality for disabled people requires "not only a concern for what 'we do' and 'how we act' (are prevented from doing and acting)..., but also a concern for 'who we are' (are prevented from being), and how we feel and think about ourselves."²
• Superficial implementation of a kind of 'exclusionary inclusion’ leaves young people vulnerable to an analysis that sees their differences as "residing in themselves"³ and determines their eligibility for inclusion as contingent upon their capacity to emulate valued social norms.
• Instead of focusing upon the cultivation of relationships that are integral to a young person's well-being, actively seeking out resources and methods most likely to yield this result, conventional rights discourse may sanction the exclusion of children whose differences confound the imaginations of those empowered to affirm and protect their being and belonging.
• The meaning of inclusion is bound together with the quest for self-affirming relationship. It arises from an ethic not of tolerance, but of active appreciation for difference.

Analysis:

• Canadian equality law, expressed in section 15 of our Charter and in federal and provincial human rights legislation, has taken us a good distance toward exposing prejudice and uprooting deeply embedded patterns of discrimination and disadvantage. Equality rights jurisprudence has provided us with important legal and analytical tools for remediation and redress, whenever discrimination is found in public or private actions, policies and systems.
• Sadly, however, the entrenchment of rights in our society has been matched by the entrenchment of poverty, abuse, despair and even death for persons with disabilities. Good laws -- even the best laws we have -- deliver rights one case at a time. It is as if the hand of justice reaches down and plucks out one lucky equality-seeker from an almost endless queue of those with strong voices, robust supports, and hardy spirits. Others, lacking support, lacking confidence or a sense of entitlement, even though their claims are equally legitimate and their stories of injustice equally compelling, never come to the attention of the law.⁴
• Notions of equality clearly give those who seek inclusion a persuasive language in which to frame their assertions and a legal forum in which to advance their arguments. The effectiveness of equality doctrine in restoring dignity and securing a right to inclusion in hotly contested cases, however, is considerably less certain. A review of the few litigated cases that I was able to identify suggests that prior inclusive experiences enhance the likelihood of success in the assertion of rights-based claims. To the extent that inclusion forges relationships of mutual regard and respect, these relationships appear to accord a level of surety to rights entitlement.
• In their role as social agents, young people seek to exercise autonomy and choice, to assert values and identity and to influence the institutional and political culture within which their dreams for the future must take root. The extent to which rights and rights discourse can be used as tools to support these processes, will depend in large measure upon our capacity to dismantle hierarchies of difference and to negotiate new relations of substantive equality from positions of transcendent empathy, rather than paternalistic subjectivity.
• From a disability perspective, the legal process is a process of discovery -- searching for and discovering the nature and meaning of rights in the context of disability. In much the same way, the inclusion process is a process of discovery -- searching for and discovering the nature and meaning of relationships in the context of disabled people's lives. The legal process unfolds in the courts. The inclusion process unfolds in our day-to-day lives. The legal process can be lengthy and cumbersome; it has a certain heaviness to it. The inclusion process can be held in an instant -- a single word, a glance or gesture. The legal process, successfully deployed, yields the spark of entitlement. The inclusion process, successfully deployed, fans that spark, provides it with the air that it needs to grow into a full flame of personhood. Both processes are integral to the attainment of a truly Just Society.

Conclusion:

It is time for us to broaden our vision of equality to embrace the pillar of inclusion, according it the same status as justice. Parallel to our efforts to secure rights, we must work with equal consciousness and zeal to support the development of relationships. Only through authentic and natural relationship -- with oneself, one's family, one’s peers and one's community -- only through relationship is each of us seen, known, and valued. For every human being -- disabled or not -- it is the recognition by others (recognition that comes in the form of respect, affection, consideration and concern) that shapes us, nourishes us and grants us value and purpose.

Notes

¹Jenkins, J. and D. Keating (1998). Risk and Resilience in Six- and 10-Year-Old Children. Ottawa, Applied Research Branch, Strategic Policy, Human Resources Development Canada: 59.

² Thomas, C. (1999). Female Forms: Experiencing and Understanding Disability. Buckingham, Open University Press.

³Minow, M. (1990). Making All the Difference: Inclusion, Exclusion and American Law. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press.

⁴Except when it is too late, as in the Tracy Latimer homicide.

Catherine Frazee has been involved in the equality rights movement for many years, most notably during her term as Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission from 1989 to 1992. Ms. Frazee’s work as a writer, educator and researcher focuses on the rights, identity, experience and well-being of persons with disabilities.

In addition to her private practice in human rights mediation, she is a sessional instructor in the Disability Studies program at Ryerson University and a Research Associate at the Roeher Institute, Canada’s policy research organization promoting the equality, participation and self-determination of people with intellectual and other disabilities.

During the academic year 2000/2001, Ms. Frazee held the Bertha Wilson Visiting Professorship in Human Rights at Dalhousie University. Ms. Frazee’s work has been published in various textbooks, academic journals and specialty magazines. She is currently compiling a collection of essays and lectures aimed toward deepening societal responses to the experience of disability.

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