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Monday - August 29th, 2005

Today is the birthday for one of my sons.  Now I know I’m old.  I’ve been going through back issues of The Arc’s newsletter in order to help with a project to identify the milestones in long term care policy and activities at the national and state level over about the last thirty years.  (I even remember some of them.)
Doing this reminds me of how far we have come in our disability policy.  Or maybe we have just come full circle – back to a time when people with disabilities were simply a part of their communities.  Before we tried to “fix” them or “protect” them or “protect” us from them.  Except for school where I’m not sure kids with disabilities were ever fully included, there have been times and communities where people with disabilities belonged and were participants in community life.
It seems a shame to have to work so hard to be accepted as an important member of society with the value and respect due each of us.  The fact remains that only the people with disabilities and their families and advocates have a vested interest in changing the status quo.  It was true in the past and it remains true today.  For all other groups of people, change means having to think and act differently and that is hard.  It means changing how they do their jobs, what jobs they hold, where they work, who their co-workers are and with whom they will socialize and worship.
It is so easy to stay in our own safe lives never realizing the fuller lives that wait for us when we recognize and embrace the diversity of abilities in the people who share our communities.
This acceptance and inclusion is what I want for my daughter.

Doris

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Posted by
Monday - August 29th, 2005

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