Describing Inclusion

Inclusion
My getting better continues at a slow, uneven pace. Yesterday Gabor, David and I participated in a Citizen Advocacy luncheon – I didn’t eat anything. The talk and discussion went very well. We got our best video yet. Tomorrow I will be doing an open mike night at the Sentient Bean, along with a group named AWOL – a group aimed at using e-technology to get kids job skills, cash and positive entry to the economic aspects of their world.

In between I have been in bed mainly, still coughing but less, figuring out strategies to deal with chronic acid reflux and eating baby sized meals. It looks like we beat this one too.

As I have had lots of time to reflect, both consciously and in dream-like states. I have evolved a strategy for communicating the peace growing power of inclusion. I intend to share this strategy in the blog.

Tonight I want to share a 3 stage description of inclusion I have been working with. In later blogs, in the near future, I will share some stories that wrap around this.

Of course the concept “inclusion” is not related only to people who are labeled disabled. When women were first demanding and implementing their rights and abilities to participate in political and economic life, the social results were inclusion. When people from non-English or French speaking parts of the world move into Toronto, find their way in cultural, spiritual and economic ways in the city, and broadly influence the opportunities of that city, that is also inclusion.

In the past twenty years and more a great deal has been written and said about inclusion. I have sat on two consulting committees about this subject and have been amazed at how much can be said, written and researched. I am not one to favour making things more complex. Complex talk is one strategy that excludes many people who have disability labels. I have been working on ways to talk about how peace shows up at different stages of inclusion. I want to begin sharing more of this work here.

Let me know how the following writing strikes you.

It can be said that one person includes another. An example would be when a women invites a new friend who lives in a nursing home to regularly attend church with her. It can also be said that an organization includes individuals, as when a school makes all its classrooms welcoming to children who learn in non-academic ways. It can also be said that one group includes another, as when an “all white” baseball league and an “all black” baseball league become just a baseball league.

When people first talk about inclusion they usually mean something like: “You are welcome to be in my space but I will make no changes in my world because you showed up. You must act as if you are just like me, or leave.” When women first worked where men did, and when people in wheelchairs first went to university they often struggled to find a restroom they could use at work.

As inclusion progresses, the “including” person or group gets to the point where they recognize that changes in structure and policy would assist the “included” person or group to participate more effectively. This is the stage of “reasonable accommodation”. Ramps are built, ESL classes emerge and targeted housing subsidies are funded. The included are still mainly expected to fit in, keep up, and stop at “their level”.

The most creative and effective stage of inclusion is reached when everyone realizes that we are not all the same and that we don’t have to be. It is the stage when there is no longer anything to be “included into”. All sides recognize that their unique differences are real and are also opportunities for each other’s growth and enjoyment. Each is ready to explore what can be let go of and what can be enhanced so that a new world that works for all can be created. As an example, where classrooms have been inclusive at this level methods of teaching have been evolved, students have taken on more intimate and respectful roles and relationships among themselves and with their teachers, and the daily activities and interests have shifted across entire school boards.

It would be nice to think this progression came easily. In reality it is hard won in most cases, with many virtual and actual battles fought to keep the dialogue going.

Although I am primarily a champion of the most creative level of inclusion, greater peace can show up at all levels. I will write about this in subsequent entries.

Judith