Community Living Ontario

So it’s 2010 and I’ve been thinking about where we are as a movement. A couple of years ago the Canadian Association for Community Living, in its annual National Report Card on the Inclusion of Canadians with Intellectual Disabilities, reported that 50% of Canadians are comfortable in the presence of someone who has an intellectual disability. Given where we have been in this social movement and where we need to go, I didn’t know whether this was to be celebrated or lamented.

Is the cup half full or half empty?

Regardless of one’s opinion about this statistic, it asks us to reflect on the community living movement, its accomplishments, challenges and the state of social inclusion of people who have an intellectual disability.

Why the focus on social inclusion? Because research and personal experience confirm that the stereotypes and prejudices about people who have a disability are really only changed and dispelled when all people have the opportunity to be with each other, regardless of difference, in well-supported ways, in typical places, at typical times and in typical activities within their community.

I think retired Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour said it best in a 1995 ruling for the Court of Appeal for Ontario in the case of Emily Eaton, a 10 year-old girl who wasn’t allowed to attend the regular class at her neighbourhood school because of her disability. Arbour wrote, “Inclusion into the main school population is a benefit to Emily because without it she would have fewer opportunities to learn how other children work and how they live. And they will not learn that she can live with them, and they with her.”

The simplicity and eloquence of Justice Arbour’s statement speaks volumes to the work we all need to do. People need to be together. But we know it’s not easy.

Why isn’t it easy? Because people who have an intellectual disability are not highly valued in our society. A society based on values like competitiveness, efficiency, achievement and productivity struggles to accommodate someone who brings other kinds of contributions, as Emily Eaton found out.

But maybe that’s changing. The wonder of this community living movement however is that there is a growing number of people who do see the value, gifts, talents and contributions of all people as a necessary prerequisite for a healthy community. The values of tolerance, diversity, patience, and interdependence are offered and strengthened everyday in all parts of this country by the presence and participation of students who have a disability in their neighbourhood school, or from an employee who has a disability in a workplace, or from a volunteer at a local library, or from a member of a service club.

The social inclusion of all people within community in typical and valued ways, well-supported, is the single greatest legacy that we all can work towards. 50% of Canadians comfortable with people who have an intellectual disability? Not good enough, Canada. Let’s make it 100%.