There are forms of oppression and domination which become invisible – the new normal – Michel Foucault
What is Institutionalized Inclusion? I’ll give a real world example. My daughter attended high school for six years (bonus year to bridge to adult disability supports). In that entire time, she never ate lunch in the school cafeteria. Not even once, even though it was something she would have loved to do. Why not? Because students like her, who were in the “life skills” program ate at their tables in their room. For six years she attended, for all intents and purposes, an institution for disabled people co-located in a high school. Students left the room when accompanied by Educational Assistants, often in pairs or in groups. They could not freely choose when to leave the room or what classes to attend because staffing levels were too low to allow for that type of individualized freedom, or what is commonly called person-centered planning in community living circles.
This blog will share examples and research about the concept of institutionalized inclusion. While many bureaucrats pat themselves on the back and non-profit societies dedicated to community living absorb millions of dollars in government funding, everywhere we look disabled people are moving around within invisible institutions that dictate where they go, when they go there, and who they go with.
As a disability-adjacent mom, I have been part of this system of institutionalized inclusion for decades. My posts illuminate what I have observed and learned. I encourage readers to seek out disabled writers and policy analysts. I also encourage people to continually interrogate the spaces and places they are in to consider whether they are upholding or tearing down the invisible institutions.