Time to move away from segregated, special places

By Marisa Geitner, president and C.E.O.

Is integration good enough for our community? Do we believe that it is OK to have people with disabilities near us — in separate homes and buildings that are specially designed for them? Or is it time that people with disabilities are welcomed and included as equals in our gyms, in our churches and in our community conversations?

For me, integration is an admirable step but it can never be the goal. Integration is something we should see in the rear view mirror, while moving toward inclusion.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane:

• Of course, we started with the ugliness of the time when we looked to euthanize, sacrifice or hide those with disabilities when we only saw exclusion as a means to address differences.
• Then, in the 1800s, development of institutions and asylums began as a means of segregation.
• Following WWI, in the 1930s, we began to experience veterans with disabilities and we started offering options outside of institutions, like homes where people with disabilities would live together in community neighborhoods and buildings where people with disabilities would go to work or exercise. We call that integration.
• The ’40s and ’50s brought about WWII veterans who paved the way for the next level of demand and visibility of disability rights.
• The ’60s brought the birth of the civil rights movement, which led to laws in the ’70sthat offered civil rights protection for people with disabilities and access to public education. Around this time, we began to deinstitutionalize and transition from large, campus-based institutions. Tremendous resources were placed on offering group home and day program services for those with disabilities.
• After more than a decade of lobbying, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. The ADA was intended to secure EQUAL treatment and EQUAL access to employment, transportation and other public accommodations.
• Still, decades later, people with disabilities battle against deep seated assumptions and stereotypes — and we all battle against decades of investing in segregated buildings that were meant to serve only one group of people. What happens to those special buildings when people with disabilities are welcomed into the workforce, join their friends at the local gym or get an apartment near their sister? How do we justify paying for special buildings that only offer segregation and integration — not full inclusion?

We reached integration and then stalled for decades. I can’t help but feel that people have confused this for the end goal.

We must get out of segregated and integrated special places and share the same places. Let’s push ourselves to demonstrate hospitality and do the tough stuff to ensure that everything we do welcomes people of all backgrounds and abilities.

We must shift practices — not just sidewalks — at every building, every community group, every school and every office to ensure that all are welcomed. In doing so we nurture belonging and begin to develop an interdependence that is rich in a healthy relationship of community.

Do you have a vision for what the future of community looks like for you? I hope so, because it will take each one of us to steer society and take the next big step to truly include.