Shifting the Conversation: Self-Advocacy, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Deinstitutionalization in South Korea

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Family, Finances, and Future Planning: Navigating Disability Support and Transition in a Changing World (Table 11)

Abstract

This study explores discourses of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and rights in deinstitutionalization and self-advocacy movements in South Korea, and current social and political tensions over these topics. I conducted Critical Discourse Analysis analyzing recent online news items regarding the Korean government’s deinstitutionalization policies. The findings illustrate the struggle of South Korean self-advocates to reframe support for people with IDD – not as a parental duty or social burden but a governmental responsibility to build infrastructure for Koreans’ well-being – and deinstitutionalization as a constitutional and human right, not an inconvenience for provision of services. The presentation discusses the ableist imposition of prerequisites to life outside of an institution and implications of self-advocates’ work to inform transition support in K-12 settings.

Author

• Eunyoung Jung, SUNY - College at Cortland