The Costs of Exclusion and the Fight for Inclusion

• In Event: 3121 - Social Justice through the Lens of Disability

Abstract

This presentation weaves together three strands of my research agenda related to disability to examine the ways in which social exclusion threatens the emotional health of individuals, families, and communities. Data are drawn from three sources: a community survey conducted in a small town on the edge of a major metropolitan area in the United States (n=548); in-depth, life-course interviews with mothers and fathers of seven young people living in the United States who have lifelong impairments and have received extended parental care into adulthood; and in-depth interviews with ten professional comedians with disabilities from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States who perform disability on the international stage. Findings suggest that exclusion has negative consequences for the emotional health of individuals with disabilities, their families, and the communities in which they live. Results also show that even among highly resilient individuals and families who are successful in creating inclusive lives, they do so largely through individual initiative within the context of neo-liberal emphasis on individual responsibility. There are social and emotional costs involved in this individual creative process. Community-wide efforts to reduce systemic exclusion and support individual and family efforts to create inclusion are clearly suggested by this body of research.

Author

• Sara E. Green, University of South Florida