Blog Post #2: Bethany Quetot

    I want to address promoting the social integration of students in our community and society because of the article shared by our professor titled “Principle of Normalization.”

    We have made great strides to include children with exceptional learning needs (ELN). According to Wolfensberger the principle of normalization is “To establish and/or maintain personal behaviors which are as culturally normative as possible” (1972). According to our class textbook, “Education for All,” in the 1960’s “national policy did not even address the fact that children with disabilities were routinely denied access to public schools” (p. 2). Kids were regularly excluded, with no examples of normal behavior to follow, and with a low chance of connecting socially. This separation socially can also be seen in the old Sheltered Workshop model. In this model, individuals with disabilities could be placed in a segregated work environment doing medial or repetitive tasks that did not require much skill level. Workers were paid below minimum wage and had no chances for advancement. Connecting and socializing with people without disabilities was highly unlikely because they were so isolated. The newer model used today is called the Supported Competitive Employment model. In this model, a job coach helps a worker with a disability find a job, and trains him or her on the job until they are able to work without assistance. The Supported Competitive Employment model does a much better job of promoting social acceptance of people with ELN because it integrates workers with disabilities into a normal work environment, along with chances to be promoted, and compete against workers without disabilities. In one of my past jobs, at Das Dutch Haus restaurant, I had the opportunity to see people hired and trained with the assistance of a job coach. The jobs were typically away from the public eye, but the workers with disabilities were still in contact with the other employees on a daily basis and everyone had to work together. If they did well, they had potential to work in the jobs that the public would see also. The job coach normally did not stay long. Each individual that I saw, when I worked there, was able to excel at their job without assistance fairly quickly. I could tell that working at Das Dutch Haus gave these workers with disabilities a great sense of pride, feel included, and interact and make friends with other workers. I think the Supported Competitive Employment model is one example of how we can integrate people with disabilities into our community and society in a positive way. I especially like how they have the support of a job coach to start out at their new job, so that they do not feel like they are on their own, and they can integrate at a pace more form fitting to their needs.  Allowing students and workers with disabilities into the least restrictive environment, as much as possible, will promote healthy socializing skills and allow them to make friends and feel included.

   As time goes on, I am sure we will become even better at integrating students so that they do not feel isolated.  Educating students without disabilities, and getting them familiar with people that may not be like them, is another way to promote positive social integration.  Thankfully, we are doing better than we were in the 1960s, but we still have quite a ways to go in order to make children with disabilities feel included and socially accepted.