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When talking about inclusion, remember that it’s not limited to the school classroom. That is just a piece of the comprehensive meaning of the word inclusion.
In real life, inclusion starts at home with your commitment as a parent. The foundation is your commitment to healing yourself from prejudice in order to overcome your own insecurities in regard to your child’s diagnosis. You must first learn how to introduce yourself as a person without labels.
Inclusion starts when you give up the wings and the “special” titles to defend your child’s humanity and his right to live a full life which will allow him to strengthen his or her abilities despite challenges or weaknesses.
Inclusion strengthens when you accept and acknowledge that there is nothing bad about living with a disability – when you realize that the goal is not to fix him, to change her, or to make them fit to comply with the norm. Inclusion is real when your child in his abilities and weaknesses is respected and acknowledged as an individual, when the world around him knows and respects him, when they recognize him as an individual normalizing the disability in order to celebrate the ability.
Inclusion evolves when as parents we get to know our rights but most importantly our responsibilities. We come to realize that our child’s disabilities don’t disable us but instead they enable us to do our best as we empower them to be able and to maximize their own abilities.
In the end, inclusion is not about a specific goal or a utopian classroom. It is about changing, adapting and adjusting. It’s about knocking on the door still with fear but at the same time with hope while leading by example. It’s about wanting the best for our children and doing the best for them. It’s about high expectations of love, a love that is mature, balanced, realistic, and full of faith.
Throughout life, inclusion manifest in different ways. At the grocery store or at the park when, after months or years living with normalcy, some days with joy, some days with confusion, people learn to see us as we are, typical people doing our best every day – the same as everybody else.
Inclusion is not magical, it is not ideal. It is nothing out of this world. Inclusion is instead the most natural, basic, and human experience that could exist. When it is real, it is silent and makes no difference. It’s natural, quiet, and is a part of life.
To achieve this silent moment in which inclusion simply flows, as parents we need to be loud about it. We need to speak about inclusion, we need to fight for inclusion, but most importantly, we need to work on and within ourselves to believe in inclusion without any doubt. Everything else follows, in one way or another.
The most interesting part about inclusion is its imperfection, and it’s okay because we were never looking for it. Through inclusion, we seek out the maximization of our children’s abilities, independence, personal satisfaction, and that powerful feeling that will give them the confidence and pride to become an active participant of the world and productive members of society. Ultimately, thatis what inclusion is really all about.
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