2016 TASH Conference

Wolf Wolfensberger's formulation of the normalization principle was a sea change in human services, breaking the back of the institution service system and providing a theoretical framework for community services, allowing people with intellectual disabilities to enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities as everybody else. We will show and discuss a documentary film examining the origins and impact of the normalization principle, featuring Wolf Wolfensberger and many other leaders of the deinstitutionalization movement of the 1970s and '80s that changed how we think about supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The film calls forth new leadership to insure and promote valued lives for people with disabilities as we again face family and provider forces that seek to reinstate segregation and congregation in new ways. After this session, participants will be able to a. describe institutional life for people with disabilities and their families; b. define the Principle of Normalization; c. discuss elements of Wolfensberger's leadership; d. explain the forces of today that promote a re-emergence of segregation, congregation and institutionalization.