Each year, the TASH Conference strengthens the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world. This year’s conference theme, “Gateway to Equity,” explores inclusive communities, schools, and workplaces that support people with disabilities, including those with complex support needs, in living a fair, just, and balanced life. Return to TASH website.
This personal narrative is from a long-time inclusive educator and TASH member who suddenly entered a new world after my mother was diagnosed with dementia. Despite my belief in competence, understanding of AAC and inclusive values, I found myself unable to enact meaningful action on behalf of my family member as well as naïve in the face of powerfully entrenched systems of care. I will share my insights about “presume competenceâ€, “family involvementâ€, and other philosophical commitments to which I was deeply devoted and that I struggled to realize in this institutional environment. Despite numerous painful and frustrating interactions, I developed new insights on human dignity, competence, and autonomy that renewed– and also humbled my work on inclusive education and showed me the urgent need for cooperative advocacy across disciplines of education, community living and eldercare.