2.1  The difference between ‘access’ and ‘inclusion’

Inclusion can frequently trigger thoughts and images of children with physical disability. Some children will arrive at an ELC setting with physical access requirements. The journalist Frances Ryan (2018) commented ‘it isn’t my use of a wheelchair that makes my life disabled, it’s the fact not all buildings have a ramp’. This comment links to the medical model of disability discussed in Week 1, meaning that it is the presence of barriers such as access to buildings that can disable people who have mobility difficulties.

Clearly, it is vitally important that a child who uses a wheelchair can access all parts of the building and this may require adaptations to be made. However, gaining access is one thing; but what about feeling included in a setting?

   Interview: working with children with disabilities

Edinburgh-based playworker and artist Max Alexander writes a blog ‘Play Radical [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] ’ where he reflects on his experience of working with children and young people who are disabled and/or need additional support for learning.

Here he reflects on the different meanings of inclusion and access, and how he interprets them on a day-to-day basis in his work with diverse groups of children.

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Transcript: Video 2.1  Max Alexander talks about access and inclusion

MAX ALEXANDER:

So I find it really useful to think about inclusion and access as two different things. There is a lot of crossover. You need both for a space or for something to be truly inclusive.

So inclusion, for me, is about a lot of the ideas and values behind the access. So inclusion simply, is about valuing every individual for exactly who they are so not for who they could be, who you feel they should be, but for who they are in that moment. And that's a very core values thing.

You have your inclusion, which is your values-based ideology, I guess. And then access is about how you put that into action. So access is about all the practical steps you make to make sure that inclusion is happening so every individual is feeling valued and is able to access spaces, and culture, and education, and all these things.

So access can be very practical. Things like ramps and lifts are probably the easiest thing, but also handrails, clear signage, different ways of communicating in a space. But then you also have things like social barriers, social access. So when there's the social norms and expectations of a space, it can actually make it really inaccessible if those social norms are based on just neurotypical or non-disabled expectations. I feel you need them both to create an actually inclusive, accessible space for people.

Often, when these things are going wrong, it's because you've got one and not the other. For example, you might have all the right mobility access for, say, a child who is a wheelchair-user to get into a space. But if, when they get there, they don't feel welcome or included, then they're not accessing the space truly. You've got the access bit, but you haven't thought enough about the culture and the values behind that.

Actually, often, when talking about inclusion, I talk about it being quite a dynamic process. It's not something that you do, and get right, and move on from. It's always happening. You're always having to think about it. Things are going to be changing, and that's because you have to allow for uncertainty and not knowing. And those things always going to be there.

I often talk about letting people be complicated. And that has to be reflected in yourself, as well, in letting yourself be complicated, and not necessarily knowing the answers, and having these biases and influences. So I guess I'm very aware that, despite knowing intellectually or having these more nuanced understandings of disability, especially around disability not being an inherently bad thing. Despite being intellectually aware of all those things, there's still that background of all my understandings, and experiences, and interactions of people that will influence how I react to things and how I understand things sometimes where maybe my initial instinct isn't actually the instinct that I would have chosen.

Yeah, there's a side about it which is about being compassionate to yourself and allowing yourself to be human and be complicated. But also, I think acknowledging that we all have a responsibility, at the same time, to try and understand our biases and the reasons behind our reactions that might be more negative or not that inclusive or understanding of people.

End transcript: Video 2.1  Max Alexander talks about access and inclusion

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Video 2.1  Max Alexander talks about access and inclusion

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Activity 2.1  Exploring idea of inclusion and access

Timing: Allow 10 minutes

Listen to more of Max’s reflections on disability.

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Transcript: Video 2.2  Max Alexander’s reflections on disability

MAX ALEXANDER:

So when I think about what's influenced my idea of disability, I guess I'd initially think back to growing up and becoming aware of disability in the first place, and what that means, and it being something that I wasn't meant to talk about, [LAUGHS] as being something that adults were reluctant to talk about to me, which is something I think about a lot now when, as an adult, working with children and talking about disability and different needs.

There's definitely some clear narratives around disability. And whenever you have clear narratives around something, it means you're not fully seeing people, because you're speaking out of narratives. So definitely something around just sadness and loss is definitely probably the main thing I was aware of. And then there's the flip side of the inspirational narrative as well which, although maybe comes from a better place, I think is just as dehumanising as any other narrative because it's still not letting the person be complicated.

So now, as an adult although there's no real clear distinction between those ideas growing up and now, there's not been a massive change it's about experience and thinking and deconstructing these things yourself. I think getting into my area of work, and in my personal life having friends with different needs and different disabilities, and also receiving an autism diagnosis myself, all those things have meant a lot of unpicking and unlearning and thinking through where these ideas come from and how they still impact my thinking today.

End transcript: Video 2.2  Max Alexander’s reflections on disability

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Video 2.2  Max Alexander’s reflections on disability

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Compare Max’s explanation with your own experience. What do you think has influenced your understanding of disability and inclusion?

Discussion

Max describes how he has been conditioned to think about disability through our everyday culture. This is likely to be through school experiences, family expectations, media representations of disability and the everyday experience of being or not being in contact with individuals with disability.

Max describes unconscious bias. We may hold a considered opinion gained through reflection and learning but sometimes our brains make quick judgements about people and pay more attention to how we may have been conditioned to think over time rather than our conscious, considered opinion.

The more we are aware of our potential for prejudice or bias, the more we can be sure that we don’t act on it.

This section has explored the difference between ‘access’ and ‘inclusion’ in relation to disability. However, as discussed in Week 1, inclusion is not just about disabled children. The next section explores inclusion in broader terms.