Individualisation and Integration
Individualisation and Integration are among the leading principles underlying the work with people with disabilities.
Every human being has his or her own needs; bodily, psychological, and spiritual. Disability cannot be used as a reason to withhold from a person those opportunities for personal development available to him or her, nor his acceptance into the community or his individual rights as a citizen.
How integration and individualisation can be realised in each individual case is governed by certain guidelines and general viewpoints, but no uniform solutions. Integration in pluralist societies can only maintain that a decision about what integration means for a particular individual must be determined by the said individual.
On no account can it be permitted that institutions and special programs for persons with disability, who provide the opportunities for persons living in special circumstances, are marginalised and ridiculed. Naturally, the institutions themselves must always be on the alert in regard to individualisation and integration to fulfil their function as a bridge between the individual and the community in the best way possible.
(translated by Eric Hurner)
A Multifarious Culture
"In a pluralist society we can say in general that fundamentally differing forms of community life are not just possible, but should be actively encouraged.
The point is to enable every person to find his or her place of integration into society. For persons with disability this can mean the generally available schools, a special school perhaps with small classes, or a home. It can mean the finding of one’s first job on the job market, an integrated living community or life in a special village community. The power of decision rests with the persons affected and their representatives (parents, relatives, legal guardians) as to what best meets their needs for integration and support.
Dogmatic assertions of a scientific, practical or legal nature about the manner and nature of integrating persons with special needs will, in the long run, only undermine this idea if the result is that pluralistic ways of life, as they exist within a democracy, are thereby prevented."
(The Curative Education and Social Therapy Council: Position on Integration. (Konferenz für Heilpädagogik und Sozialtherapie: Positionspapier zur Integration)
(Translated by Eric Hurner)