Intellectual Disability and the Dimensions of Belonging

Abstract

A complex web of social structures enforces the exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities, and, if radically transformed, could instead foster belonging. In this chapter, we examine four structural dimensions of belonging, including legal rights, culture, and the accordance of moral value, power, and access. For each dimension, we examine how exclusion is enacted via informal social patterns and formal policy, and we offer examples of potential avenues to creating and embracing a broad sense of belonging that includes people with intellectual disabilities. Only a multifaceted approach to belonging can dissemble the complex structural factors that continue to enforce exclusion.