Resources

"The world is going to hell in a wheelbarrow, and this is not going to do retarded people any good" (the author's own, concise abstract). Wolf Wolfensberger (Coordinator, Training Institute for Human Services, Syracuse University. Founder of citizen advocacy and foremost developer of social role valorisation theory) gives a strictly personal view in this article. He argues that what happens to those members of a society who are vulnerable and devalued (especially those labelled 'intellectually disabled') depends on the defining features of that society. Thus in order to gauge the future for those so labelled it is necessary to look deeply into the nature of Western society. His premise is that the future is not bright because Western societies in general are in a state of collapse. The rest of the article illustrates this point, linking his premise to the growing 'death making' of people with disabilities. Keyword: Theory