Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Let me give you one sample of statements young retarded persons have formulated for themselves in Sweden several years ago in the report of a conference that had brought them together under the auspices of FUB/ the Swedish parent's association. Among the points they made were the following:

Leisure Time Activities

We found that:

We want to be together in small groups during our leisure time.

Dance evening ought not to be for more than 14-16 persons.

Under no circumstances do we want to walk in large groups in town.

To have better contact with leisure time leaders, we think they should be of the same age as we.

We have all agreed that we want more power of participation in decision-making, especially in planning and implementation of leisure time activities.

We all think one should decide oneself what to do during vacations.

Living Conditions

We found that:

We wish to have an apartment of our own and not be coddled by personnel; therefore we want courses in cooking, budgeting, etc.

We want the right to move together with the other sex when we feel ready for it, and we also want the right to marry when we ourselves find the time is right.

We who live in institutions and boarding homes have found that:

The homes should be small.

We want to choose our own furniture, and have our own furniture in the room.

We will absolutely not have specific hours to follow in terms of going out, returning, etc.

We want to have more personal freedom, and not as it is now in certain institutions and boarding homes where you have to ask for permission to shop for fruit, newspapers, tobacco, etc.

We who live at home have found that:

It is largely good, but one ought to move out when the time is right to a service sheltered apartment or hostel; one cannot for his whole life be dependent on his parents.

We want, however, to have our own key when we live at home. Questions Concerning Work

We demand more interesting jobs.

We do not want to be used on our jobs by doing the worst and most boring tasks we do at present.

We demand that our capacity for work should not be underestimated.

We want that when we are working in the open job market, our fellow workers should be informed about our handicap.

We think that we should be present when our situation is discussed by doctors, teachers, welfare workers, foremen, etc. Now it feels as if they talk behind our backs.

We demand to have more information about our handicap, and the possibilities we have to enter the open market.

Last Day of Discussion

Today we have talked about what to do to improve the bad conditions we have found during the discussion Friday and Saturday:

We demand that continuous information should be given to the counties and communities, schools, sheltered workshops, and other institutions for our handicapped group about the prevailing bad conditions.

We demand also that much stronger information be given to people in general through newspapers, radio and TV.

We have elected today a committee of six members and two alternates with the following tasks:

The committee shall continuously receive reports about the decisions of the National Board of the Swedish Association for Retarded Children.

The committee shall work for the general public and pressure the authorities. (Nirje, 1969)

You will say that the group which produced this document surely was composed of mildly retarded young people, but that is not so. The group included persons who previously had been denied admission to special classes in the public schools. Furthermore, in a very significant demonstration in Israel, Dr. Chigier has successfully shown how to use the peer group approach to motivate and to prepare severely and profoundly retarded adults, previously considered as totally incapable of any structured, productive effort, for a work experience in the orchards. Specifically, Dr. Chigier first worked with this group of young people in a recreational program with only one purpose -- to get group interaction and group cohesion among these individuals, who previously had largely led a solitary existence. Once he had reached that goal, he moved with the whole group into the orchard and what he had anticipated came true -- by supporting each other, by a group motivation, these severely handicapped young people for the first time gained a sense of accomplishment, a sense of being an adult, participating member in a society where productive effort was valued most highly. I might add parenthetically that a film Dr. Chigier prepared of this demonstration is available from the US Rehabilitation Service in Washington (Chigier, 1968).

I have tried to sketch out for you in my presentation some new approaches in the preparation of retarded young people for adult living. But at best I have presented only a small segment, a very partial picture. A few weeks ago my husband participated in a small conference that was to project a picture of mental retardation in the year 2000. In this discussion he stressed several times the urgent need to improve our techniques of early intervention, of improving the assistance we should give today to the families of severely handicapped infants and very young children. Some members of the group commented impatiently that what was needed was to think "long range" to the year 2000. My husband answered that that was precisely why he was so worried about early intervention, because children born within the next few months would be in their 25th year by the year 2000, and our job was to give them the best possible preparation for a meaningful life as adult citizens in our communities.