Individuals with Disabilities Happen in the Outdoors?


Can Inclusion of Insights from personal experience By Karen Lai


may use it because they want to ensure that their programs or services achieve full registration, or maybe they want to be welcoming and inviting to everyone. But I have to ask: Can this be really done? Can programs or services be inclu- sive to all people? One of the kayaking outfitters based in the Lower Main-


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land of British Columbia, Canada offers a Tuesday night drop-in program, and they claim that they welcome people of all abilities and all ages. As a person living with a disabil- ity, I often wonder what would happen if I just showed up. Would they be able to accommodate my needs, given that they welcome people of all abilities? Since birth, I have lived with cerebral palsy, which affects my balance, coordination, speech, dexterity, and mobility. As a result, I use a walker to support me in walking and to relieve the spasticity in my legs. Would I be welcomed to the program as well? There’s a phenomenon wherein it is believed that inclu-


NCLUSION IS SUCH A commonly used term nowa- days. Many organizations and programs use it as a pro- motional tool for their programming and services. They


sion means mixing everyone together! However, what I have learned from school, working in the field, and my lived experiences is that inclusion is not a program, nor is it the environment. It is a mainframe, which means it is how we act, how we think, how we make decisions, how we lead, how we facilitate, and how we deliver our programs. Inclu- sion is a lot more complex and challenging than we think, because we as humans are complex beings. Besides disabil- ity, there are a lot more identities to individuals such as their ethnicity, income level, age, sexual orientation, and gender. All of these identities along with their lived experiences shape us and form people’s perspectives. Thus, inclusion is not an end state; it is more like a journey where all parties work together and learn from each other through accep- tance, understanding, and patience. In terms of inclusion of individuals with disabilities


within outdoor programs, there are two sides to the journey. On one side there are the individuals with disabilities them- selves. They are the people with a lived perspective, and they know their needs intimately. They need to be the ones to share what they need or how they need to be supported to fully participate. However, individuals with disabilities are often dismissed from the inclusion journey. There’s a cer-


Green Teacher 126 Page 3


Photos from Karen Lai


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