Institute for Human Development

Changing the way you experience the world

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Access | Attitude | Inclusion

Our Work:

Impacts people at all life stages- individually and socially
Influences policy at local, state, national, and global levels

Vision: People with disabilities fully participate in all life experiences

Mission: Promote full inclusion by advancing attitudes that value persons with disabilities and enhancing access to all aspects of the human experience

The IHD fosters the development of attitudes that promote the public’s appreciation and value of individuals with disabilities. Attitudes, as barriers to or facilitators of inclusion, go hand-in-hand with access. Access, commonly thought of as access to services and supports, can have a much broader meaning. Services are unquestionably essential for inclusion but access also refers to access to information, education, physical environments, community, friendships, relationships, etc. Conceptually, access and attitude have reciprocal roles in promoting or inhibiting inclusion.

The toughest barriers faced by people with disabilities are not architectural, they are attitudinal. They are not in the environment, they are in our hearts and in our minds. When people with disabilities are integrated throughout our communities, we are given the opportunity to change our attitudes from ones based on stereotypes, fear, and ignorance, to ones based on admiration, acceptance, and affection… We all gain from the opportunity to experience people with developmental disabilities as friends, as neighbors, as coworkers, as classmates.