Reviewing the limitations of publicly funded adult developmental services in Ontario: exposing ableist assumptions within the administrative process

Abstract

This paper considers the ways that publicly funded developmental services for adults with developmental disabilities in southern Ontario are limited in how they support clients. This paper is informed by field research conducted in the summer of 2019, which was composed of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and a policy review. Informed by parent advocates who are the main caregivers of their adult children labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities, this paper claims that the administrative processes of the Ontario ministry that manages and funds adult disability services relate to broader exclusionary patterns among adults with developmental disabilities. I explore this claim by reviewing how common ableist assumptions of people with developmental disabilities are ingrained in the policies and administrative processes of these services. I contribute to ongoing discussions among Critical Disability Scholars of the ways that disability as a social category can be articulated outside of ableist assumptions.

Points of interest

• Informed by parent caregiver perspectives, this article outlines how the limitations of provincially funded disability services in Ontario, Canada cause significant challenge in the lives of those labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• One possible explanation for these limitations is that there is a disconnect between how the provincial government classifies who should receive immediate services and how many services, versus the actual need of those labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• The criteria for high supports, such as monthly funding, placement into a living facility, and the provincial assessment for determining a person’s ‘adaptive functioning’ are rooted in problematic assumptions made of people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Keywords:

• Adults labelled with developmental disabilities
• public care services
• assumptions of disability
• administration
• parent advocates
• caregivers

Additional information

Funding

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.