Mary Cuffy

‘Young Voic­es’ is a plat­form that gives young in­di­vid­u­als the op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­press their opin­ions on a range of is­sues af­fect­ing our coun­try, in­clud­ing re­li­gion, pol­i­tics, arts and cul­ture, the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem, and gov­er­nance. In this par­tic­u­lar seg­ment, young peo­ple on the autism spec­trum analyse the idea of cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion through in­clu­sion.

In­clu­sion is wide­ly recog­nised as a ba­sic hu­man right that aims to in­clude every­one, re­gard­less of their gen­der, race, med­ical needs, dis­abil­i­ty, or oth­er re­quire­ments. The ul­ti­mate goal is to en­sure that every­one has equal op­por­tu­ni­ties and ac­cess while al­so elim­i­nat­ing ob­sta­cles and dis­crim­i­na­tion. The im­pact of in­clu­sion is far-reach­ing and af­fects all as­pects of life.

Rowan McEwen, 20 

In­clu­sion is a very im­por­tant in­gre­di­ent in the recipe of a com­mu­ni­ty. In­clu­sion doesn’t just mean that peo­ple make it on­to the team; it means that the needs of every­one are ac­com­mo­dat­ed and that peo­ple live lives as com­fort­able and en­joy­able as they can be. It means that every­one has the choice to be what­ev­er they want to be. In­clu­sion takes dri­ve, will, ef­fort, and in­ge­nu­ity. It is a very dif­fi­cult thing to do, es­pe­cial­ly with the threat of ridicule, but it is vi­tal not just to those around us but al­so to our hu­man­i­ty. As an autis­tic per­son, I’ve been used to hav­ing the door slammed in my face. Many schools and oth­er in­sti­tu­tions have said that they couldn’t sup­port me, or flat-out didn’t even try. That wasn’t the case in my choir (or even at my school, Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege); in fact, it was one of the places I felt like I tru­ly be­longed. I didn’t just sit around and sing; my tal­ents were ap­pre­ci­at­ed and in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the choir it­self. I’m sure any­one who’s been to any of the Mass­es we’ve sung for can tell you about my dis­tin­guished har­monies, plus my trom­bone skills! This is the very soul of in­clu­sion and the core of our hu­man­i­ty. I strong­ly be­lieve that I shouldn’t be pitied be­cause I have my chal­lenges or treat­ed spe­cial be­cause of my tal­ents and abil­i­ties. Those things are nice to have, but nei­ther they nor my chal­lenges af­fect my worth in any way. I, as well as every­one else on God’s green earth, have in­her­ent worth be­cause I am hu­man, and that’s the true pow­er of in­clu­sion.

Ani­ka Blen­man, 16

To me, in­clu­sion is about giv­ing in­di­vid­u­als a space to shine, like their own spot­light. It helps us to thrive in so­ci­ety and to feel a sense of be­long­ing, re­gard­less of who we might have been in the past. In­clu­sion al­so shows us the many tal­ents that in­di­vid­u­als may have, but we are not aware of those tal­ents be­cause we nev­er thought to in­clude them un­til we did. In­clu­sion al­so gives us the chance to ex­pe­ri­ence those dif­fer­ent tal­ents that in­di­vid­u­als may have and to dis­cov­er in­di­vid­u­als who want to share that spe­cial tal­ent with us be­cause we were the in­di­vid­u­als who ac­knowl­edged them and made them feel that sense of be­long­ing.

Ce­line Jerome, 21

In­clu­sion, to me, is giv­ing every­one a space and a right to be who they are with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion or os­traci­sa­tion. Where every­one has a voice to be heard and is al­lowed to ex­press that voice with­out judge­ment. It’s al­so about not pick­ing at the faults or pe­cu­liar­i­ties of oth­ers, but the cel­e­bra­tion of their pos­i­tives and unique­ness. In­clu­sion is lend­ing an ear, a shoul­der, and open arms to those dif­fer­ent from your­self.

Yanique Year­wood, 18 

For me, in­clu­sion means that in­di­vid­u­als with per­son­al­i­ties are re­spect­ed, wel­comed, val­ued, ac­knowl­edged, and heard. It en­sures that every­one can ex­press them­selves au­then­ti­cal­ly, con­tribute to the team, and have a voice. It is al­so a hu­man right. Its aim should be to em­brace our­selves re­gard­less of our race, age, gen­der iden­ti­ty, dis­abil­i­ty sta­tus, re­li­gious or cul­tur­al be­liefs, or sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion. True in­clu­sion oc­curs when we elim­i­nate all bar­ri­ers, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, and in­tol­er­ance.

Anya Blen­man, 20 

In­clu­sion is de­fined as the prac­tice of pro­vid­ing equal ac­cess to op­por­tu­ni­ties and re­sources to peo­ple who might oth­er­wise be ex­clud­ed or mar­gin­alised. To me, this is a vi­tal com­po­nent of a pro­duc­tive so­ci­ety; and while it is not yet the case, in­clu­sion should be an au­to­mat­ic part of dai­ly life. To em­body an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety means bring­ing forth and tak­ing in­to ac­count dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and ideas; ac­cept­ing dif­fer­ences and us­ing them as tools to move for­ward; and con­sid­er­ing the cre­ative so­lu­tions dif­fer­ent peo­ple de­vel­op to solve prob­lems. A tru­ly in­clu­sive so­ci­ety al­lows every­one the op­por­tu­ni­ty to par­tic­i­pate ful­ly de­spite nec­es­sary ac­com­mo­da­tions. No one should be made to feel dis­crim­i­nat­ed against or left out sim­ply be­cause of who they are. That is why, to me, an in­clu­sive so­ci­ety is what we must strive for.

Syd­ney Trim, 20 (sis­ter to Seoulace, who is al­so on the autism spec­trum)

 What is ‘nor­mal’? I’ve al­ways asked my­self this ques­tion, as ‘nor­mal’ is tossed around, but every­one’s de­f­i­n­i­tion of what it po­ten­tial­ly is seems to be dif­fer­ent based on the per­son. It’s al­ways ‘BE YOUR­SELF’ but in in­vis­i­ble fine print, “Don’t be dif­fer­ent from what so­ci­ety deems as ‘nor­mal’ or you’ll be an out­cast.”

‘Nor­mal’, to me, es­sen­tial­ly re­stricts in­di­vid­u­al­i­ty by with­hold­ing ec­cen­tric per­son­al­i­ties and al­ter­na­tive per­spec­tives and try­ing to force every­one in­to the box of ‘nor­mal’. In­clu­sion, there­fore, eras­es the box of ‘nor­mal’ and al­lows peo­ple to sim­ply be who they are un­apolo­get­i­cal­ly. It pro­vides a safe space for every­one to feel loved, ap­pre­ci­at­ed, and wel­comed, and it helps open our minds in var­i­ous sit­u­a­tions to many dif­fer­ent points of view.

In my case, I have a non-ver­bal, autis­tic sis­ter. Grow­ing up, we did every­thing to­geth­er, as she was one of my on­ly sib­lings who still lived at home. There­fore, to me, she was my nor­mal. How­ev­er, when we went to events, oth­er chil­dren would al­ways ask me, “What is wrong with her?” and screw their faces up, which I felt very un­com­fort­able with as I didn’t un­der­stand. Quick­ly, I start­ed dread­ing that ques­tion every time my fam­i­ly went out be­cause I couldn’t give an ap­pro­pri­ate an­swer. It felt like they just saw how ‘not nor­mal’ she was and ex­clud­ed her be­cause of that be­fore even get­ting to know her. To me, she was sim­ply Seoulace, my sis­ter, who I knew couldn’t talk but could un­der­stand me ful­ly well and had an un­matched CRAZY per­son­al­i­ty. My sis­ter, un­know­ing to me, was lay­ing the foun­da­tion as I grew up to help me be in­her­ent­ly a bet­ter hu­man, and I have deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion and grat­i­tude for the op­por­tu­ni­ty to know and love her.

We can make that a re­al­i­ty by striv­ing for a more in­clu­sive so­ci­ety. Let’s not be con­tent with mere ac­cep­tance, but let’s aim for trans­for­ma­tion. Cul­tur­al trans­for­ma­tion through in­clu­sion is a pow­er­ful tool that can help us achieve this goal. Let’s take a pos­i­tive step to­wards cre­at­ing a bet­ter fu­ture for all.