Abstracts
Abstract
In an era in which Canadian governments are focused on increasing families’ access to affordable early learning and childcare (ELCC), there are increasing concerns about the inclusion of children with disabilities. This paper reports on the experiences of parents of children with disabilities in accessing ELCC programs in British Columbia. Findings highlight four interrelated themes: experiences of unbelonging; systemic mechanisms that reinforce unbelonging; impacts of unbelonging on children, parents, and families; and experiences of inclusion and belonging. The paper concludes with a discussion on opportunities for disrupting structural ableism and reorienting towards a childcare system in which all children can belong.
Keywords:
- children's rights,
- intersectionality,
- belonging,
- disability,
- inclusion
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Tabatha Berggren (community researcher) is of British, Scottish, and Métis ancestry. Tabatha and her family live on the traditional and treaty territory of the Tla’amin Nation. Tabatha strives to advocate for accessibility and inclusivity in community spaces at the intersection of health research, Indigeneity, and public policy. Email: berggrentabatha@gmail.com
Alison Gerlach is a white settler who holds herself accountable to the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island, including the stewards of the lands that she occupies. Her research aims to inform how community-based early years and child disability systems of care can be inclusive of and responsive to families whose lived experiences include colonial violence, racialization, and discrimination. Her research explicitly attends to the historical and political contexts within which complex issues of inequity and exclusion are situated. Email: alisongerlach@uvic.ca
As an adjunct professor and consultant, Janet Newbury does research, engagement, and writing related to family and community wellness. Her ancestors are English on both sides and she lives and works on the traditional and treaty territory of the Tla’amin Nation. In both her personal and professional life, Janet is deeply committed to ongoing decolonial and anticolonial transformation. All of her work involves the active pursuit of social and structural justice. Email: newburyj@uvic.ca
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