Uppeldi og menntun - 01.07.2015, Page 100

UPPELDI OG MENNTUN/ICELANDIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 24(2) 2015100
SOCIAL ( IN )EQUALITY: COLLABORATIVE REFLECTION
are faced with inequalities and, as outlined in the World Report on Disability (World
Health Organization, 2011), disabled people are more likely to experience poverty
than non-disabled people.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (n.d.), Iceland is con-
sidered to have very high human development, which is a comparative measure of
life expectancy, literacy, education, standard of living and quality of life. Also, there
is a lower poverty risk for disabled people compared with other countries (World
Health Organization, 2011). However, even with this reduced risk, 34% of disabled
people in Iceland remain unemployed compared to a figure of 5% in the general pop-
ulation (Ministry of Welfare, 2013; Statistics Iceland, n.d.a.). People with intellectual
disabilities constitute Iceland’s largest (37%) group of disabled people (Ministry of
Welfare, 2013) and are the least likely to hold a job in the open labor market. Many
still attend day-care whilst the majority works part-time at sheltered workshops
(Bjarnason, 2004; Björnsdóttir & Traustadóttir, 2010; Ministry of Welfare, 2013). As a
consequence, disabled people in Iceland are faced with economic inequalities and
many experience financial difficulties and poverty (Rice & Traustadóttir, 2011).
While income or wealth are important factors in gaining access to basic necessities,
other elements such as education, skills, legal equality and respect also influence our
well-being (Sen, 2000). Economic or income inequalities are linked to social inequal-
ities which are, however, more extensive and relate to disparities in opportunities,
assets or resources, and rights. According to the economist Amartya Sen (2000), pov-
erty and deprivation can lead to social exclusion i.e., the lack of access to resources
and rights which influence the person’s ability to participate in society and affect his
or her quality of life. He argues that the concept of social exclusion is important in the
discussion of social inequality because of its emphasis on the role of relational issues
in deprivation.
This article is a collaborative reflection on social inequality in Iceland, based on
inclusive methodology and with an emphasis on people with intellectual disabilities.
In our reflection we have adopted Sen’s conceptualization of social exclusion and aim
to answer the three following questions:
1) Are people with intellectual disabilities at risk of social exclusion?
2) What kind of social participation is relevant to social inclusion?
3) And how does participation influence quality of life?
COLLABORATIVE WRITING
Our research collaboration started in 1999 and has since then produced an MA thesis
and a PhD dissertation amongst other publications. Our collaboration is based on
inclusive research practice, a term used by Walmsley and Johnson (2003) to refer to
research which involves people with intellectual disabilities as more than mere sources
of data. In inclusive research the views of people with intellectual disabilities are
directly represented in the published findings in their own words. Combined with