REPRESENTING INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: ANALYSING DISCOURSES IN A MIXED-METHODS STUDY

This study discusses discursive representations of the inclusion of people with disabilities. Analysing discourses was conducted in the third phase of the author’s mixed-methods study. The study participants lived in a municipality in Northern Finland and were receiving personal assistance services for persons with disabilities. In the analysis results, the participants did not discuss inclusion in their everyday life using formal inclusion-related concepts. Neither did social workers when writing about the participants in their service plans. The findings illustrate how the everyday discourses usually present the inclusion of people with disabilities through and after first representing their exclusion. Representing inclusion of people with disabilities is vague, however dynamic, as representing could eventually lead to the inclusion in the use of language. KEYWORDS: disability, discourse, inclusion, mixed methods, participation, people with disabilities