Ethnography as narrative discourse: community integration of people with developmental disabilities

Quality of life is recognized as a critical variable in community integration of people with developmental disabilities. A major concern expressed in the literature is to establish a measure of congruence between the perception and experiences of these people and their social environment. In response to this concern, this study presents a framework of analysis based on ethnography as narrative of the old and the new. The old narrative is that of segregation, leading to confined form of space and time. The new narrative is that of interdependence achieved through cyclical form of space and time. It is argued that community integration of people with developmental disabilities has taken place in relation to linear form of time and space, perpetuating the old narrative of isolation and segregation. The new narrative of interdependence requires the accommodation of differences by the non-disabled. The quality of life for people with disabilities is then a function of accommodation of differences.