Enthinderungen--A Conference for the Inclusion and Equalization of Disabled People
Similar Terminology, Dissimilar Philosophies: An Ultimately Productive Confrontation in Bremen, Germany

By Swantje Koebsell (Swantje_Koebsell@magicvillage.de)

On the first weekend of June 2000 in the city of Bremen, Germany, a unique conference about aspects of inclusion of disabled people took place. The meeting was unique in terms of the diverse mixture of organizers and participants.

Organizers were the Bremen Independent Living Center, The Protestant Church of the State of Bremen, the Bremen Chamber of Architecture and the Designbureau, an association of Designers. On first sight this appears to be a rather odd combination of organizations to be concerned with the inclusion of disabled people. Members of the Independent Living Center were often asked how they came to be allied with group especially as some parts of the church are still notorious for their conservative view of disability and the maintenance of big institutions. But of course there is a story and a reason behind the creation of this group.

Collaboration in the Planning Process

The architects and designers had organized a very good series of of speeches and other events, in cooperation with the Independent Living Center, on the issue of abolishing physical barriers in the environment. The Protestant Church of Bremen runs among other institutions quite a few kindergartens and they were the first some 15 years ago to introduce full inclusion of all disabled children from the respective catchment areas. Here also, a cooperation with the Independent Living Center had been established, especially in terms of providing disability awareness training for the staff and the like. Nevertheless, in recent years the discourse on inclusion, especially concerning education, had come to a standstill. To
infuse it with new ideas and energy, members of the four groups agreed to join forces and organize a conference that would bring together people from different social and professional backgrounds, thus facilitating productive controversies on the one hand. On the other hand the aim was to raise awareness of disabled people's rights and needs within groups who had not yet been confronted with these issues. Not an easy task and, as was pointed out in the opening address by an Independent Living Center member who had been in the organizing committee, a very difficult process indeed.
 

Terminology vs. Philosophy

The central controversy arose around the term "assistance". Although this term has been established by the Independent Living Movement as a "brand name" for Personal Assistance and Personal Assistance only, members of the church's subdivision for administration of institutions claimed they were providing Personal Assistance as well, if only in an institutional setting. It was simply not possible to make them understand that Personal Assistance and living in an institution are, by their very nature,  exclusive of each other. One cannot have Personal Assistance in an institution because both the concepts and underlying philosophies are simply not compatible. This controversy brought the organizing team almost to its breaking point and, in order to not put the whole event in jeopardy, we , the people from the Independent living Center, teeth-grindingly agreed to the compromise of coining the term "Institutional Assistance". This compromise being made, the planning process could continue.
 

Included in society or "kept safe" in institutions?

From June 1st to 3rd approximately 300 people from German speaking countries attended the conference. Unfortunately the budget only allowed for sign language but no other interpretation. The internal conflict that had been smoothed over broke out again on a much bigger scale as a reaction to the second speech on opening day. The first speaker, Dr. Klaus Dörner, an experienced psychiatrist, was all in favor of the abolishing of institutions. As an example of the feasibility of this approach, he reported how he and his staff had released all patients of a long-term psychiatric hospital into living in a normal environment, which was applauded by the audience.

The next speaker was Dr. Stephan Reimers, one of the highest representatives of the Protestant Church of Germany. Unfortunately, he had not "seen the light" yet and presented a very old-fashioned (we had hoped discarded) view of
disability. In his view, we are still the "feeble" in the biblical sense, those whom the church had to take care of, preferably in "safe" institutions. This caused a ripple of outrage within the audience where a lot of disabled people were sitting. They gave Dr. Reimers a hard time, alas without shaking his convictions let alone convincing him. Still, for the conference this discussion was a very good one as it made evident how necessary it was, as intended by the initiators, to bring together people from different parts of society and make them confront each other. It also became very clear that people talking about "inclusion", "integration" or "anti-discrimination" do not necessarily mean the same thing and that clarification is called for.

Examining the components of societal inclusion

A bit of this could be established on the next day where under 7 sections (so-called life areas) people could attend workshops and undertake excursions:

1. Integration into the mainstream labor market
 New non-institutional models and projects were presented

2. Education
 Speakers mainly provided examples of good practice

3. Shaping the environment
 The architects and designers presented their ideas. Much (media) attention was given to a guided tour of Bremen focussing on good and bad examples of accessibility.

4. Health
 More than ever an explosive issue especially for disabled people in view of the new developments in genetics and bioethics on the one hand and more and more cost cutting from the health insurance authorities on the other

5. Mobility
 The City of Bremen was able to show off its almost entirely barrier-free public transport  system. Unfortunately this is threatened by impending privatization and European Union regulations that don't provide for accessibility.

6. Personal Assistance
 Here, concepts and legal provisions from Switzerland, Sweden, Austria and Germany were compared. Sweden by far provides the best opportunities money wise and in terms  of needs assessment which is not based on the medical,
but on the social model of disability.

7. Institutional Assistance
 The church's institutions presented what they deem examples of good institutional practice and the controversy which had started the day before was continued.

Each section had been allocated a rapporteur who gave their impressions on the last day. Throughout the sections lively and fruitful discussions had taken place, especially the cross-professional approach was congratulated upon.

Conference Highlights

Eventually it was the politicians' turn to outline the future of disability politics in Germany. The government's official representative for disability politics proposed an anti-discrimination legislation within this legislation period ( two years from now). The announcement of this proposal was one of the many highlights of this conference.

Another one was the conference's cultural event where international disabled artists performed under the theme,
"Celebrating the Difference", an event well attended by the local public. And, of course, there  was the bringing together of people from different social and professional backgrounds, making disability an issue for those who usually
are not concerned about it even though they shape our environment and thus influence our quality of life. Here, in Bremen, a productive process was started which must be continued, and if possible on an international level.

For the "grande finale" the Blaumeier-Atelier (project for art and psychiatry) enacted the legend of "The Cripple of Bremen" (see below) on the market place. The slightly updated enactment ended with the town building a monument to the cripple for his bravery, immortalizing his efforts with the words that " henceforth everybody in this city either small
or tall, young or old, healthy or sick (disabled or non-disabled...) shall be treated equally". Almost one thousand years later this is still something the city and the country have to work on, but that weekend's discussions showed that things still can be changed for the better.

The countess Emma of Lesum (a place north of Bremen) was a reclusive, wealthy widow, whose sole joy derived from acts of charity. From her late husband she had inherited large estates around the city of Bremen. One day whilst riding with her brother-in-law, the duke Benno of Saxony, they were approached by some representatives of the citizens of Bremen. They complained to the countess about lack of pasture for their livestock. The countess proposed help and agreed to giving them as much land as one man could walk around in one hour's time. This decision worried the duke who was afraid the countess might give away too much land, thus reducing the future inheritance for him or his children.
Intending sarcasm, he commented that she should increase the period of time to one day to which she heartily agreed.

This caught the duke completely unawares and he thought about how to reduce the damage caused by his comment. Cunningly he suggested to his sister-in-law that he might be the best person to choose the man for this task as she had
already so quickly agreed to his first proposal. She agreed once more and the duke went off in search of the proper man. He already had one in mind, a crippled beggar they had passed by earlier and given some coins.

In view of this choice the citizens' representatives became desperate, they knew the man and about his inability to move without help. The countess blessed him anyway and told him to give it a try. And as he could not walk, he crawled on his hands, followed by one of the countess' servants who marked his progress with a stick every one hundred meters. In the beginning the citizens were sad and a lot of them went home because what could be expected from a cripple? But he untiringly moved on and when the sun set he had claimed an even bigger area of land than the citizens had dared to hope.

This happened in the year 1032. Ever since, this piece of land has been the city's common where the citizens could bring their livestock for grazing. The cripple was held in honor all his lifetime and the grateful townsfolk created a monument to him by engraving a likeness of his head between the feet of the statue of Roland . This statue is a medieval monument symbolizing the freedom of the city, and still welcomes people to the Bremen market place today.