Communities, families, and inclusion

Widespread interest in the concept of inclusion for young children with disabilities has been focused primarily on inclusion in day care and classroom settings. While these contexts provide important opportunities for inclusion, many other community contexts are also important. interviews with families of children with and without disabilities were analyzed to identify factors that facilitated or served as barriers to children's inclusion in community settings. These factors are described in terms of their application to children with and without disabilities and the extent to which they were reflected in communities of varying size and various income levels. Results are interpreted with respect to an ecological model and are discussed in terms of their implications for intervention.