40 Big Ideas

Clear Language Summary

The normalization principle and social role valorization (SRV) are powerful ideas that helped change how people with disabilities are viewed and supported. Normalization pushed for creating communities where people with disabilities could live ordinary, non-institutional lives, while SRV deepened this by focusing on roles in society, not just settings.

The principles of normalization and social role valorization (SRV) are powerful ideas that led to societal change in how people with disabilities are perceived and supported. Normalization, first developed in Scandinavia in the 1960s by Niels Erik Bank-Mikkelsen and expanded by Bengt Nirje, holds that individuals with disabilities should have access to life patterns and conditions as close as possible to those enjoyed by the mainstream of society. At this time, most people with disabilities were placed in segregated institutions, so this idea was a major shift in thinking.

Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger from the United States visited Scandinavia, observed services, and was introduced to normalization. He embraced and expanded it and wrote and taught it to North American audiences. His 1972 book, The Principle of Normalization in Human Services, became a classic that provided a framework and rationale for how community services could and should replace institutions. Wolfensberger paired his teaching about normalization with an experiential activity called Program Analysis of Service Systems (PASS), where participants visit and assess service settings. Participants have called normalization and PASS life-changing in how they see services and experience the lives of people with disabilities.

By the early 1980s, Wolfensberger became disillusioned with normalization because he felt the principle was being watered down, misunderstood, and misapplied in practice. He believed people thought normalization was about making people with disabilities normal. As much as normalization helped people with disabilities be in the community, attitudes about people with disabilities had not changed, and stereotypes remained. SRV, which Wolfensberger developed in 1983, was an evolution from and successor of Normalization. He believed a person’s well-being depends heavily on the social roles they occupy. SRV advocates for creating, supporting, and safeguarding roles that are socially valued, thereby granting access to the good things in life and reducing negative stereotypes. SRV counters social devaluation, emphasizing people with disabilities being supported to enhance their competence and image.

Normalization laid the groundwork by pushing for environments where disabled people could live ordinary, non-institutional lives, while SRV deepened this by focusing on roles in society, not just settings. SRV purports that helping someone attain roles like employee, neighbor, friend, or student changes how society perceives and treats them. SRV training is preceded by learning about the wounding life experiences of people with disabilities, which raises consciousness and awareness of the obstacles people with disabilities face. These ideas represented a shift from institutional and medical models to social inclusion practices rooted in respect, participation, rights, and valued roles. Rather than attempting to "fix" the individual, they demand that environments and social perceptions change to include and value people with disabilities.

Normalization and SRV mark a pivotal practical and theoretical evolution in disability policy and service, moving from segregated to inclusive communities, from deficits to dignity, and from exclusion to valued participation. These concepts have influenced disability law, education policies, and service models.