(De)Humanization In Communication With The Intellectually Disabled

A metaphorical journey through how intellectual disability is currently defined, a concise history on how society has treated the intellectually disabled, the philosophical considerations of “being,” including the path to dehumanization when considering a person as less than a whole being, and proposition of a future approach to humanize perspectives and communication with the intellectually disabled. Technical approaches are fundamental but it is only in the unification with lived experience that conceptions can change from the tolerable to the compassionate. Anecdotal stories from the mother of a developmentally delayed child serve to bridge the gap between theory and practice.