KANG: Redefine Inclusive Housing – Georgetown University The Hoya

On Oct. 31, 2019, Jillian Copeland and David Godoy visited my Ignatius Seminar, Disability, Culture, and Question of Care. Copeland is the founder of Main Street, a disability-inclusive residential complex planned for development in Washington, D.C., after its first completed construction in Rockville, Md. Godoy, an immigrant from Ecuador with cerebral palsy, is a devoted advocate for the future of Main Streets community. Although Copeland had good intentions behind planning Main Street, the projects design has limited awareness of what disabled people might actually prefer in an ideal community. The ignorance underlying Main Streets infrastructure demonstrates how easily the accessibility needs of disabled people are assumed for them by nondisabled people and therefore go unrecognized.

During her visit, Copeland took pride in how Main Street is a community in which verbalizing the word inclusion is no longer necessary. Given her lopsided presentation of Main Street and condescending treatment of Godoy, I do not doubt it. Inclusion in Main Street seems to go unsaid because it does not exist.

The limitations of Copelands vision for ideal community care are drawn from her experience caring for her disabled son. The issue with this parenting background is that Copelands personal association with disability inclined her to infantilize disabled people. This problem was evident in the way that Copeland would not readily let Godoy speak unless she permitted it, and the way she would prompt Godoy to talk about how her project had helped him grow. At one point, she also referred to Godoy as a good boy even though Godoy is 38 years old. The superficial presence of Godoy paired with his inability to speak unless spoken to are evidence of Copeland tokenizing Godoys identity.

More disturbing were the times Godoy did get to speak, as he expounded on Main Streets ideologies. He claims that the communitys ideals of unwavering positivity and forgetting the negative aspects of disability helped him find happiness. He claims he is grateful to have overcome his disability all thanks to Ms. Copeland. However, the more he describes Main Street and Ms. Copeland, the harder it gets to reconcile his words with his tone, which is somehow overemphatic and emotionless at the same time. Indeed, much of what Godoy said reflects what nondisabled people are comfortable tolerating.

The problematic implementation of Main Street likewise draws from Copelands own self-identification as nondisabled. With misleading slogans like Inclusivity Redefined, Main Street leverages the inclusion of disabled people merely to promote the communitys appeal. Only a quarter of Main Streets housing units are actually set aside for people with disabilities, while the remaining majority are not. Main Streets inclusive community-building efforts also involve activities that are not particularly accessible to people with disabilities, with programs like yoga classes, cooking sessions and meditative strolls outside. It is unclear how these recreational options are the result of carefully engaging the disabled community and not simply assumed from the singular preferences of an able-bodied perspective.

The vision of Main Street infringes on the rights of disabled adults due to the narrowness of its founder. Like most institutions of care in the United States, Main Street was conceived out of the need of disabled peoples families to bridge the cliff in government-provided care. However, although Main Street had good intentions, its implementation is limited to nondisabled preferences, which have led its members to internalize an inferiority complex.

The danger in defending Copelands project arises from considering Main Streets optimistic outlook, as it intends to serve as a replicable model for integrated living and community structure. As plans for a second Main Street community are already set in place to reach D.C., the Copelands actually need to redefine inclusivity for themselves before they decide to replicate the Main Street model in D.C.

Esther Kang is a freshman in the College. Reconstructing Disability appears online every other Tuesday.

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KANG: Redefine Inclusive Housing - Georgetown University The Hoya