This recent article in the NY Times would make a good basis for a Social Role Valorization-based exercise or discussion, in an agency, study group or university class. It would require thinking about multiple elements–first individually, and then collectively. This is one of the strengths of SRV and PASSING: that it teaches people how to think about a particular issue by itself, and then how it interacts with other issues. For example, during a PASSING workshop, team members consider each rating on its own first, and then later think about how they might combine (e.g., in the PASSING rating clusters, during the process of calculating the PASSING score and subscores, etc.).
Some of the elements that might be analyzed in this article from an SRV perspective include:
• societally valued roles (e.g., of student, of teacher)
• image enhancement (e.g., language used about Gus)
• competency enhancement (e.g., around conversation with other people, about etiquette)
• ‘tools’ (R233 competency-related personal possessions in the PASSING manual)
• what is culturally normative, and what is culturally valued (e.g., about friendship)
The article also discussed the issue of parental fears and concerns, a topic written about by Wolfensberger in The Future of Children With Significant Impairments: What Parents Fear and Want, and What They and Others May Be Able To Do About It)
Marc Tumeinski