Readiness of Social Environment for Inclusion of “Atypical” Children in Regional Society of the Euro-Arctic Territories of Russia

Abstract

The relevance of studying the state of the social environment of a regional society is determined by the development of inclusive processes that involve the integration of people with disabilities into public life as full members of society. In this regard, it is important to understand the level of readiness of society to include disabled children due to the large-scale disability of the child population and the existing need to create special conditions for the positive socialization of children in this category. The issues of creating inclusive environmental conditions are particularly relevant in Euro-Arctic territories, which are character-ized by significant risks to health and quality of life of the population. In order to identify the level of readiness of the social environment of regional society, the article undertakes theoretical and empirical research, including an analysis of the characteristics of the social environment and approaches to determining its accessibility in domestic and foreign studies, the author’s typology of private social environments, as well as an assessment of the state of infrastructural and socio-psychological barriers for children with disabilities based on the results of the author’s online questionnaire survey of the population of the Arctic territories of the Northwestern Federal District conducted in 2022 (n=861, the sample is proportional to the number of residents of the Arctic territories). The survey revealed the existing barriers to inclusion in the studied territories, which is important in the implementation of social policy measures to create a barrier-free environment for the younger generation with persistent health disorders.

Keywords

• disabled children
• atypicality
• “atypical” child
• social inclusion
• social environment
• accessible environment
• barrier-free environment
• euro-arctic region