Bengt Nirje on Normalization

Bengt Nirje: Then this fourth level, where the principle of normalization has been shown, is on the research level because it provides a tool and description that can be used for description of conditions of life for people with disabilities. You can take it, use it. You can, for example, use it on… in, how to compare conditions in Germany, in the 1930s with the conditions as they are now in Germany. Or you compare the situation in Peru or in Chile. The one good thing is it's universal. It doesn't live in Sweden. It doesn't live in America. It deals with the condition [Inaudible] the human condition, the basic human condition of people with disabilities, whether they are in China or in Chile or in Timbuktu or the Congo, as I said when I was in Finland a few months ago. Because it has to be understood from the point of view of the country where they live, the community where the person lives, and the country context you're acting in and living in. So it's quite different what is normal in New Delhi or outside in India is not what is normal in Sweden, etc.