Between us: Facilitated decision‐making in the relational experience of profound intellectual disability

Abstract

AbstractThis article situates an analysis of facilitated decision‐making in the lived relational experience of caring for someone with a profound intellectual disability. Drawing from the experiences of a father and daughter residing in Boston, Massachusetts, I highlight the emotional dynamics and expressions of ableism that reverberate through social institutions and intersubjective relationships in shaping actions and practices around decision‐making support. These ubiquitous encounters, rooted in shared relational histories, bring into focus the affective grounds and embodied motivations that inform the practice of facilitated decision‐making within public spaces and systems. In the context of this article, these decisions are geared toward carving out a place of belonging, a goal beset with uncertainty. By demonstrating that disability is a relational experience and that decision‐making is an embodied evaluative process, deeply entwined with social and communicative practices, I aim to show what this practice looks like in the thick of everyday moral life.