Marilyn Dolmage

Marilyn Dolmage works alongside disabled people, their families and communities to end segregation and create new supports and relationships. She communicates with a broad network of allies across Ontario, Canada concerning the law, provincial policies, educational practices, and advocacy strategies. Knowing disabled people and respecting their history of injustice, she sees that inclusive education and direct funding are keys in promoting better futures for people with developmental disabilities. 

Marilyn began her social work career at Huronia Regional Centre, Canada’s first and largest provincial institution, where her brother Robert had suffered and died as a child. She was Chief Social Worker to assist people to relocate and to close another such Ontario institution – Muskoka Centre. She has supported Huronia survivors in a class action against the Ontario government. Although financial compensation was frustratingly limited in a 2013 settlement, it led to an apology from the Premier of Ontario, and the documentation of historic harm and ongoing systemic ableism from the perspective of institution survivors. 

Marilyn’s family struggled to ensure that all three of their children attended school together and to assist her older son – who lived with significant strengths and disabilities - to have the education, medical treatment, employment, and community life that he wanted.

Email: inclusion@sympatico.ca

Projects and Publications

• Evidence of High School Inclusion: Research, Resources and Inspiration, Marilyn Dolmage, Jacqueline Specht, Janice Strickland, Heather Stuart and Gabrielle Young; Principal investigator analyzing how selected secondary schools develop and sustain their motivation and strategies to teach students with significant disabilities as members of regular classes. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279961938_Evidence_of_effective_high_school_inclu sion_Research_resources_and_inspiration 

• The What, Why and How of Inclusive Education –a series of training podcasts for families and educators through The Inclusion Academy at https://goodthingsinlife.mykajabi.com/inclusion

• Inclusion Action in Ontario

  • Inclusive Education: From political correctness towards social justice – a film to support advocacy, dedicated to the memory of Matthew Dolmage at https://inclusionactionontario.ca/why-inclusive-education/ 

  • Blog post honouring Orville Endicott to support family advocacy at https://inclusionactionontario.ca/the-life-and-contributions-of-orville-endicott/