Flourishing for All: Inclusion in Wellbeing Science

"The Global Flourishing Study (Johnson, et al., 2024) was hailed as one of the most ambitious undertakings in modern social science. Over 207,000 participants, 22 countries, six core domains of wellbeing - all aimed at answering one timeless question: What contributes to a life well-lived? The study's reach is extraordinary. It measures happiness, health, purpose, virtue, relationships, and financial stability across 23 diverse countries. It's a milestone in the growing global movement to understand human flourishing."

"And yet, amid all the precision and scale, one absence is striking. Not once does the study mention disability, neurodiversity, or accessibility. For a study designed to map the full topography of the human experience, that silence speaks volumes. Because disability - physical, intellectual, cognitive, or sensory - is not an outlier in the human story. It is part of the human condition."

"Disability inclusion is not a marginal concern of healthcare or education policy. It is a profound test of how societies define and distribute wellbeing. And, as growing evidence suggests, how a culture supports disability doesn't just determine the quality of life for disabled individuals - it ripples across families, schools, workplaces, and entire communities."

The Global Flourishing Study surveyed over 207,000 participants across 23 countries, measuring happiness, health, purpose, virtue, relationships, and financial stability. The study achieves unprecedented scale yet omits disability, neurodiversity, and accessibility from its measurement framework. That omission creates a critical blind spot because disability—physical, intellectual, cognitive, or sensory—affects lived experience and opportunity. Disability inclusion shapes quality of life for disabled individuals and influences families, schools, workplaces, and communities. Societal approaches to disability vary globally, from communal scaffolding to marginalization. Without disability-informed frameworks, wellbeing measurement risks exclusionary bias and incomplete policy guidance for fostering collective flourishing.

Read at Psychology Today