Impact: Feature issue on self-determination (vol. 6, no. 4)

2004

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Self-determination. A complex term for a seemingly simple concept: persons controlling their own lives. Yet this simple concept is often misunderstood, ignored or seen as applicable only to persons without disabilities. This issue of Impact explores the relevance of self-determination for persons with developmental disabilities across the life span, ways in which it is or can be expressed, and obstacles to its exercise. Those who authored the articles in these pages take many different views of this simple concept. Some show us that we often attempt to enhance self-determination by teaching choice-making skills while forgetting that those skills are useless in environments that offer no opportunities to exercise them. Others place the issue of self-determination within a life-span perspective in which opportunities to learn and attempts to control one's environment occur at all ages and in all settings. Some offer strategies for facilitating self-determination. And, most powerfully, individuals with developmental disabilities and their families talk about claiming their right to direct their own lives. It is our hope that this Impact will raise awareness about the need and capacity for self-determination by persons with developmental disabilities, and of ways in which others either support or hinder it.

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