Over 1 million website views since 1996 – Resources for Supporting Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Person-centered planning in California was written in law in 1992. That was the year that the Lanterman Act was amended to require that IPPs reflect a person’s own preferences, strengths, culture, and vision for their life. To this day, individuals and families often report a difference between that promise and what happens. You can download … Read more
In March 2025, California released the Master Plan for Developmental Services: A Community-Driven Vision. It’s a big deal — the most ambitious effort in decades to rethink how the state supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families. Read a summary here.
If you have been referred to a regional center in California — or if you are a family member supporting someone who has — you may have heard the words “assessment” or “evaluation” and wondered – what does that actually mean? What are they looking at? And what happens with the results? You can find … Read more
Forty plus years ago (1982), Nancy Gardner and I wrote this piece. We called it the ANDI for Consumers. It was an easy-to-read version of the ANDI (A Normalization and Development Instrument) that was, in turn, based on the PASS (Program Analysis of Service Systems) by Wolf Wolfensberger). California DDS used the ANDI to evaluate … Read more
In the early1980s, I was working at a Regional Center in Northern California. Regional Centers provide funding for and coordinate services and supports for individuals with developmental disabilities. At that time, individuals weren’t very involved in any aspects of directing their own lives. As an advocate for person-centered practices, I started collecting and writing plain … Read more
In the summer of 2000, representatives of nine national developmental disabilities organizations joined together to launch theDevelopmental Disabilities Quality Coalition (DDQC). The purpose of the DDQC is to prospectively address the public issues surrounding the quality and availability of community services for persons with developmental disabilities. The Wingspread Conference was organized around a series of … Read more
Written in 1996 (by Robert Schalock)and reprinted in 1997, this article suggests that quality of life measures could be/should be a valued component of quality assurance standards. Are we there yet?
A workbook for helping people with disabilities evaluate the places they live and work. This is a workbook about PROGRAM EVALUATION. That means looking at the things a program is good at (its strengths) and the things it should work on (its needs). It is a way to help a program improve and get better … Read more
It’s the 20th anniversary of the National Core Indicators (NCI). This video provides a brief history of the NCI in addition to thoughts about how states use the information, as well as the future.
Created by The California Department of Developmental Services’ Consumer Advisory Committee (CAC) We were lucky enough to support the efforts of the CAC in developing this user guide for understanding the NCI User Friendly data reports. We worked on developing the first version of that report as well. National Core Indicators 10 Easy Steps User-Friendly … Read more