All people – including those with disabilities -- share common human aspirations for freedom, dignity and equality. However, various disability populations have unique histories, utilize diverse language to define their collective goals and are often categorized by funding streams and professional definitions of disability that separate and divide. The publicly funding long-term support system of the future must be informed and guided by the lived experiences of people with disabilities themselves.

To date quality assurance systems have ignored almost every critical component of quality that all individuals would chose as necessary for a minimally adequate quality life. In addition the unspoken “bargain” made with many individuals who need support is to require all or most of their everyday freedoms to be surrendered in return for support. This raises a core public policy question: can we ever have quality in a system that does not support freedom?

In the early 1990's the first monograph on self-determination (Nerney, T. & Crowley, R., 1994) began with a recitation of "simple truths".

All communities have as members people with disabilities. They are people of worth and value. They belong to family and neighborhoods. They are citizens, fellow workers, customers, and parishioners. They are one of us. Members of our families, our churches, our neighborhoods, people with disabilities who are our friends, our co-workers, our customers, are unwittingly being harmed.

We seek nothing less than adoption of the principles of self-determination by and with respect to people of disabilities of all ages as a commonly held social value. We hold this truth to be self-evident…

Maybe it is the times, or maybe it is the fact that we have had some time to examine how it is that we interact with and support children and adults with disabilities in communities. Or maybe it is simply that people with disabilities are sick and tired of being controlled by others. Whatever the reason, self-determination has emerged as the agenda of the 90's. As Bob Williams says: "Self-determination is just another word for freedom." Freedom to live with whom you want, freedom to live a productive life, freedom to attend school with your friends and brothers and sisters, freedom to get around your community, freedom to love and reject. . .

Maybe it is the times, or maybe it is the fact that we have had some time to examine how it is that we interact with and support children and adults with disabilities in communities. Or maybe it is simply that people with disabilities are sick and tired of being controlled by others. Whatever the reason, self-determination has emerged as the agenda of the 90's. As Bob Williams says: "Self-determination is just another word for freedom." Freedom to live with whom you want, freedom to live a productive life, freedom to attend school with your friends and brothers and sisters, freedom to get around your community, freedom to love and reject. . .