The National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS) is a nonprofit organization near Washington, D.C., established in 1964, to improve and expand public services to people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities in the United States. Mary P. Sowers is the executive director.
The diagnostic category pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), as opposed to specific developmental disorders (SDD), was a group of disorders characterized by delays in the development of multiple basic functions including socialization and communication. It was defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States Department of Health and Human Services. It supports and conducts research aimed at improving the health of children, adults, families, and communities, including:
Service and supports for people with disabilities are those government or other institutional services and supports specifically provided to enable people who have disabilities to participate in society and community life. Some such services and supports are mandated or required by law, some are assisted by technologies that have made it easier to provide the service or support while others are commercially available not only to persons with disabilities, but to everyone who might make use of them.
Developmental disability is a diverse group of chronic conditions, comprising mental or physical impairments that arise before adulthood. Developmental disabilities cause individuals living with them many difficulties in certain areas of life, especially in "language, mobility, learning, self-help, and independent living". Developmental disabilities can be detected early on and persist throughout an individual's lifespan. Developmental disability that affects all areas of a child's development is sometimes referred to as global developmental delay.
Agnews Developmental Center were two psychiatric and medical care facilities, located in Santa Clara, California and San Jose, California respectively.
The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) is an American non-profit organization focusing on intellectual disability and related developmental disabilities. AAIDD has members in the United States and more than 50 other countries.
Supported living or supportive living refers to a range of services and community living arrangements (CLAs) designed with individuals with disabilities and their families to support disabled citizens to attain or retain their independence or interdependence in their local communities. Supported living is recorded in the history of the NASDDDS, celebrating its 50th anniversary. Community Supported Living Arrangements (CSLA) was a landmark federal multi-state demonstration to illustrate the federal role in community living in the US. Supported living is considered a core service or program of community living programs funded through federal-state-local partnerships.
Wolf Peregrin Joachim Wolfensberger, Ph.D. (1934–2011) was a German American academic who influenced disability policy and practice through his development of North American Normalization and social role valorization (SRV). SRV extended the work of his colleague Bengt Nirje in Europe on the normalization of people with disabilities. He later extended his approach in a radical anti-deathmaking direction: he spoke about the Nazi death camps and their targeting of disabled people, and contemporary practices which contribute to deathmaking.
The Council on Quality and Leadership is a U.S. organization which provides accreditation and training for agencies providing services for people with intellectual, psychiatric, and developmental disabilities. It was established in 1969.
The Arc of the United States is an organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The organization was founded in the 1950s by parents of people with developmental disabilities. Since then, the organization has established state chapters in 39 states, and 730 local chapters in states across the country. The Arc of the United States is based in Washington, D.C.
The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS) is a state agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The department operates Virginia's public mental health, intellectual disability and substance abuse services system through a system of 40 locally and regionally run community services boards (CSBs) and which serve children and adults who have or who are at risk of mental illness, serious emotional disturbance, intellectual disability, or substance use disorders.
Intellectual disability (ID), also known as general learning disability and mental retardation, is a generalized neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant impairment in intellectual and adaptive functioning that is first apparent during childhood. Children with intellectual disabilities typically have an intelligence quotient (IQ) below 70 and deficits in at least two adaptive behaviors that affect everyday, general living. According to the DSM-5, intellectual functions include reasoning, problem solving, planning, abstract thinking, judgment, academic learning, and learning from experience. Deficits in these functions must be confirmed by clinical evaluation and individualized standard IQ testing. On the other hand, adaptive behaviors include the social, developmental, and practical skills people learn to perform tasks in their everyday lives. Deficits in adaptive functioning often compromises an individual's independence and ability to meet their social responsibility.
Colorado Amendment 51 was a citizen's initiative proposed by Wendy B. Rosanova of Centennial, CO, and Marijo Rymer, executive director of The Arc of Colorado. It was turned down by 62.4% of the voters. If it had passed, Amendment 51 would have amended the Colorado statutes to:
AbleLight, formerly known as Bethesda Lutheran Communities, is a non-profit human service organization serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities through faith-based programs. Bethesda, a 501(c)3 non-profit, provides supports and services for more than 2,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families in 11 states including California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. The organization is headquartered in Watertown, Wisconsin.
The Kennedy Krieger Institute is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, Johns Hopkins affiliate located in Baltimore, Maryland, that provides in-patient and out-patient medical care, community services, and school-based programs for children and adolescents with learning disabilities, as well as disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system. The Institute provides services for children with developmental concerns mild to severe and is involved in research of various disorders, including new interventions and earlier diagnosis.
Hattie Larlham is an American nonprofit organization that creates opportunities for more than 1,600 children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the state of Ohio. Services provided encompass medical, work training and employment, recreational, educational, and residential, catering to both children and adults.
The California Department of Developmental Services is a state agency of California, headquartered in Downtown Sacramento. The agency provides services for California residents with developmental disabilities, such as autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability and conditions related to intellectual disability. It provides services through nonprofit agencies called regional centers. There are 21 regional centers throughout the state of California.
Dr. José F. Cordero is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, teratologist, Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Georgia's College of Public Health, and former Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico. Cordero was an Assistant Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service and the founding director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2017, Cordero was awarded the Sedgwick Memorial Medal from the American Public Health Association.
Community integration, while diversely defined, is a term encompassing the full participation of all people in community life. It has specifically referred to the integration of people with disabilities into US society from the local to the national level, and for decades was a defining agenda in countries such as Great Britain. Throughout recent decades, community integration programs have been increasingly effective in improving healthcare access for people with disabilities. They have been valued for providing a "voice for the voiceless"