This study examined the community activities and social networks of 512 people with developmental disabilities living in communities in Wales. Results indicated that subjects were engaged in a wide range of community activities but that opportunities for wider interactions or friendships with nondisabled people were limited. (DB)

The decade of the 1980s is reviewed for its impact on disability services in Australia. Beginning with the International Year of Disabled Persons, focus during the decade was on integration of disabled persons into the classroom and community. Governmental policy initiatives at the national and state level are contributing to ongoing change. (DB)

The President of the American Association on Mental Retardation offers a newly realistic approach to mental retardation, requiring honest assessment of the impact of mental retardation, full rights for people with mental retardation, public policies to enhance integration, and awareness of sources of peril to the lives and freedom of people with…

This paper describes factors which influence the development of relationships between individuals with disabilities and "typical" people. People with disabilities are often separated from their families and communities, cast into roles of dependency and passivity, and kept at a social distance from other community members. Typical…

The history of residential care for persons with autism and other developmental disabilities is summarized for the past 200 years. Residential trends toward community integration in the past three decades are traced for autism in general and for the Murdoch Center in North Carolina. Possible negative side effects of current trends are identified.…

This analysis examines integration of people with developmental disabilities in terms of an ethnography which contrasts an old narrative based on segregation and a confined form of space and time with a new narrative of interdependence achieved through a cyclical form of space and time. This new narrative requires the accommodation of differences…

The panel discussion looked at cross cultural aspects of community integration for persons with severe disabilities. Programs within West Germany, Israel, and Sweden are compared to the United States. Differences among countries in size, wealth, external pressures, history, and organization of services are noted. (DB)

A study of co-worker involvement among 264 supported employees found that, of 7 types of involvement, "associating" occurred most often, followed by "evaluating" and "training." Employees in mobile work crews experienced less co-worker involvement than those employed in clustered or individual placements, and more…

This preliminary study of the Neighborhood Living Project summarizes daily counts of integration activities for 50 mentally retarded residents from 8 supported living sites over an average of 2 years. Integration opportunities varied as a function of where the resident lived but not of level of mental retardation or number of disabilities.…

This critical analysis of least restrictive environment (LRE) for the developmentally disabled reviews the origins and operationalization of LRE in terms of a continuum of residential, educational, and vocational services. Pitfalls in LRE, especially for severely disabled persons, are enumerated and commitment to the contrasting principle of…

Sheltered workshops are asserted to be failing to provide mentally retarded clients with appropriate work experiences because of low wage rates, unavailability of work, changing industrial forecasts for blue collar employment, financial dependence, tax returns, segregation, and normalization issues. (Author/DB)

This guidebook presents ideas about how families and case managers can use case management to increase the integration of people with developmental disabilities into their communities, and how public officials and advocates can promote the trend toward community integration. The guide advocates implementation of the integration philosophy, which…

This report describes Boise Group Homes, a program in Boise, Idaho, which integrates people with severe disabilities into community life. The report is based on a site visit, which included visits to group homes, interviews with program staff, and review of program documents. Three areas of promising practices reflect the values and commitment of…

The central purpose of mainstreaming is to integrate handicapped students with nonhandicapped peers. It is the teacher's responsibility to foster positive and constructive interactions between handicapped students and their peers. Three ways of organizing constructive peer interaction are: (1) cooperation; (2) competition; and (3) an…

The article identifies two data collection procedures (participant observation and interviewing) employed in qualitative research and discusses how these procedures can be used to investigate emerging issues in supported education for students with severe disabilities. (DB)