Inclusion for People with Developmental Disabilities: Measuring an Elusive Construct

ABSTRACT

The philosophy of inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) has evolved over the last 50 years. Over time, inclusion research has shifted from a focus on deinstitutionalization to understanding the extent to which individuals with IDD are meaningfully involved in the community and social relationships. Yet, there has been no agreed on way to measure inclusion. Many different measurement and data collection techniques have been used in the literature. This study proposes a brief measure of inclusion that can be used with family members and on survey instruments.

KEYWORDS:

• Community inclusion
• community participation
• confirmatory factor analysis
• developmental disability
• inclusion
• integration
• intellectual disability
• measurement

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Christopher L. Myers for his assistance with planning and distributing the survey described in this study.