Disability rights and service delivery: the frameworks DSD works within

Content

Person-centered planning. The person directs the plan; the system organizes around their goals, relationships, and preferences. Ask how a process lets the person lead rather than respond.

Supported decision-making. People have the right to make their own decisions with support they choose. Ask whether a process assumes incapacity or offers support.

LifeCourse. A framework for thinking about a good life across a lifetime, using the person's vision and a mix of supports. Useful for planning conversations; it is one framework among several.

ADA and Olmstead. The Americans with Disabilities Act and the Olmstead decision require services in the most integrated setting appropriate. Ask whether a design steers people toward segregated settings by default.

Home and community-based services and employment-first practice. Services in the community and competitive, integrated employment as the first option. Ask whether eligibility, assessment, and authorization steps make the community option harder than the institutional one.

Positive supports. Approaches that build skills and quality of life rather than relying on restriction. Ask whether a process responds to behavior with support or with control.

Each legal or policy claim above needs the current source. Use the external references in the Library and the policy owner for anything that affects a person's eligibility, rights, or services.

Next steps

• ADA Title II reference — program page /library/ext-ada
• Operational equity review canvas — program page /library/ja-operational-equity-canvas
• One DSD area — program page /one-dsd