The Responsibility to Build Contexts That Enhance Human Functioning and Promote Valued Outcomes for People With Intellectual Disability: Strengthening System Responsiveness.

Abstract

This article describes a model that systems can use to build contexts that enhance human functioning and promote valued outcomes for individuals with intellectual disability (ID). Our premise is that that systems have a responsibility to build contexts that enhance human functioning and promote valued outcomes for people with ID, and that this obligation can be met through the use of contextual analysis to deliberately design and implement support strategies that are responsive to identified contextual factors. The model employs a 2-step process to identify context-based independent and intervening variables and align support strategies with identified context-based influencing factors, disability policy goals, and associated outcome domains. We propose a number of indicators that can be used to assess the quality of a system's responsiveness based on their implementation of the model. Implications for research and practice are discussed.