Affiliation:
1. Westchester Institute for Human Development, New York Medical College, U.S.A.
2. AbleLink Technologies, Colorado Springs, U.S.A.
3. Consultant
Abstract
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) identify “speaking for oneself” as a
highly salient aspect of self-advocacy and self-determination (SABE, 2011), yet limitations in cognition or language
often limit their direct participation in surveys. This study describes a self-administered survey procedure
that used supportive software on an iPad to create a survey interface that was easily navigable by respondents
with I/DD. A survey based on items from the National Core Indicator (NCI) Adult Consumer Survey (HSRI &
NASDDDS, 2001) was developed that included five items on choice-making which have been previously studied
by Lakin et al. (2008) and Stancliffe et al. (2011). Cognitively diverse groups of self-advocates were recruited to
take the iPad survey at both a national and state self-advocacy conference. The results indicated that the iPad
survey platform enabled people with varying degrees of I/DD to respond independently to a self-administered
survey with little training or assistance. The resulting iPad-gathered data on the NCI choice items supported the
validity of the procedure by conforming to patterns from standard NCI interviews. This self-administered survey
technology holds great promise for gathering many types of survey information directly from people with I/DD,
allowing them to more actively participate in the design of supports, services, and environments that affect their
lives.
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