FireDOC Search

Author
Gangnes, A.
Title
Developmental Disabilities.
Coporate
Arnold Gangnes and Associates, Seattle, WASH
Sponsor
National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
Report
NBS GCR 82-383
March 1982
Distribution
Available from National Technical Information Service
Contract
NB80NADA1058
Book or Conf
AIA Research Foundation. Life Safety and the Handicapped, 1980 Conference. Final Report. October 26-30, 1980, Washington, DC, Kennett, E. W., Editors, 66-71 p., 1982
Keywords
developmentally disabled
Abstract
The Developmentally Disabled, for those of you who may not know, comprise a large group of people whom you may know as the mentally retarded, the cerebral palsied, the autistic, the epileptic and others whose brain and/or central nerous system have suffered damage. The degree of handicap of these individuals varies from mild intellectual deficiency to profound brain damage. They may or may not have associated physical handicaps; however, many are multiply handicapped. Unitl the past 15 or 20 years, society's principal resourse for these people ha been a system of monumental prison-like, large mass care institutions, most often removed from the normal view of society in general. Life in these large institutions was, and still is, for the most part, a dehumanized custodial existence. The people who have and still do reside int hese facilitites have had a life style which largely neither recognizes the individual as a separate human being, nor treats him as one. This is a matter of fact. All this I am sure you are all aware of, and I am sure represents little new information. The fact that this situation existed has relevance however, to our reasons for being here.