This issue of Inclusion focuses on supported decision-making. Supported decision-making has received national and international attention as an approach to promote the meaningful inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in decisions about their lives. Unlike substituted models of decision-making (i.e., guardianship), supported decision-making recognizes that all people, including those with intellectual disability, have a fundamental right to be involved in making decisions about their lives as well as to have access to the supports necessary to enable this outcome. The five articles included in this special issue describe emerging efforts to define and apply supported decision-making models in research, policy, and practice, with the ultimate goal of promoting self-determination and quality of life.
In the first article, Judge Kristin Booth Glen describes how Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities affirms the right of all people, including those with intellectual disability,...
