Episode 10

Putting Self-Determination Back in Self-Direction

Published on: 13th February, 2025

Impact issue editors Julie Bershadsky, Marian Frattarola-Saulino, and BJ Stasio discuss the state of self-directed services for people with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. Self-direction puts hiring, firing, and other decisions in the hands of people with disabilities themselves, in contrast to traditional, provider-directed services. Complexity in regulations and differences across states are among the challenges. Stasio offers his perspective as an advocate and as someone who self-directs his own support services.

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About the Podcast

Impact, The Conversation

ICI’s Disability + Inclusion Podcast

Welcome to Impact, The Conversation, a podcast from the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota that takes a deep dive into the latest research, practices, and insights moving the inclusion of people with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities forward. Each episode brings to life voices from a recent issue of Impact, ICI’s long-running magazine. Co-hosts and guests are Impact issue editors and authors with and without lived experience of disability from around the field and the globe. They will not use the word impact as a verb and they do not hope to inspire you, but they may make you think differently about disability.

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The Institute on Community Integration (ICI) – a research center at the University of Minnesota – is a designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, part of a national network of similar programs in major universities and teaching hospitals across the country. The Institute is home to over 70 projects and six Affiliated Centers, addressing disability issues across the lifespan.

ICI pushes the edge of inclusion through an intensive focus on policies and practices that affect children, youth, and adults with disabilities, and those receiving educational supports. ICI’s collaborative research, training, and information-sharing ensure that people with disabilities are valued by, included in, and contribute to their communities of choice throughout their lifetime. ICI works with service providers, policymakers, educators, employers, advocacy organizations, researchers, families, community members, and individuals with disabilities around the world, building communities that are inclusive.