The Definition of D.D.

Dohn Hoyle, Partners in Policymaking Faculty Member, Activist and Organizer
25. The Definition of D.D.
Another step we took was to change the definition in our code about disability. So we now labeled developmental disability as a disability instead of mental retardation or related disabilities. 'Cause we saw people who had autism or people who had cerebral palsy, et cetera, but had IQs above 70, as some places were saying, you aren't eligible because you don't have that MR diagnosis.
Not long after we changed the statute, I ran into an incident in Michigan South Peninsula, they say that just because it's closer to you, where someone with autism, the parent called me and said, "They tell me my son's not eligible. He has a psychologist that tested him at 70 back here a few years ago and so he's not eligible for services." And then she described everything that was going on with him. I said, "Well maybe you should tell that psychologist or your team to read the statute," and this, that and the other.
I got a call from the medical director for the department, saying, "Why are you advising people to do that? This person doesn't have any retardation, at a level where we can serve him." I said, "No, but you know what?" The federal definition and now the state definition of developmental disability says if he has in three or more major life areas, deficits, he needs assistance. So it changed everything,
I mean, it didn't changed everything for everybody, it changed everything for lots of people, not everybody, but that was... We did these things in pieces to lead us to get to where we wanted to go, but you find those things out by looking at what's the problem, what's the difficulty? What, what? And by doing all this research and we ask for you, how could we change that? So we made this simple decision and we got enough support that we just changed the definition in our statute to say developmental disability, identical to the federal definition, it seemed to make the logical thing. And we said, now that serves us well in another way, now we're not deciding what levels this person at, you're either there or you're not and we've answered the severity question.