The Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act)
Allan Bergman on the DD Act
Q8: What are the seven functional limitations?
The seven functional limitations are – no they're not the seven deadly sins – self-care, receptive and expressive language, learning, mobility, self-direction, capacity for independent living, and economic sufficiency.
And there are scales to measure each of those. So a good assessment team can look at that, and today in the field, actually, there is a tool called the Supports Intensity Scale, which has been validated, normed, being used internationally now, that's a pretty good way to look at this on the flip side, which is not so much where are the deficits, what are the support needs as we’ve moved the paradigm.
But they really get at these issues and where does somebody need assistance or support, and some states are beginning to use this in their DD system for eligibility purposes and, actually for allocation of resources.