The Convergence of Disability Law and Policy: Core Concepts, Ethical Communities, and the Notion of Dignity

Rud Turnbull: The third area of working which I've been involved – third out of many – has to do with family support or supporting families. How is it, I wondered as a parent, that public policy could support us to support Jay?

And I began to do some work in 1991 around this issue of family support. Some of my colleagues were were writing about it at the time, and I began to read their their work. I published an analysis of family support issues in 1991 and, along with that analysis, I published a model statute. The model statute laid out justifications, purposes, the nature of family support, the means of family support, and the accountability for family support. That was in 1991.

Several years later, once again Bobby Silverstein and Andy Bacon, who was on this subcommittee as a Kennedy fellow, called me up and said, "Rud, come on over. We want to talk with you about writing a family supports provision for the Individuals with Disabilities Act," which is the current version of the Public Law 94-142. I said that would be fine.