In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the law now known as the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act (DD Act) to enact legislation calling for community integration of individuals with developmental disabilities who faced exclusion from many spheres of public and private life, including most schools and community spaces. At that time, many people with disabilities spent most of their lives in large, underfunded, state-run institutions, where reports of systemic abuse and neglect were common. The legislation has since been amended several times, most recently in 2000, to provide additional clarity and reflect progress made in the disability rights movement.

Since the DD Act was enacted, it has come to represent a fundamentally different vision of what it means to live with a developmental disability. It is a vision rooted in the belief that “disability is a natural part of the human experience that does not diminish the right of individuals with developmental disabilities to live independently, to exert control and choice over their own lives, and to fully participate in and contribute to their communities through full integration and inclusion in the economic, political, social, cultural, and educational mainstream of United States society.”