What is it that makes some stakeholders see things so differently from advocates within the disability community?
Eidelman: The World Bank is responding to requests of countries for development, without a values base beyond an economic analysis. They share the same beliefs many do about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They see the disability and respond with buildings and programs, rather than seeing what people want and need. There is nothing magical about those buildings, either in Romania or in the United States that makes them necessary. It is about political will combined with self and family advocacy and professional practice to rid ourselves of them worldwide. New Zealand has just closed its last institution. More states in the US are moving in that direction while others are re-building old ones or building new ones. As professional leaders in the field, we cannot let it happen or be associated with this practice. AAIDD: The United States has made some giant strides in the past few decades in leading major deinstitutionalization efforts. What would you make of our
