The Story of Intellectual Disability: An Evolution of Meaning, Understanding, and Public Perception

Robert L. Schalock, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at Hastings College in Nebraska and Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Kansas (Beach Center on Disabilities), University of Salamanca in Spain, Ghent University in Belgium, and Chongqing University in China. His national and international work has focused on the conceptualization, measurement, and application of the concept of quality of life and the supports paradigm. He has worked with organizations, systems, and national governments in the development and evaluation of community-based programs for people with intellectual and closely related developmental disabilities. He has published widely in the areas of program development and evaluation, quality of life, systems of supports, and evidence-based practices. Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D. is Professor of Special Education; Director, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities; and Senior Scientist, Beach Center on Disability, all at the University of Kansas. He has published more than 25 books and 250 scholarly articles and book chapters on topics related to self-determination, special education, intellectual disability, and eugenics. He is s co-author of the widely used textbook Exceptional Lives: Special Education in Today's Schools, published by Merrill/Prentice Hall, now in its 7th Edition. His most recent book, co-authored with J. David Smith, is Good Blood, Bad Blood: Science, Nature, and the Myth of the Kallikaks, published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). Dr. Wehmeyer is Past-President (2010-2011) of the Board of Directors for and a Fellow of AAIDD; a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Career Development and Transition (DCDT); a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Division (Div. 33); a Fellow of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD); and former Editor-in-Chief of the journal Remedial and Special Education. He is a co-author of the AAIDD Supports Intensity Scale, and the 2010 AAIDD Intellectual Disability Terminology, Classification, and Systems of Supports Manual.