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Voting represents, arguably, the most important right and responsibility of a citizen in a democracy. Nevertheless, few adults are with an intellectual or developmental disability vote, and few are provided systematic instruction on voting or how to participate in the political process. Regrettably, 44 states have disenfranchisement provisions that prohibit many people with an intellectual disability from voting. These state provisions are in conflict with federal laws, which mandate that citizens with disabilities are guaranteed the same rights as citizens without disabilities. This study is a preliminary investigation of the perspective of a sample of support personnel regarding the value of voting for people with an intellectual or developmental disability and the extent to which they have provided voting instruction to their clients. The findings revealed that very few clients vote, are registered to vote, or are provided any instruction on how to vote or be informed about voting positions. The implications of the findings are discussed, and futures areas of research are suggested.

Despite pervasive political, economic, and social changes in Russia since the collapse of Soviet rule, it remains uncertain what changes have occurred in special education in the last decade. The purpose of this study was to survey the perceptions of a sample of special educators about the status of special education in contemporary Russia. In addition, the respondents were asked what factors needed to be addressed to produce systems change. Results indicated that the majority of respondents were knowledgeable of and in support of inclusion practices advocated in the United States and Western Europe. However, belief in traditional practices of placing individuals with disabilities in more segregated settings that are somewhat in conflict with contemporary values was also evident. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Despite the many reports describing the benefits of inclusive education, there is a lack of information on the instructional strategies and behavior change procedures that general educators use to facilitate skills development. Also, there is not much information on the procedures used to analyze student performance data. Additionally, limited information has been reported on the curricular domains and skills that educators value for instructing students with severe and other disabilities. With this information, better implementation of effective instructional practices in general education may be achieved. To address this issue, survey input from samples of general and special educators across two states was obtained. The findings suggested that general education teachers reported using many, but not all, behavior analytic instructional strategies considered to be best practice. In addition, special educators regarded social interactions and friendships and self-determination skills the most important skills for successful inclusion.

Community instruction for individuals with severe disabilities rarely incorporates programming for independence. This article reviews and analyzes investigations of the effects of self-instructional programs on increasing the independence of persons with moderate or severe mental retardation in integrated environments. The conceptual role of self-instruction in promoting behavior change is discussed and variations in self-instructional teaching approaches are analyzed. Overall, the feasibility of teaching persons with severe disabilities to self-instruct to promote acquisition, generalization, and maintenance across diverse skills is supported. Methodological issues related to investigations of self-instruction are discussed, recommendations for implementing self-instructional programs are provided, and directions for future research are proposed.