Conference Vision

During the past decade self-determination and individualized funding have become focal points for the world-wide disability movement. Indeed, individualized funding is now recognized as a fundamental requirement for the meaningful exercise of personal choice (i.e. self-determination) because it enables people to purchase, and therefore gain control over, the supports needed to enjoy meaningful lives in the community.  Throughout the world, and most notably in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, a variety of projects using individualized funding are now underway, largely in response to the lobbying efforts of self advocates and their supporters.  Central to these initiatives is a recognition that control over funding must be combined with real personal decision-making opportunities in order for people with disabilities to achieve full citizenship.

With this vision in mind, the First International Conference Self-Determination and on Individualized Funding sought to provide a forum for people to:

	share experiences and lessons learned from the many demonstration projects and research initiatives underway around the world;
	discuss critical political, policy and implementation issues;
	participate in international consensus building activities to arrive at a shared view of the fundamental principles and critical components of individualized funding and self-determination;
	build collaborative partnerships that will energize the international movement in the new millennium.

Over 1,200 people representing 21 countries participated, including people with disabilities, family members, community advocates, professionals, service providers, researchers, administrators, and government officials. The conference was rich in learning opportunities and outcomes, with topics and speakers being broad enough to encourage participation from various sectors including developmental disability, traumatic brain injury, the independent living movement, seniors, and people involved in the mental health and psychiatric survivor movements.  

Guiding principles

Three basic principles shaped the design of the conference program, publicity, and the style of the presentations and discussions.

We wanted people who use support services to be fully involved - not just present - but actively participating, and often taking the lead.    Presenters were strongly encouraged to avoid difficult language and jargon and in many sessions, users of services (or, as appropriate, a family member) either presented alone, or as co-presenters.  Speakers in all formal sessions were asked to provide opportunities for users of support to respond to the presentation. 

Some important topics are genuinely complex and difficult to make accessible, and we didn't want to prevent discussions on these subjects.  In these instances, presenters were asked to produce a plain language summary which could be read before the session, so that users of services who were unfamiliar with the topic would still be able to make a contribution.  Presenters' handouts/materials were made available in a variety of accessible formats, and a number of foreign language interpreters were also available in some sessions.   

People in several countries have started to develop new ways of organizing personal support based on the mechanism of individualized funding.   It’s clear that they use different words to describe the arrangements they have developed, and have differing views of what they are working to achieve.   For some the key word is ‘self-determination’, while for other it’s ‘citizenship’ or ‘rights’.   Respect for these different traditions was reflected in the publicity for the conference and in the design of the program.  Equally, the conference tried to look beyond differences in words, in search of the real similarities and differences between the developments in different places, and the lessons we can learn from each other.

The conference took place at an important point in the broader disability movement when there is an increasing focus on the need to secure real citizenship opportunities for people with disabilities.  In support of this, many individualized funding programs are now operating, being planned or being put into action.  While this is truly exciting, there is also the risk that the real aim - citizenship for all - will be forgotten, and that programs which claim to be individualized funding will really be no improvement on the systems which operate now.  With a view to keeping these developments ’on track’, organizers developed a process to draw up and announce a Declaration that would identify a set of general principles which can shape how stakeholders across programs, groups, states and nations think about and implement these ideas in the future.  

For more information on the Declaration and its development, visit the Seattle 2000  Declaration page.  You will also find information on how to obtain a copy of the Conference Report which was written by Steve Dowson and Brian Salisbury.