ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how people with disabilities become disenfranchised from society and consequently, devalued. Rehabilitation is generally understood to be a process whereby people who have incurred some disability or change to their body function are assisted in learning or relearning these functions. Most people who know, have experienced, or work in the field of rehabilitation would agree that the most important outcome in service to people with disabilities is their return to the community. However, an important point to consider is that people need to dictate and determine what is meaningful. Even for groups of people who have access to funding through some diagnostic link, most available housing options are group homes, congregate settings, or institutionally oriented apartments. In the area of employment and day activities for people with disabilities the data is equally tragic. In 1980, a survey was done of people with disabilities in Pittsburgh regarding the areas of service or programs that were essential to them.
