ABSTRACT
Keywords: Individualized Education Plan (IEP), Education of All Handicapped Children
Act (EHA), Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), mediation,
collaboration, consultation, Life Space Interview
One out of every five people with whom we communicate is likely to be a person with a
disability. What does this mean for effective communication between adults? We should
expect that our communication with the ordinary American public will involve a person
with a disability on a relatively frequent basis. In fact, about 20% of the total U.S.
population recently reported that they had a disability (President’s Committee, 1994).
Disability was defined by the Bureau of the Census as having difficulty in performing
