Introduction

This book is about turning visionary policies about the rights of people with disabilities into reality in their everyday lives. It is a guide to knowledge for designing quality services and to the practices needed to deliver enabling support. The core argument of the book is that the quality of disability services and support rests on good practice—the moments of interaction between people with disabilities and services when knowledge is applied and principles become actions. Thus, we understand practice as conscious self-aware actions by support workers, managers or professionals where they apply knowledge, theories, principles and skills in real-life situations. Yet too often practice goes unnoticed and unmonitored, as paperwork—policies and procedures—dominates the attention of managers and expected practice remains abstract and ill defined.