Insure valued social participation. How people with disabilities are supported within integrated settings is important. Students need to be enabled to participate as much as possible, and to do so in ways that other people value and appreciate. People without disabilities need the opportunity to meet their counterparts with disabilities as peers, not as tutors or volunteers. Involve and trust others.
All parents feel protective toward their children.
While there may be differences in how independent people can become, parents can come to believe that there are people in the community who would, if given the opportunity, enjoy and welcome a friendship with their son or daughter. The way in which support services are provided to people with disabilities and their families can enhance or reduce the opportunities for friendships to develop. By offering segregated programs, the service system dramatically lessens the chances for contact between people with and without disabilities. There are also problems within integrated settings. When efforts are made to bring people with and without disabilities together, the people without disabilities are often treated as volunteers responsible to the teacher or program coordinator rather than as peers.