Description

The Arc of Illinois conducted 26 listening sessions across Illinois, attended by self-advocates, families, friends/allies, providers, and other stakeholders. Each listening session lasted about one hour, with a mix of virtual and in-person listening sessions (12 virtual and 14 in-person). Five sessions were conducted entirely in Spanish (virtually).

In addition to the listening sessions, UIC IDHD designed a survey for distribution at the listening sessions conducted by The Arc of Illinois. The survey was available online through UIC’s Qualtrics platform and in paper form. The survey was designed for the following groups: self-advocates, family members of individuals with IDD, friends/allies of individuals with IDD, and “other,” which was mostly completed by professionals.

This report provides a deep discussion of the data collection process and the findings of the project.