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Programs:
Ask Me! sm Project 
Ask Me!sm is a Consumer Quality of Life Survey administered
by The Arc of Maryland for the Maryland Developmental Disabilities
Administration (DDA). All community programs licensed by the State DDA
participate in the survey. The survey interviews people who receive
services. Interviews are people with developmental disabilities. Annually,
about 1400 people are surveyed about their quality of life and
satisfaction with services. The survey issues statewide findings and
recommendations to DDA. For a copy of the statewide results, contact Sarah
Basehart at The Arc of Maryland (sbasehart@thearcmd.org)
and ask for the Final Report, or go to www.thearclink.org
and go to Maryland.
Ask Me!sm is based on the belief that persons with
developmental disabilities able to elicit more meaningful responses from
those receiving services than traditional surveyors, as a result of their
first-hand understanding of disabilities and services. There are eight
domains to the survey: Social Inclusion, Physical
Well-Being, Interpersonal Relations, Material Well-being, Emotional
Well-Being, Self-Determination, Personal Development, and Rights.
The survey has been implemented in Maryland since FY 1998, resulting in
the ability to have longitudinal data on many individuals. Findings for FY
2004 are:
- 78% of individuals who were randomly selected agreed to participate -
a total of 1540 people interviewed from 44 providers.
- One-fourth of the individuals interviewed are labeled with severe or
profound retardation.
- 94% reported positive scores on their physical and positive emotional
well being Most people surveyed reported a good quality of life that has
improved over the past four years.
- Self- determination and rights are the
areas requiring the most needed attention. Fifty-one percent (51%) of
people interviewed said they had little or no choice in picking whom
they live with. Self-determination scores
increased only in FY 2004 and rights has not changed over four years.
- Transportation availability and employment services offer the
greatest predictions of people's quality of life, and are therefore
logical areas to consider for service enhancements.
- Cognitive ability offered less prediction of people's quality of
life than did the availability of transportation.
The original survey instrument is a melding of the Quality
of Life Questionnaire, by Robert Schalock, Ph.D. and Ken Keith,
Ph.D. and Signs of Quality, a booklet developed
by People On the Go of Maryland that examines the concept of quality in
DDA services. The name of the project, "Ask Me!sm" is
derived from People On the Go's Signs of Quality
question, "Did You Ask Me?" The Ask Me!sm Survey was subjected to
several reviews in Fall 1996 by People On the Go members to make the
survey more applicable to Marylanders with developmental disabilities,
simpler to administer and easier to understand. In FY 2000, Project staff,
Dr. Gordon Bonham and other stakeholders, including members of People On
the Go began revising the questionnaire for copyright purposes. FY 2003
introduced a new survey, based solely on Signs of
Quality, principles of self-determination, and the new DDA
regulations. The survey tool is under copyright and may not be used
without the written express written permission of The Arc of Maryland.
Gordon Scott Bonham, Ph.D. is the principle researcher and provides
consultation, interviewer training, and data analysis. Dr. Bonham is
President of Bonham Research and formerly Assistant Director of Survey
Research at the Regional Economic Studies Institute, Towson University. In
addition, Robert Schalock, Ph.D., and members of People On the Go continue
to provide consultation to the project. Dr. Schalock is President of Bob
Schalock and Associates, and a Past President of the American Association
on Mental Retardation (AAMR). People On the Go is Maryland's statewide
self-advocacy group comprised of approximately 140 individuals from 12
counties.
Ask Me!sm Unleashed
The Ask Me!sm survey findings can be powerful tools in changing the
lives of people with disabilities. Ask Me!sm Unleashed provides a tool kit
for agencies to share the survey results with self-advocates, families,
agency staff and board of directors. The tool kit offers ideas to
translate survey findings into concrete actions that can improve the
agency and the quality of life for the people it supports.
Ask
Me!sm Toolkit:
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