Are You Living Your Best Life, Your Way?

What does your best life look like?

• Self-Determined
• Supported
• Person-Centered

At home, at work, and within the community.

Self-Determination is the freedom to live as you choose, or to act or decide for yourself what you want or need. You have the same right to self-determination as anyone else (with or without a disability) and are entitled to freedom, authority, and supports to exercise control over your own life. You have the right to self-determination, regardless of your guardianship status.

Family members, friends, and other allies may play a critical role in your self-determination by providing supports and working collaboratively to achieve the your goals. Families, friends, and other allies should understand, recognize, and promote your rights and responsibilities of self-determination and respect the limitations on their own authority. Service providers, educators, and substitute decision-makers must recognize and respect your right to self-determination and the limitations on their authority.

Supported Decision-Making (SDM) allows you to make choices about your own life with support from a team of people you choose. Individuals with disabilities select people they know and trust to be part of a support network to help them make important decisions about their own life. Supported decision-making promotes self-determination, control, and autonomy. It fosters independence and productivity.

We ALL engage in self-determination through supported decision-making in our daily life. We consult with family or friends, colleagues or classmates, and other experts like mechanics or mentors before we make decisions.  We may seek support to decide whether to go on a date, buy a used car, change jobs, renew a lease, or undergo cataract surgery. We confer and consult with others, and then we decide on our own. All Arkansans should have the right to self-determination, whether they have disabilities or not.

SDM involves tools that help you identify the type or types of help you need and how to go about getting that help (recognizing that everyone is unique – different people need different kinds of help). Some people may need help with many types of decisions, and others may need help with only one or two. Some people need one-on-one support and discussion about the issue at hand, but a team approach may work best for others. The SDM model can be tailored to help you find solutions for your specific needs.

Person-Centered is planning based on your wants and needs – thinking and planning centered around you, for you. This way of planning keeps control in your hands, providing customized assistance in specific ways and in specific situations that are useful to you, in the manner you choose.

Here are some resources to help promote self-determination:

• I’m Determined Toolbox for Self-Determination – I’m Determined
• Charting the LifeCourse Homepage
• Self-Determination YouTube Channel Self-Determination Channel

The Our Life, Our Way Conference

Passionate leaders and advocates bring you an unforgettable event focused on having fun, making connections, and learning.

This conference offers information about disability rights, navigating service systems, and living our best lives. Whether you’re a young adult or adult with a disability, a family member, or a support professional, this conference is for you!

Individuals with disabilities will enjoy games, music/dancing, and much more! Allies can get some much-needed downtime – relax, and talk with peers who understand!

In between all the FUN you can attend sessions designed to empower.

WHO?

• Young adults or adults with an intellectual or developmental disability
• Family members of people with an intellectual or developmental disability
• Support professionals who serve people with an intellectual or developmental disability

The OLOW conference was held in Little Rock in April of 2024 and in Texarkana in June of 2025. This regional conference will be moving around the state to reach more people.

We hope to hold our next conference in November of 2025 in Northeast Arkansas and continue to offer OLOW twice a year.

If you would like to put your name on an interest list so we can contact you when we are coming to your area, please click here.

The OLOW conference is an event by the Arkansas DD Network. The network partners are:

Disability Rights Arkansas, Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities Arkansas, and University of Arkansas Partners.