Difference is something that we all have known or felt. It is not necessarily cause for negative experiences, hostility, or rejection. However, when people assert that they feel different it is usually a statement that they feel bad, lonely, or isolated. Role expectation and role behavior can materialize in negative ways, especially when combined with differences. This is what is faced by people with disabilities who are often stereotyped as incapable. Condeluci explores the painful experience of being different and offers solutions for society to heal itself and for individuals within that society to grow beyond difference. A combination of personal stories and professional experiences, Beyond Difference is a profound study of the rightful place of all persons within the society in which they live. Either people with differences are included into groups and association of community or they are not. In many ways, Condeluci suggests our specialties, jargon, and professionalism have gotten in the way. He faces this fact head on in Beyond Difference and provides a compelling argument for change in how the disabled are perceived and devalued and, because of their differences, fall prey to exclusion from society. Beyond Difference is perfect for professionals in any field related to human services, rehabilitation, education. Ideal for college-level counseling, human services, and disability-related courses, as well as libraries, associations, and families.

Driven from a values base, Interdependence: The Route to Community is a service system framework that interprets a new approach for the ways in which people relate and the ways our society addresses social issues. Recognizing the limitations of the medical/expert approach, the book offers a new prescription for change based on partnership. This penetrating, often hard-hitting exploration of the goals of human services clears the air on how and why the current medical/expert paradigm has failed. Here is the introduction to the independent paradigm-an alternative approach to how people and systems can relate. The book focuses on a new plan of action for reestablishing the individual with his or her community and enhancing personal lives through a sense of similarity, rather than difference: Who should read this book? Educators, counselors, physicians, nurses, administrators, people with disabilities, family members, community and religious leaders, engineers, government officials, and politicians. This book is to be read and applied, not merely read.