An Interview with Lynette Porter

Deputy Director, Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities

The Milestone That Mattered Most

Looking back on your time in Tennessee's disability community, what stands out as the single most important milestone you witnessed or helped create?

The most important milestone I've witnessed took over 10 years to operationalize.

When I started with the Council in 2000, all 3 of the State's developmental centers were still operational. Arlington was in the process of planning for closure. The shift in institutional care to supported community living wasn't like flipping a switch, it was more like a series of slow-falling dominos.

I'd put the closing of the sheltered workshops as a close 2nd. In my work prior to coming to the Council, I can remember going into the workshops for tours and thinking, "This can't be a viable path to meaningful employment."

I was so proud and grateful to be working for the State of Tennessee to witness this milestone as well.

What lessons from that experience should today's advocates keep in mind as we move forward?

The work is never over. Any big shift in how the service system operates creates an entirely new set of problems to solve and issues to address.

While individuals with intellectual disabilities live and sometimes work IN the community today, we have to ask if they HAVE community. We have to explore what barriers exist that can prevent a person from truly belonging.

Friendships, recreational activities, chosen communities of faith? Do people truly have a voice in their life?

Sometimes, it can feel like we didn't take down the fence, we just expanded the institutional land size.

There are always ways to improve.

What is your personal connection to Tennessee, and how has that shaped your perspective on disability issues here?

I'm a native Tennessean. I grew up in Chattanooga and have a foundational memory of being in elementary school watching them build the ramps into my school building after Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was passed.

All through 12 grades of school, I never saw anyone enter the buildings with a need to use the ramps. No parents. No students. In my naivety, I thought there just must not have been peers with disabilities in my small community.

Flash forward 10 years after high school to when my daughter was born with a physical disability. She had personalized supports in her school years because of the same law that built those ramps.

She was in kindergarten the year I started working for the Council. I saw all of the work done in the advocacy community that paved the way for her inclusion. The work never ends.

Over the years, I've participated in countless workgroups and education initiatives to increase meaningful inclusion of students with disabilities, but I still hear stories from families of students with IDD where meaningful inclusion and participation in education is a daily struggle.

It's not for the lack of dedicated educators that want the student included, it's resources, time, and tools. I feel like the cycle never ends, but through the efforts of the advocacy community, the needle moves slowly over time.

You've been with the Council for over two decades. What are the biggest shifts you've seen in how state government supports people with disabilities — and what role do you think the Council played in those changes?

I love this question! Aside from the obvious ones like community living and working, I have witnessed a very deliberate shift to person-centered thinking at the systems level.

There had been pilots and some models here and there, but it might have been the State's efforts to become the first system in the nation accredited by The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) when the concept became imbedded into system design and improvements in supports for people with disabilities.

Like with any shift, The Council on Developmental Disabilities can play many roles – through partnerships, collaboration, funding, on and on.

We partner with The Department of Disability and Aging to provide person-centered training taught by self-advocates to self-advocates to teach participants how to develop their own person-centered plans. This is just one example.

Our primary role in every shift remains constant: To make sure people with disabilities have a voice at the table with the government as it designs and implements systems that impact them.

Advice for Tomorrow's Leaders

What trend or shift are you watching most closely right now?

I’m concerned about a shift in how our nation views the value of people with disabilities, especially autism.  People with powerful platforms could use that opportunity to express the value and worth of people with disabilities.  It is dangerous to use those platforms to do the opposite. 

I suppose this hits me personally as well as professionally.  It’s heavy on my mind right now.  Hearing untruths about people I care deeply about is unsettling.

If you could give one piece of advice to the next generation of leaders in our field, what would it be?

Always start with people – people with disabilities and their families. Build deliberate, constant, intentional ways to listen to, understand, and react to the needs and values of the people who will use the system you are trying to build or improve. "Nothing about us without us" was a slogan at the heart of the independent living movement. Today's leaders can build the system this way rather than waiting for someone to ask if they can join the process.

I'm going to ask for grace and give a 2nd piece of advice to the next generation of leaders. There will never be enough money. You can't wait for the funds to drive for system improvement. Do it anyway. Every day.

This interview is part of an ongoing series highlighting leaders who are shaping the future of disability services and inclusion in Tennessee. Their insights remind us that lasting change happens through persistent advocacy, personal commitment, and never losing sight of the people at the heart of this work.