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Lives of Self-Advocacy and Determination

Photo and Article By Margaret Summers

Direct support professionals (DSPs) working with intellectually challenged adults encourage them to strive
towards independence, know their rights as citizens, and speak up if they feel those rights are not respect-
ed. At a recent conference organized by the Maryland Association of Community Services (MACS) for DSPs
and supervisors, Ricardo and Donna Thornton told the nearly 300 participants about their lifelong insist-
ence on living and being treated as “normal,” regardless of their disabilities.

When Ricardo Thornton (Top Right) and Donna Thornton (Top Left) were children, people with intellectual
disabilities were thought to be incapable of taking care of themselves. Donna Thornton was placed in a
foster home, then sent to Forest Haven, a residential institution in Laurel, Maryland that was operated by
the District of Columbia. There she met her future husband, Ricardo, whose mother placed him and his
siblings in Forest Haven.

Donna and Ricardo grew up together in Forest Haven, became best friends, and ultimately fell in love. In
1979 when it was rumored that the institution would soon be closed, Donna, with the help of a case man-
ager at Forest Haven, Donna obtained a cleaning job at a local McDonald’s fast food restaurant and moved
into an apartment in Washington, DC. When Ricardo left Forest Haven, he moved into a Washington, DC
group home, and found work at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, where he is still employed as
a clerk.

One day, Ricardo asked Donna if he could spend the night with her since they spent most of their time

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