Self-determination in the context of special education refers to personal sense of the term that refers to the determination of one's own fate or course of action. Acting as the causal agent in one's life involves making choices and decisions regarding one's quality of life free from undue external influence or interference (Shogren, Wehmeyer, et al., 2015).

Self-determination is defined in terms of four essential characteristics of self-determined behavior - autonomy, self-regulation, psychological empowerment and self-realization. The Arc's self-determination scale operationalizes these characteristics and is used to measure the extent to which an individual demonstrates self-determined behavior (Shogren, Wehmeyer, et al., 2015).

• Research has shown that self-determination is perceived to be important to their quality of life by disabled people (Wehmeyer, 2020).

• Studies have also shown a positive relationship between an individual's self-determination and their belonging in a higher quality of life group (Wehmeyer, 2020). 

• Research has shown that disabled people living in restrictive, non-traditional communities have very little opportunity to make choices and relatedly have low self-determination (Wehmeyer, 2020). 

Causal agency theory extends the earlier functional model of self-determination and suggests the importance of assessments and interventions to promote self-determination in all students, not just disabled ones. It is a framework for the development of an individual into a causal agent by providing opportunities and supports to enable the individual to take self-determined action to meet their basic psychological and biological needs (Shogren, Wehmeyer, et al., 2015).