Thirtieth Anniversary Issue on Progress and Priorities in Direct Support
With Dignity and Direction
Remembering John Good Smith
John Good Smith
John Good Smith, a disability advocate and research specialist at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration for more than 30 years, died December 4, 2025, at age 66.
John brought both professional expertise and personal lived experience to his work. As a person who directed his own services, he often wrote about what it meant to hire, train, and rely on direct support professionals (DSPs). In his essays in Impact magazine, “They Work for Me” and “They Are Still Working for Me,” John described the everyday reality of recruiting staff, managing schedules, navigating turnover, and building relationships based on mutual respect. He was clear: DSPs didn’t “take care of” him — they worked with him, and for him, in support of a life he chose.
That perspective shaped his career. John focused on translating complex research and policy into clear, accessible information that helps people with intellectual and other developmental disabilities take greater control of their lives. He contributed to knowledge translation, program evaluation, self-determination research, and the development of tools and training that elevated the direct support workforce. He played a key role in initiatives, including the Region 10 Quality Assurance project in Minnesota, and helped build Self-Advocacy Online into a nationally recognized resource. John wrote for DSPs in Frontline Initiative about supporting people to access resources on Self-Advocacy Online. John also wrote in Frontline Initiative about Becoming a Self-Advocate, describing key points in his life when he spoke up and when others spoke up on his behalf.
Through his writing and mentoring, John challenged systems to recognize DSPs as skilled professionals and to respect the authority of people who direct their own supports. He believed quality services began with strong relationships, fair wages, good training, and the expectation that people with disabilities are the experts in their own lives.
“Self-determination was at the forefront of his career, and he lived as one of the most self-determined people I’ve ever known,” said ICI Director Amy Hewitt. “He lived as he chose to live, and through his mentoring of self-advocates, college students, scouts, community members, and colleagues, he taught others about the right that people with disabilities have to live self-determined lives.”
John’s lifelong commitment to disability rights was recognized with the Access Press Charlie Smith Award and the Rose and Jay Phillips Award. Before joining the University of Minnesota, he advanced community inclusion through his work with The Arc of Hennepin County (now The Arc Minnesota) and People First Minnesota.
“He was never one to seek any more support than he felt he truly needed,” said Charlie Lakin, former director of the Institute’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. “He was a wonderful model of independence, strength, self-determination, and commitment to others.”
John understood that rights only matter when people know about them – and have the support to use them. In his life and work, he helped move disability rights from paper to practice, and he strengthened both the people who rely on direct support and the workforce that stands beside them.