She calls it a "typical American town", and noted that she never saw anyone with disabilities at her school or in her community, other than one friend who had polio.

Meyer volunteered at the Institute as a teenager, and her experiences there led to her studying the unit during her PhD research at the Indiana University Bloomington.

Meyer and her three colleagues were in a small unit which was the only one in the state, "We read the law which said that children should be educated in their neighbourhood school etc., etc.

"[1] Meyer began working in inclusion, and developed relationships with James Apffel and Ian Evans, later professor emeritus of Massey University.

[1] In 1987 Meyer was invited by Anne Bray to take an endowed chair at the Roy McKenzie Institute of Mental Retardation, at the University of Otago in Dunedin.