The paper discusses a national project which studied 41 families who viewed the presence of their disabled child as having had a positive impact upon the family unit. Parents were asked to identify the degree of influence on adjustment of a number of variables (including awareness and understanding of the child's condition, secure economic resources, ongoing extended family support, and birth order of the disabled child). Responses were compared to responses of 17 social work departments at University Affiliated Programs. Professionals' responses reflected more uncertainty or diverse opinion than parents' responses. There was a high level of agreement between professionals and parents on those variables viewed as having the greatest amount of impact on family adjustment, including early diagnostic information, opportunity to share the experience with others, existence of more than one child in the family unit, and personal faith and religion. Twenty-four references are included. (CL)