The global extent of negative public perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities is revealed today in a major international survey commissioned by the Special Olympics organisation.
The study of nine countries including Ireland shows that in many countries most people believe that including individuals with intellectual disabilities in workplaces and schools would create more accidents on the job, cause discipline problems in the classroom, lower productivity and affect negatively the learning of other students.
The research indicates the public has low expectations of how much the world's 170 million individuals with intellectual disabilities can achieve, and largely favours segregating them in special schools and workplaces.
Most said people with intellectual disabilities were more capable of engaging in simple activities such as sustaining friendships and washing, but much less capable of complex activities such as handling emergencies, understanding news events, raising children or acting appropriately towards strangers. These perceptions indicate a tendency to perceive all people with intellectual disabilities as severely or profoundly impaired, whereas the majority are in fact mildly intellectually disabled.
About three-quarters of up to 8,000 people surveyed in Asia, Africa, Europe and the US identified lack of school resources, job training and community services as major obstacles to inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities in society. The Multinational Study of Attitudes towards Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities is based on surveys of 800 people in each of the following countries: Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Ireland, Russia and the US. People in Northern Ireland and the Republic were surveyed, but the data are presented on an island-wide basis.
Along with other Westernised countries including the US and Germany, Ireland emerges as having more positive attitudes than countries in the developing world.
The president of Special Olympics, Mr Timothy Shriver, said the survey findings, which will be announced in Belfast today, were alarming. They reflected "continuing levels of, at a minimum ignorance, and in the worst case scenario, prejudice and I'd almost go as far as to say oppression of people with intellectual disabilities." Misunderstanding based on ignorance has created a level of prejudice and injustice against people with disabilities which would not be tolerated if it was experienced by any other demographic group, he added. The findings were a "wake-up call" for people to educate themselves.
However, Mr Shriver pointed out the "good news" that those surveyed who had an involvement with the Special Olympics organisation "believed in more inclusion and expected less negative impacts from the inclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities in all aspects of society".
The study found that a third of people believe individuals with intellectual disabilities should work in special workshops rather than mainstream workplaces.