Perspectives of adults with intellectual disabilities and key individuals on community participation in inclusive settings: A Canadian exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Background: This article aims to present the results of a study on the facilitators and obstacles to community participation in inclusive settings for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Québec City (Canada), as perceived by adults with ID and key individuals involved in their daily lives.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted, followed by an inductive thematic analysis process.

Results: Twenty participants shared their perspectives on the factors that influence community participation of adults with ID in inclusive settings. Overall, they revolved around physical and financial accessibility, openness of the members of the groups attended, as well as the adaptations and support provided to promote the people’s active participation.

Conclusions: Offering social support and interventions that truly help adults with ID create meaningful relationships is crucial. Training community members is also fundamental to creating environments where people with ID can feel that they belong.

KEYWORDS:

• Community participation
• intellectual disability
• social inclusion
• active mentoring
• ageing

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the participants in this study, as well as the Centre de parrainage civique de Québec, for their valuable involvement in this project. Very special thanks go to Ms. Anne-Sophie Bergeron and Ms Véronique Garcia for their contribution to the data analysis, as well as to the Institut universitaire en déficience intellectuelle et trouble du spectre de l’autisme (CIUSSS-MCQ). All authors have contributed significantly to this study and approve the publication of this paper and agree to the order of authors as listed on the title page.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We have received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [grant number 892-2018-0003] for this work, but the organisation has no control over the information shared in this article.