Intellectual disability is determined as a discrepancy between an individual’s capabilities and the requirements imposed upon them by the educational system and the society (Wynkoop, 2016). It primarily presents itself as an inability to perform certain actions, such as learning, reading, writing, and take care of oneself. In the USA alone, there are over 6 million students that receive special education services. Over 10% of that count is intellectually disabled (Deppisch, 2013).
There are numerous programs in place seeking to accommodate such individuals and provide funding for the facilities that teach and enable students with special needs. Some of these programs in the US include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), which provides grants for research, technology, and training for disabled individuals (NCLD, 2014), as well as the Secondary Education Act of 2002, which also incorporates the needs of intellectually-challenged students in its budget funding (OCPI, 2011). Lastly, there is the Independence Living Curriculum, which enables educators to provide disabled students with specialized knowledge and skills to overcome or reduce the negative effects of their impediment.
Daily independent living skills include personal hygiene, dressing and clothing, healthcare, nutrition, home management, personal growth, and community access (Shireman, 2015). This makeup for the majority of activities needed to sustain a human being in a healthy state of body and mind. The impossibility to participate in any of these activities effectively constitutes a disability.
Teaching daily independent life skills is a very important part of preparing a young disabled person for the hardships of adult life. School services would be largely unavailable for adults, so by the time they graduate, they should be fully prepared to maintain themselves without the assistance of teachers and learn to live a fulfilling life on their own (Papadatou-Pastou & Tomprou, 2015). Learning these is a necessity in the cycle of maturity.
Disabled individuals usually suffer from a lower quality of life when compared to others. They are more vulnerable to various threats and challenges while being forced to rely on the community and various government institutions and NGOs for support (Pam & Ross, 2015). Many disabled people do not know the full array of services available or do not know how to cope with their own disabilities. Intellectually-disabled students require dedicated conversations and life-planning sessions in order to prepare for the hardships awaiting them and anticipating challenges they would inevitably face, such as healthcare, higher education, employment, and others (Segal, Gerdes, & Steiner, 2015).
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest professional advocacy organization that works with numerous educational facilities inside and outside of the US in order to provide guidance and standards for the education of disabled individuals. These standards can be used to adjust a school curriculum to accommodate intellectually disabled individuals and help them learn the skills they would need to achieve full or partial autonomy and be able to sustain themselves afterward (CEC, 2015). The programs approved by CEC can also be served as a grading tool to assess the functionality of the existing programs and policies in a learning facility (Klepp, 2017).
The reason why this topic was chosen is that the issues and problems of intellectually disabled individuals are not fully understood or protected equally in the world. In some places, specifically the Middle East, disabled individuals often face prejudice and neglect (Shireman, 2015). Some of the economically-advanced countries in the region, like Saudi Arabia, can do much more to accommodate the needs of its alternatively capable citizens compared to what is being done at this moment. The lessons from other countries, such as Europe and the USA, maybe invaluable as a framework for region-specific educational interventions.
References
CEC. (2015). Initial specialty set: Individualized independence curriculum. Web.
Deppisch, M. J. (2013). Increasing independence in individuals with severe intellectualdisabilities: Investigating visual supports for decreasing prompt dependence. Web.
Klepp, K. (2017). Teachers’ perceptions of addressing leisure in curriculum for students with severe disabilities. Web.
NCLD. (2014). IDEA: Parent guide. Web.
OCPI. (2011). No child left behind act. Web.
Pam, E., & Ross, R. (2015). Models for effective service delivery in special education programs. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Papadatou-Pastou, M., & Tomprou, D. M. (2015). Intelligence and handedness: Meta-analyses of studies on intellectually disabled, typically developing, and gifted individuals. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 56, 151-165.
Segal, E. A., Gerdes, K., & Steiner, S. (2015). Social work: Becoming a change agent. Boston, MA: Cengage.
Shireman, J. F. (2015). Critical issues in child welfare (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Wynkoop, K. (2016). The effects of two video modeling interventions on the independent living skills of students with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Web.