The best way to learn more about the people who benefit from a relationship with LiveWorkPlay is to get the information directly from the source. Adult LiveWorkPlay members have a public speaking group. They can come to you, or you can come to them! Send us an email for more information. There are also many videos available on our website featuring our members as self-advocates and contributing citizens.

For those looking to better understand the people who benefit from LiveWorkPlay support in a more technical sense, the information below is an attempt to offer such a description.

Please note that although many people with intellectual disabilities¹ have common needs, each person is unique, and individualized plans are a critical aspect of the LiveWorkPlay approach.

What is an intellectual disability?

LiveWorkPlay started using the term "intellectual disability" in 2003. This decision came out of discussions with people with intellectual disabilities served by LiveWorkPlay (members) who were struggling with the challenge of communicating the nature of their disability to other people.

There were certain terms that other people could understand, but the members did not like using those terms. There were certain terms that the members did not mind using, but they found that people had a hard time making sense of those words.

"Intellectual disability" was the one term that seemed to work. Other people could understand it, and the members could understand it. It did not make them feel bad to say it. It did not make them feel bad to hear it.

The staff relayed this information to the board of directors, along with some research and information from other groups and organizations in Canada and elsewhere, and the idea of gradually replacing "developmental disabilities" with "intellectual disabilities" was approved.

So what does it mean? In simple terms, most people with intellectual disabilities have unusually difficult challenges with four types of intellectual processes: abstraction, sequencing, understanding social contexts, and reading the emotional states of others. People with intellectual disabilities have unique needs with regard to information processing. The disability may affect learning, memory, problem solving, planning and other cognitive tasks.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities vary widely in their abilities, and definitions of intellectual disability also differ. Most definitions are in general agreement that a person has an intellectual disability if there are limitations affecting several areas of cognitive function to a degree that interferes with the demands of daily life.

Intellectual disability can be further categorized into mild, moderate, severe and profound. LiveWorkPlay supports people with mild intellectual disabilities. A person is considered to have a mild intellectual disability if intellectual functioning is 2 to 3 standard deviations below the norm on an individually administered psycho-educational assessment of intellectual functioning. The mild intellectual disability label correlates to an IQ range of about 55 up to about 70-75.

Approximately 2% of Canadians have been given a diagnosis of intellectual disability. Of these, about 90% have "mild" disabilities. Please note that labels like "mild" say nothing about the type or intensity of support an individual might require - just as non-disabled individuals in the community have widely varying needs.

An intellectual disability may be congenital (the individual is born with it) or it may be acquired, through accident or disease. Some people associate intellectual disability with specific causation (such as Autism, Down Syndrome, or Prader-Willi) but more commonly (in about 50% of cases) the cause is unknown (often described as a "generalized intellectual disability").

Intellectual disabilities cut across the lines of racial, ethnic, educational, social, and economic backgrounds, but many adults with intellectual disabilities live in poverty as a result of limited incomes.

Several terms have been commonly used to refer to intellectual disability, including cognitive impairment, developmental disability, mental challenge, mental handicap, mental retardation, and more. In the United Kingdom, the term learning disability typically refers to intellectual disability, but in North America, the term is used differently, and refers to populations with very distinct needs. As defined by the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada, learning disabilities occur only in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities (as the term is used in Canada) is totally distinct from intellectual disability.

The term developmental disability is sometimes used interchangeably with intellectual disability. The term is being replaced in most jurisdictions by intellectual disability, because the word developmental can lead to confusion about the nature of the disability and its lifelong effects.

People with intellectual disabilities may have other disabilities, and this is not uncommon. For example, epilepsy and cerebral palsy occur approximately 8 times as frequently among people with severe intellectual disabilities as they do in the general population. Impaired vision and hearing are also more common among people with intellectual disabilities. Mental health issues are also common, and this is known as dual diagnosis.

Although some intellectual disabilities can result in patterns of behaviour and communication that are noticeably atypical to the general public, many intellectual disabilities often go unnoticed in most situations, causing confusion and even conflict. Unlike many other types of disability populations, there is no well-developed intellectual disability pride movement, and most people with intellectual disabilities are not well equipped for explaining their disability to others and advocating for their own needs.

Attempting to accurately define and describe intellectual disability can be difficult and complex. IQ scores are a very weak diagnostic tool, and evaluating limitations in adaptive skill areas can be a very subjective and interpretive process. The issue is further complicated by the fact that in addition to intellectual impairments, persons with intellectual disabilities are often challenged by affective and psycho-motor difficulties that also contribute to below average performance in a variety of skill areas.

What does it all mean?

All that being said, this doesn't really tell you much about the people in the LiveWorkPlay community, what their lives are like, and what they have to offer. They are as unique as any other human being. Some can read very well. Some find reading very difficult. Some can socialize very well. Some find socializing very difficult. Some are quick with a smile and a handshake. Others are quiet around those they don't know well. You get the idea.

What all the members in the LiveWorkPlay community have in common is that society, in general, does not always have time for them. They often find themselves on everyone else's schedule, and it doesn't work very well. Have you ever had the experience of working with someone who always wanted to go faster than you? Have you ever struggled to learn a new computer program while the person showing you how to use it was clicking buttons and typing on keys so fast that you had no idea what was happening?

That's often what life is like - every day - for a person with an intellectual disability. It doesn't come as a big surprise that self-confidence and self-esteem are common problems, does it? Or that "making a decision" can provoke extreme anxiety? When you are a person with an intellectual disability, normally there isn't enough time to make a decision - on other people's schedules - so they make it FOR you. So you never learn how to make your own decisions. Why believe in yourself when what you think and feel never seems to matter?

Unless some of the people around you slow down. And listen. And give you the support you need to make your own decisions, gain confidence, and take greater control over your own life. This is a brief explanation of how challenging life with an intellectual disability can be, and also touches on what the LiveWorkPlay mission is all about with its focus on self-advocacy.

¹ There are many labels for people with intellectual disabilities. Labels are at times useful, but they do not define a person, at best they provide us with necessary information that a person is comfortable in sharing.

It is important to note that a person who has a disability (of any kind) is not a "disabled person." They are a person, and one fact about them is that they have a disability. People-first language is not a matter of exaggerated correctness, it is a matter of giving a person the respect of being viewed and talked about as a whole human being.

There are many other labels in use. These include  developmentally challenged, developmentally disabled, and developmentally delayed. Labels that include the word "developmental" may contribute to the stereotype and false belief that a person with an intellectual disability will never grow up. An intellectual disability does not stop a person from developing, even if the pace, process, and outcome of their development may not be considered as "normal" to some. They are unique human beings, growing and changing every day.