ABSTRACT
One of the most significant features of the contemporary literature on the study of intellectual disability has been the focus on quality of life. In a position paper developed by the Special Interest Research Group (SIRG) on quality of life for the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) (Schalock, Brown, Brown, Cummins et al., 2002) the following issues were highlighted:
• Quality of life of people with a disability has been influenced by a shift in focus away from the belief that scientific, medical and technological advances, alone, would result in an understanding that personal, family, community, and societal well-being emerge from complex combinations of these advances, together with values, perceptions, and environmental conditions.
