Back to the report Disability in Australia: intellectual disability
This bulletin analyses the patterns of transitions by people with intellectual disability into and out of school education and their needs for services and assistance. It also presents an overview of prevalence of intellectual disability, associated disabilities and conditions, causes and age at onset of main disabling conditions, and geographic location in Australia.
Over half a million Australians have intellectual disability and a majority (61%) of those people have a severe or profound limitation in 'core' activities of daily living. People with intellectual disability are a major group of users of disability support services in Australia (AIHW 2005, 2007a).
People with intellectual disability encounter special challenges that are different from people with other types of disabilities in a number of important aspects. For example, they have difficulty learning and applying knowledge and in decision making. They may have difficulty identifying and choosing options at key life transition points. They often have difficulty adjusting to changed circumstances and unfamiliar environments and therefore need high support during times of change (Western Australia Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability 2006). Two important life transition points are from home to school and from school to adult life—work, post-school study and participation in meaningful activities.
In 2003, 588,700 people (3% of the population) had intellectual disability. Most were aged under 65 years (436,200). It is common for people with intellectual disability to have other types of disability, the most common being psychiatric disability.
Almost 60% of people with intellectual disability have severe communication limitations. This distinguishes intellectual disability from other major disability groups for which severe limitations are more concentrated in self-care and mobility. People with intellectual disability are also highly likely to have severe limitations in all three core activities of daily living - self-care, mobility and communication.
However, need for help with core activities may not fully reflect the level of support that an individual with intellectual disability requires to participate in society. Even though they may function relatively well in the familiar routines of self-care and domestic life, and be independently mobile, people with intellectual disability often have considerable difficulty in managing emotions and relating to other people. It is therefore important to also consider the level of support that is needed in non-core activity areas, especially making friendships, maintaining relationships and interacting with others.
If we consider need for support among people with intellectual disability in this broader context, the data reveal interesting findings on the extent to which needs are being met. Across a range of specific activities for which need for assistance was measured in 2003, the two areas with the lowest levels of fully met need for assistance were cognition/ emotion (38% of people with intellectual disability had partially met or fully unmet needs) and communication (36%) (Figure 11).
School students with intellectual disability typically need additional support at school in order to learn and successfully participate in the school environment. This is reflected in their lower rate of participation in ordinary classes, compared to students with other disabilities. In 2003, 45% of students with intellectual disability attended ordinary school classes, compared to 95% of students with physical or diverse disability. For this group of students, learning and social difficulties were far more common problems than other sorts of problems that people with disabilities often encounter, such as participating in sport or physical access barriers (Table 7).
Most school students aged 5–9 years in 2003 with intellectual disability and severe or profound limitation started school life in an ordinary class and remained in ordinary classes for at least five years. Some, however, moved between different school environments. The most common transition was to start off in an ordinary class, then move to a special class or special school (a move made by 29% of a 5-year age cohort of students with severe disability, Figure 7). Around 28% of school students with intellectual disability in 2003 did not receive additional educational support for their disability (Table 8).
On finishing school, people with intellectual disability are far less likely to move into post-secondary education or the labour force than their age peers without disability. In 2003, the labour force participation rate of those aged in their 20s was around 60% and between 34% and 46% for those aged in their 30s, well below the 85% participation by young adults without disability. Transitions out of the labour force were common at ages 30–34 years and onwards, possibly highlighting difficulties for people with intellectual disability in maintaining employment and a need for those who do leave a job to find alternative means of social participation.
Population baseline estimates of unmet demand show that a substantial number of people with intellectual disability need employment and community access services, or alternative sources of support (for example, informal care) to participate in employment and community life (see ' Population baseline estimates of unmet demand for services among people with intellectual disability' ).
Analyses of age cohorts between 1998 and 2003 for young adults with intellectual disability show that:
People with intellectual disability accounted for the majority of people aged under 65 years who had unmet demand for accommodation and respite services (22,800 out of 26,700).