Control of Virtual Environments for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Around 25 people in every thousand have mild or moderate intellectual disabilities and about four or five per thousand have severe intellectual disabilities [1]. In theory the distinction between the levels of disability are based on IQ scores but in practice people are assigned to these categories on the basis of the level of support they need with daily living and the presence of challenging behaviour. Although children with mild and moderate learning difficulties are increasingly receiving education in main stream schools, like their more disabled peers, when they leave school they are unlikely to enter employment or to achieve the level of independence expected by the rest of society. Adults with intellectual disabilities will have the option to attend some form of college or day centre, the role of which is to provide training programmes relating to the development of daily living, social and educational skills.