Artistic Work of People with Intellectual Disabilities as a Laboratory of Social Practices : Research. Action. Solving Problems

Abstract

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) are often recognised as suffering from “social exclusion”. Attempts aimed at combating this exclusion include support in finding employment and preparing them for living independently. Unfortunately, for a large group of people with intellectual disabilities the aforementioned strategies of promoting social inclusion are unattainable, and thus alternative areas of social inclusion are sought after. The arts/artistic work may be one of them. Due to the fact that the study was conducted as participatory action research, the main areas of social exclusion of people with intellectual disabilities were exposed. This allowed for attempting to prevent this phenomenon. In this study, artistic work has become a laboratory of social practices toward people with intellectual disabilities and the solutions created in the realm of the arts may serve as an example for designing a normalising model of support for people with intellectual disabilities in other areas as well.