The impact of inclusion into working activities on quality of life of adults with intellectual disabilities

Intellectual disability is a life-long problem, therefore even as adults such persons needs help and support which is adapted to the nature of their special needs, as well as the features of adult life. Apart from the crucial findings concerning adults with intellectual disabilities, this thesis introduces and provides an in-depth research of two other fields, namely, quality of life and inclusion into various forms of working activities. For better understanding and assessment of quality of life of adults with intellectual disabilities, this paper employs several different models of fields and indicators. All models, however, point out that a very important factor of a quality adult life is inclusion into various forms of working activities; be it special and rather segregated, or supported employment in the open market. My interest was the impact of working activities on the quality of life of adults as a whole, and above all, their meaning for different, rather specific aspects of each individual’s life, e.g. social, emotional, material, and other aspects. From the summary of studies performed by various authors it can be concluded that person’s inclusion into suitably adapted working activities has a positive influence on a number of objective aspects, as well as individual’s subjective perception of quality of their lives. By and large, the findings speak in favour of the open, supported forms of working activities. Due to uniqueness of each individual, which requires individual approach, it is nevertheless necessary to provide a selection of different possibilities which will enable a suitable adaptation of approach to every single person