Personal lifestyle preferences of people with an intellectual disability

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Abstract
There is a great deal of input into the programming of lifestyles for people with an intellectual disability. Service providers, academics, practitioners, policy makers and other professionals all have their personal values, beliefs and views on how services should be delivered for people with an intellectual disability. This research was an attempt to understand the preferences, viewpoints and values people with intellectual disability may have regarding certain aspects of their lives, and how their perceptions relate to service policy and delivery. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 people with an intellectual disability. The intent of the qualitative interviews was to obtain the values, views and preferences of the participants in regard to four major areas of their lives, being divided into home, work, leisure and relationships. Results of the interviews showed that some of the lifestyle conditions and preferences of people with an intellectual disability were not being fully met or addressed in relation to the principles and values of some programming philosophies adopted by various professional service provider organisations.