Intellectual Disability

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New! Summary Reports now available: main findings and recommendations of all released reports

Rights of People with Intellectual Disabilities: Access to Education and Employment
Press releases, country reports, media coverage

Launch of individual country reports!
Bilingual press releases and translations of country reports are also grouped together by country with other relevant info on country pages.

EUMAP monitoring in this area is being carried out in cooperation with the Open Society Mental Health Initiative (MHI) (formerly the Mental Disability Advocacy Program).

People with intellectual disabilities

People with intellectual disabilities – whose learning capacity is significantly lower than average – can be an integral part of society. Yet today they remain probably the most excluded group throughout Europe.

Deinstitutionalisation, the closure of large asylum type institutions, is slowly becoming accepted as a necessity in most European countries, while community care alternatives become increasingly available. Nonetheless, further steps are needed to enable people with intellectual disabilities to lead a dignified and socially integrated life.

Monitoring access to education and employment

Education and employment are key elements for social inclusion. People with intellectual disabilities must be able to have access to schools and jobs in a mainstream environment, rather than in segregated settings, if they are to gain the skills to interact with the rest of the population, as well as the means to lead a dignified and independent life.

The Open Society Institute is releasing a series of reports monitoring access to education and employment for people with intellectual disabilities in 14 European countries:

Bulgaria; Croatia; the Czech Republic; Estonia; Greece; Hungary; Latvia; Lithuania; the Netherlands; Poland; Romania; Slovakia; Slovenia; the United Kingdom.

About the monitoring process

The 14 reports were drafted by local experts with the support of partner NGOs. In each country, the initial findings were discussed during roundtable meetings, where stakeholders - including Government representatives, civil society organisations and parents - discussed the report in its draft form. The final reports are published in bilingual volumes, in English and in the national language.

Each report contains a list of concrete recommendations for improving policies impacting on people with intellectual disabilities, and ensuring the implementation of these policies in practice. The country reports are presented to the public, to governments and to the media in each country, and are also available on the web. A regional overview will be published later, covering the main trends throughout the region.

Monitoring reports

All country reports are based on the same methodology, thus allowing for a comparative analysis. The reports are divided into four main sections:

• Executive summary and recommendations: this section provides a synthesis of the main findings of the report and the priorities for future changes to legislation and policy.
• Country overview and background: this section analyses the legislative framework, including whether there is a comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation in line with international standards, making of disability a prohibited ground of discrimination, and to what extent it is implemented. It also looks at guardianship and the availability of relevant statistical data.
• Access to Education: this section monitors whether education and training options are available to people with intellectual disabilities, and whether Government policies and programmes promote inclusive education and transition into actual employment.
• Access to Employment: this section addresses available employment opportunities for people with – specifically – intellectual disabilities, and whether Government policies and programmes encourage employment on the open market, in particular through supported employment (the most adapted form of employment support for people with intellectual disabilities, which includes availability of a job coach)

Read a summary of the main monitoring findings

Find complete reports as they are released, press releases

To receive copies of the reports, please use the Publication order form.

Summary Reports

Summary reports are now available for all of the released reports (in English only). The summary reports contain the main findings and conclusions across all the countries monitored. Each summary report consists of the executive summary and recommendations of the complete report.

Download the collected summary reports, or any summary report individually, on the Summary Reports page, or order the collected summary reports on our Publication order form.

Further information on this project

• Methodology text
• Local experts who conducted the monitoring and of the NGOs who supported them

If you are interested in being informed about the release of these new reports please click here