People with intellectual disability have rights, strengths, abilities, and valuable contributions to make to New Zealand society.
Research shows that many people with intellectual disability demonstrate strong character strengths, such as:
- a love of learning
- honesty
- fairness
- good judgement
- appreciation of beauty and excellence
- kindness
- compassion
- humour
- perseverance
- courage
- and resilience.
Many also value relationships and show strong interpersonal skills in making and maintaining friendships.
Intellectual disability is a medical term used to describe a lifelong impairment that is identified before the age of 18 and characterised by an IQ of 70 or below. Most people with intellectual disability need extra support in their everyday lives to concentrate, understand, learn, and remember new information.
There are about 47,000 people with intellectual disability in New Zealand. Each person is unique, just like everyone else. However, the majority experience significant barriers and discrimination across:
- education
- employment
- health
- technology
- travel
- housing
- mobility
- safety
- justice.
IHC works to advocate for the rights and inclusion of all people with intellectual disability.
IHC uses the term intellectual disability because it is used in New Zealand legislation and funding pathways and is endorsed by our National Self-Advocacy Advisor. You may see other terms used elsewhere, such as learning disability, developmental delay, or special needs.
While learning disability is often community preferred language, IHC uses intellectual disability to avoid confusion with specific learning differences such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.
Intellectual disability is instead associated with conditions such as:
- birth asphyxia or intrauterine hypoxia
- Down syndrome
- Edwards’ syndrome
- fragile X syndrome
- microcephaly.
We also recognise the term whaikaha ā-hinengaro, meaning “to be otherly abled” and “the mind, mental ability, or what you are thinking about.”
Diagnostic tools such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) classify intellectual disability as mild, moderate, severe, or profound. IHC considers it more useful and respectful to describe the supports a person needs, rather than classifying them by severity. For example: She needs ongoing support with communication, personal care, and making daily decisions.
At IHC, we respect the mana of people with intellectual disability as a self-determining group with their own experiences, perspectives, and ways of being. We recognise the rights of people with intellectual disability to lead their own lives, make their own decisions, and shape the systems that affect them.
