The nineties were very important years for the world of childhood, adolescence, and youth in Catalonia, where a series of policies were promoted, primarily aimed at guaranteeing the rights and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities, as well as building their future.
Past, Present, and Future of Intellectual Disability
Consequently, these were also important years for the educational world: the concept of education expanded, formal education began to be questioned, and schools ceased to be the only centers concerned with transmitting knowledge. The social, cultural, and leisure fields also became educational spheres, capable of forming individuals through the learning of personal development skills.
Regarding the leisure sphere, little by little, it was considered a space that could be used to promote well-being and provide components of educational changes. Promoting leisure activities became a necessity, a right (Declaration of the Rights of the Child, 1959), and a way to facilitate and contribute to the compatibility of family and work life.
However, leisure should never be considered a continuation of school. The leisure experience must include the freedom to make choices (Corbella, Baz y Alonso, 2001), must be considered as the time a person has to choose and enjoy activities not related to work or other forms of obligatory activities, and must generate natural feelings of pleasure, happiness, and joy (AAIDD, 2010, apud Corbella, Baz y Alonso, 2001).
Leisure and Free Time for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Considering this, what can be said about the leisure experience of those who lose their right to choose or enjoy their free time due to social barriers, as is the case for People with Intellectual Disabilities?
Although research has shown that the participation of people with Intellectual Disabilities in all types of life activities brings a diversity of benefits (promotes independence, favors their inclusion in society and interpersonal relationships, increases self-esteem, improves their adaptive skills, improves mood, promotes physical activity and health, the establishment of friendships, self-determination, and consequently, the improvement in their quality of life [WHO, 2001; Madariaga, 2011 apud Calderón, 2015]), different studies confirm that these individuals participate less in social and recreational activities than people without disabilities. Often, the leisure activities of people with Intellectual Disabilities are limited to solitary activities, with their family or associative environment.
This occurs either because there is an inequality in the offer of activities aimed at this group, thus reducing the repertoire of leisure activities, or because they are prevented from participating in their preferred activities (Corbella, Baz y Alonso, 2001).
Offer in the Special or Therapeutic Leisure Market
Thus, in recent years, Special or Therapeutic Leisure has become a field of intervention to improve the leisure experience of people with disabilities, who need adaptations to enjoy their free time (Gorbeña, González, y Lázaro, 1997).
It should be noted that this leisure modality is the most prevalent in associative fields and residences, and although it has brought many benefits to people with Intellectual Disabilities, it follows a segregative model that does not reflect the premises of ideal leisure. Therefore, associations, entities, and institutions that dedicate their efforts to integrating those with Intellectual Disabilities into society have not yet fully achieved it. An example of this is that most associative activity groups working with people with functional disabilities are constituted only by people with disabilities.
Special leisure follows a more rehabilitative than inclusive model and has the intrinsic purpose of educating to achieve treatment and cure, and not to educate for personal development and entertainment. In this case, people with disabilities are still treated as objects of intervention, and their free time is still used as a measure to achieve a secondary purpose to leisure itself, which is not necessarily recreational.
Leisure for Intellectually Disabled Individuals: Right or Luxury?
That is, achieving social recognition of the right to enjoy leisure for people with Intellectual Disabilities represents a challenge, since the lack of information regarding the deficiency, prejudices, and old welfare premises generate leisure models that do not correspond to the model experienced by the rest of society (Solly 1984 apud Lahuerta, Fernández y Pereda, 2004). This contributes to the creation of a context of isolation, overprotection, and negative feelings of discrimination, which disable more than the diagnosis itself.
However, although the access and execution of normalized leisure activities with people with Intellectual Disabilities is limited by social and technical impediments, special leisure must be recognized as an important transformative and transitional measure, and not as a permanent proposal. This leisure modality must be contemplated as a pre-inclusive proposal, not only capable of giving visibility to people with Intellectual Disabilities, but also of gathering information in technical, material, and social terms, to find means of action and favor the necessary changes for the free enjoyment of these individuals’ leisure time.
Through this, it is possible to highlight the problems related to the social exclusion of people with Intellectual Disabilities who often lack community leisure options or participate in empty activities, without programming or without the necessary accessibility conditions for full and free participation (Madariaga, 2008).