Resources search

This toolkit has been developed as part of an Inclusion International project, Accessing the Ballot Box, funded by the UN Democracy Fund. The project was designed to address the limited political participation of people with intellectual disabilities in Kenya, Zanzibar and Lebanon.

It sought to identify and challenge the barriers people with intellectual disabilities face in exercising their right to civic engagement and political participation and increase the awareness and knowledge of project stakeholders (people with intellectual disabilities, their families and representative organizations, service providers and governments) on building inclusive democratic processes.

When attempting to understand the construct of intellectual disability in different contexts, speaking to family members in addition to the individual with the disability may provide new insight about understandings of and responses to intellectual disability in society and may help to identify the forms of support that are available or needed to ensure the quality of life of people with disabilities. This article outlines and discusses interviews that were conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with family members of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. These interviews explore how families came to understand that their child had an intellectual disability; the availability of family support; and family hopes and dreams for the future, and were a part of a wider exploratory study that gathered insight from individuals with disabilities, families, and other providers of support to explore understandings and perceptions of disability in Dar es Salaam. Understanding family experiences will help researchers, policy makers, non-governmental organisations, and others to identify family strengths and family support needs which can ultimately improve family quality of life and the quality of life of the member with a disability.