Article published by Marcela Tenorio (alternate director of MICARE), Andrés Aparicio, Paulina Arango, (both associate researchers of MICARE), Karen Fernández (research assistant at MICARE), Alfonso Fergusson, Jaime Turull and Ricardo Pizarro (MICARE’s spokesperson).

The study includes people with intellectual disabilities as co-authors of the research and measures the viability and effectiveness of PaísDI, a 16-hour program created by intellectual disability self-advocates, in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team, with four modules: rights and intellectual disability, leadership in intellectual disability, effective communication and financial considerations of social projects.

Methodology:
A quasi-experimental study with 349 participants, divided into 3 groups: people with intellectual disabilities, relatives and professionals.

Main results:
The program is shown to be viable and effective, especially in its impact on self-perception for self-advocacy activities. The discussion highlights Chile’s historic debt in creating policies that promote self-determination, knowledge and the empowerment of people with intellectual disability, to bolster their participation as citizens.