This study is co-authored by our associate researcher MICARE Vanessa Vega Córdova together with Marcela Jarpa-Azagra, Izaskun Álvarez-Aguado, Herbert Spencer and Katherine Exss.

Its aim is to characterize the discourse of a group of adults with intellectual disabilities from the Discourse Analysis of the modalities of the statement, which allows knowing the discursive position they have regarding the challenges of independent life.

Qualitative research was designed, that led to the realization of six focus groups, in which eight adults with intellectual disabilities participated. The topics covered were Independent Living, Friendship, Family, Work and Health, which resulted in a transcribed corpus of 88,494 words.

Main results:

The study revealed that adults with intellectual disabilities know and are aware of the impact of achieving an independent life and knowing how to perform in each of the aforementioned areas.

On the other hand, a scarce sense of projection that they conceive for their future was shown, a situation that is related to the Chilean context and the development opportunities that public policies can offer to this group of citizens.