Intellectually disabled excluded from digital age

THREE out of four adults with an intellectual disability have never written, texted, emailed or used social media to contact their family or friends, a study has found.

Launched yesterday, the report, Growing Older with an Intellectual Disability, also found that less than 60% of people with an intellectual disability used the telephone to make contact with family and friends. Also, adults with an intellectual disability were less likely to own a mobile phone than other adults in the Irish population.

The authors of the report said it was “a concern” that people with an intellectual disability seem to have been excluded from the digital age.