The ITINERIS scale on the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities: development, pilot studies and application at a country level in South America.
Adults with ID can exercise their rights at typical levels when given proper supports - measure this with the new ITINERIS scale.
01Research in Context
What this study did
A team in South America built a new 30-item tool called ITINERIS. It measures how well adults with intellectual disability can use their rights.
They tested it with the adults living in the community. Families, staff, and the adults themselves filled out the forms.
The team ran small pilot studies first to make sure the questions made sense and the answers stayed consistent.
What they found
When people had the right supports, they scored just as high on rights as adults without disabilities.
Family help, community connections, and where someone lived mattered more than how severe their disability was.
The scale worked well across different languages and cultures in South America.
How this fits with other research
Kuppens et al. (2010) showed the Supports Intensity Scale works well for planning supports. ITINERIS adds the missing piece - it measures if those supports actually help people use their rights.
Wilson et al. (2023) created new wellbeing scales that let teens with ID speak for themselves. ITINERIS does the same thing for rights - it captures the adult's own view, not just what families or staff think.
Northrup et al. (2022) found that country culture changes how people view rights like sexuality. ITINERIS backs this up - the same supports work differently depending on community attitudes.
Feldman et al. (1999) proved older scales were reliable for program evaluation. ITINERIS updates this work by focusing specifically on rights instead of general outcomes.
Why it matters
You now have a quick 30-item tool to check if your services actually help adults exercise their rights. Use it during annual reviews to see where to boost family training or community connections. The adult's own answers matter most - their voice should carry more weight than staff reports.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the 30-item ITINERIS scale to your next annual review - have the adult complete it first, then compare with family and staff responses to spot rights gaps.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: The ITINERIS scale on the rights of persons with intellectual disabilities (ISRPID) was developed to measure the extent to which people with intellectual disabilities (ID) exercise their rights. METHOD: The ISRPID was produced through a virtual Delphi group with 37 professionals and relatives of people with ID from four continents and was refined in small pilot groups with persons with ID in Argentina. It has 30 items and can be self-administered or completed by a proxy. Versions in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) are available. Following its development, the ISRPID was applied in Chile to 705 persons with ID and to a control group of 524 college students without ID. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that family relationships, community participation, living arrangements and level of disability affect the experience of rights among people with ID. Importantly, with structured supports, people with ID appear able to exercise their rights to a level comparable to that of their peers without ID. CONCLUSIONS: With further development, the ISRPID may be an appropriate scale to monitor the exercise of rights contained in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at an individual or group level.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2012 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2012.01651.x