Research highlights discrimination against people with learning disabilities

Turning Point, one of the UK’s leading health and social care providers, today launched research findings which highlight that the majority of Brits believe people living with a learning disability are the group most discriminated against in society.

The poll found nine out of ten people believe people with a learning disability still experience discrimination, with more than half (51%) thinking they are the most discriminated against group in society. This comes above other groups often perceived to experience discrimination including homosexuals (44%), overweight people (43%) and ethnic minorities (40%).

The research shows the true extent of discrimination that still exists in society, with a third of us thinking people with learning disabilities cannot live independently or undertake employment.

Nearly a quarter of people surveyed (23%) expect those with learning disabilities to be living in care homes, while nearly one in ten (8%) say they would expect them to be cared for in a secure hospital out of town.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, bearing in mind this level of discrimination, the survey also reveals a lack of knowledge about what constitutes a learning disability.

Just under a third (32%) wrongly identified mental illness as a learning disability, while almost a quarter (24%) classified dementia as one.

Adam Penwarden, Turning Point’s Director of Learning Disability Services, believes this lack of understanding is contributing to widespread discrimination. He says:

“People often think individuals with a learning disability are ‘different’ and discriminate against them because of this. In fact, they can make a great contribution to society when given the right support. This includes working, living independently and playing an active role within the local community.”

Leading learning disabilities champion and mother of a child with Down’s Syndrome, Rosa Monckton, said it was also interesting that people with a learning disability are frequently stereotyped.

“When people were asked in the survey to describe a typical person with a learning disability they most frequently suggested negative characteristics such as having poor social skills, lack of confidence, shouting, being aggressive or slurred speech,” she said.

“Positive characteristics, for example being warm, extrovert or funny, scored far lower, showing people have pre-conceived ideas about how a person with a learning disability will think and behave.”

Ms Monckton said it was a great pity that despite advances in so many other areas of society, extreme prejudice still existed towards people with learning disabilities and that people don’t understand what a learning disability is or how to relate to people who have one.