Intellectual  & Developmental Disability (IDD) is a disability that manifests before an individual reaches 22 years of age and it constitutes a substantial disability to the affected person.  It is attributable to cognitive limitation or related conditions that include Down’s Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, cerebral palsy, severe autism or other neurological conditions when such conditions result in impairment of general intellectual functioning or adaptive behaviour.

There are levels of this disability that range from Mild to Severe: Mild with IQ 50 to 60, Moderate with IQ 35 to 49, Severe with IQ 20 to 34,  Very severe with IQ below 20.  

About 75% of persons with IDD fall in the Mild category,  which means these adults can perform simple tasks that do not require much intelligence.  Even if the person sees, hears, smells, speaks  like any other person, s/he can make only simple connections between two objects, events, time and space dimensions. 

Memory of such a person may or may not be affected. Physical growth may be affected in some cases. But Emotional responses may not be affected.  In other words, if a person with IDD attains normal physical growth, his or her physiological and emotional needs would be more or less similar to a normal person. The difference would be that such a person can understand and execute only simple tasks.

Workplace is a significant site of creating both material and social value for the participants. When such persons with IDD participate along with other normal persons in workplaces, it makes a significant contribution to the sense of well being for the person with ID.  It is also a very important step for the normal persons in recognising that no social unit is complete without the inclusion of persons with disabilities.

Kamayani’s mission is to secure a place of dignity in society for persons with IDD through education, vocational training and meaningful occupation. 

Hence it is very important for us to find suitable occupational avenues for our students.

Our students’ limitation of intelligence becomes their strength when the tasks are repetitive and hence demand earnestness and sense of responsibility.  Persons with ID not only fulfil these demands but also sustain their attention without getting bored by the monotony.  They are generally eager to be accepted in any social setting.

Organizations that have benefited most by engaging persons with ID in their workforce have paid attention to the following:

1. They promote the culture of diversity and inclusion.
2. They select the jobs carefully by looking at both significance and repetitiveness.
3. They provide a high level of support at the time of on boarding. 
4. They create a network of support through leaders and colleagues of such persons with IDD by extensive orientation regarding IDD.
5. They maintain continuous contacts with the training institution, such as Kamayani.

Ginger Hotels

We at Kamayani are fortunate that our students were welcomed recently at The Ginger Hotel, Wakad, Pune.