Intersectional Perspectives on the Lived Experiences of People with Intellectual Disabilities Across the Lifespan

Intersectionality is a concept that provides a critical framework for understanding how the interaction between multiple identities, such as age, gender, race, culture, sexuality, socioeconomic status, disability, geographical location, and others, shapes an individual’s lived experiences. People with intellectual disabilities often face overlapping layers of marginalization, stigma, and discrimination throughout their lives. While these disadvantages have been explored in various research fields, intellectual disability is rarely examined through an intersectional lens. Too often, other aspects of identity are overshadowed by the intellectual disability itself.

This Research Topic seeks to address this gap by bringing together research and scholarly contributions that critically examine how the intersection of multiple identities influences the lives of people with intellectual disabilities across the lifespan. The editors invite papers that explore the complex realities faced by people with intellectual disabilities in diverse social, cultural, and economic contexts. Contributions from around the world are welcome (high-, middle-, and low-income contexts globally), particularly those that provide insights into current challenges and propose future directions for policies and interventions that consider intersecting identities. We invite interdisciplinary contributions that highlight gaps and omissions in knowledge and/or describe and promote holistic, inclusive approaches to improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities.

This Research Topic is specifically focused on people with intellectual disabilities. We are not considering papers addressing issues related to neurodiversity. We welcome empirical, theoretical, and policy-focused manuscripts on themes including, but not limited to:

• cultural, contextual, and structural factors: the influence of culture, location (rural/urban), race, ethnicity, and systemic barriers on the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities
• identity and intersectionality: how gender, sexuality, age, and intersecting identities shape self-identity, stigma, and marginalization
• policy, advocacy, and rights-based approaches: the application and gaps of intersectional perspectives in policies, legal frameworks, advocacy, and rights-based improvements for people with intellectual disabilities
• inclusive practices and support models: examples of intersectionality-informed inclusive services, mainstreaming, and models of independent living or support
• research methodologies: approaches to research that incorporate an intersectional lens.

This article collection is among the first to apply an intersectional framework to the study of intellectual disability. By examining how multiple identity markers intersect to shape experiences of marginalization and inequality experienced by people with intellectual disabilities, the collection will provide a critical platform for scholarship that informs policy, practice, advocacy, and future research.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: intellectual disability, global, intersectionality, identities, stigma, marginalization

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.