Abstract
To a great extent, people with intellectual disabilities are a group of disabled people under a threat of social exclusion, segregation and marginalisation. Their participation in social affairs is inhibited for various reasons, as such their needs have often been saturated in an inadequate institutionalised environment rather than their innate community-based environment.
At a theoretical level, the paper discusses the current issue of deinstitutionalisation and the concept of quality of life in people with intellectual disabilities which are closely related to the deinstitutionalisation process. This is perceived as a process which replaces the segregating residential forms (institutional types) that contradict the current principles of inclusion and goals of social politics in the developed democratic states.
This article also outlines a historical line of the deinstitutionalisation progress, defines the concept of the quality of life, and discusses the particular domains within the concept.