People with moderate intellectual disabilities need considerable supports in school, at home, and in the community in order to fully participate. While their academic potential is limited, they can learn simple health and safety skills and to participate in simple activities. As adults, they may live with their parents, in a supportive group home, or even semi-independently with significant supportive services to help them, for example, manage their finances. As adults, they may work in a sheltered workshop. About 10% of persons with ID are likely to have moderate ID. People with Severe ID (IQ 20–34), accounting for 3.5% of persons with ID, or Profound ID (IQ 19 or below), accounting for 1.5% of persons with ID, need more intensive support and supervision for their entire lives. They may learn some ADLs, but an intellectual disability is considered severe or profound when individuals are unable to independently care for themselves without ongoing significant assistance from a caregiver throughout adulthood. Individuals with profound ID are completely dependent on others for all ADLs and to maintain their physical health and safety. They may be able to learn to participate in some of these activities to a limited degree. Co-morbidity
Autism and intellectual disability
Intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) share clinical characteristics which can result in confusion while diagnosing. Overlapping these two disorders, while common, can be detrimental to a persons well-being. Those with ASD that hold symptoms of ID may be grouped into a co-diagnosis in which they are receiving treatment for a disorder they do not have.
Some of these institutions provided a very basic level of education (such as differentiation between colors and basic word recognition and numeracy), but most continued to focus solely on the provision of basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter. Conditions in such institutions varied widely, but the support provided was generally non-individualized, with aberrant behavior and low levels of economic productivity regarded as a burden to society. Individuals of higher wealth were often able to afford higher degrees of care such as home care or private asylums. Heavy tranquilization and assembly-line methods of support were the norm, and the medical model of disability prevailed. Services were provided based on the relative ease to the provider, not based on the needs of the individual. A survey taken in 1891 in Cape Town, South Africa shows the distribution between different facilities. Out of 2046 persons surveyed, 1,281 were in private dwellings, 120 in jails, and 645 in asylums, with men representing nearly two-thirds of the number surveyed. In situations of scarcity of accommodation, preference was given to white men and Black men (whose insanity threatened white society by disrupting employment relations and the taboo sexual contact with white women).In the late 19th century, in response to Charles Darwins On the Origin of Species, Francis Galton proposed selective breeding of humans to reduce intellectual disability. Early in the 20th century, the eugenics movement became popular throughout the world.