EDITORIAL Intellectual disability and poverty: Introduction to the special section ERIC EMERSON 1 & SUSAN PARISH 2 1 Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University, UK, and 2 Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, USA Decades of research have carefully documented the association between intellectual disability and pov- erty (Emerson, 2007; Farber, 1968; Fujiura, 1998; Heber, 1970). People with less severe intellectual disabilities, and the families that support them, are much more likely to be located in lower socio- economic positions and to experience poverty (Chapman, Scott, & Stanton-Chapman, 2008; Durkin, 2002; Emerson, 2007; Fujiura, 1998; Heber, 1970; Leonard & Wen, 2002; Murphy, Boyle, Schendel, Decoufle ´, & Yeargin-Allsopp, 1988; Roeleveld, Zielhuis, & Gabreels, 1997). Recent research has also suggested that people with more severe intellectual disabilities may also be at greater risk of experiencing poverty, although the strength of the association is clearly far weaker (Chapman et al., 2008; Emerson, in press). Why are these associations important to research- ers concerned with understanding the life experi- ences of people with intellectual disabilities? The answer to this (admittedly rhetorical) question is that we have known for centuries that exposure to poverty is associated with poorer health and restricted life opportunities (Davey Smith, Dorling, & Shaw, 2001). More recently, we have come to learn much more about the role of exposure to poverty (and its associated adversities) in childhood on health and well-being across the life course, the biological processes through which this experience gets ‘‘under the skin,’’ and the fundamental importance of these ‘‘social determinants’’ to understanding the inequi- table distribution of health and social opportunities within populations (Brooks-Gunn & Duncan, 1997; Grantham-McGregor et al., 2007; Hertzman & Boyce, 2010; Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006; Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009; World Health Organiza- tion, 2008). However, despite the wealth of evidence cited above, it is clear that the intellectual disability research community has, with a few notable excep- tions, largely disregarded the potential significance of poverty to our understanding of the life experiences of people with intellectual disabilities (Emerson, Graham, & Hatton, 2006). This special section of the Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability is an attempt to rectify this situation. In it, researchers consider three distinct but interrelated issues in an attempt to address this gap in the intellectual disability field. Glenn Fujiura, Violet Rutkowski-Kmitta, and Randall Owen first examine current surveillance systems and their utility for monitoring the status and well-being of people with intellectual disability. They explore how existing surveillance systems permit, or do not permit, an understand- ing of the needs of the population with intellectual disability in a mix of high-, middle-, and low- income countries that in turn have disparate political, social welfare, and health care delivery systems. While Fujiura and his colleagues found significant disparities in national capacities to evaluate the status of people with intellectual disability, they note that even in the most devel- oped systems, the capacity gaps are alarming. Lacking valid and reliable mechanisms to evaluate and monitor the well-being of people with intellec- tual disability, and how such well-being changes over time, researchers cannot inform effective or efficient policy making that supports the needs of these most vulnerable citizens. Correspondence: Eric Emerson, Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YT, UK. E-mail: eric.emerson@lancaster.ac.uk Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, December 2010; 35(4): 221–223 ISSN 1366-8250 print/ISSN 1469-9532 online ª 2010 Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability, Inc. DOI: 10.3109/13668250.2010.525869