Life Span and Disability XX, 2 (2017), 209-225 209 Attitudes towards the leisure of people with Intellectual Disabilities Juan S. Fernández-Prados 1 , Isabel Guirao-Piñeyro 2 & María J. González-Moreno 3 Abstract The primary objective of this article is to evaluate the reality of public opinion and attitudes towards the world of disability in general and the leisure time of people with intellectual disabilities specifically. This study emerges in the context of a strategic plan by the “Asociación A Toda Vela”, a plan intended to improve the quality of life of young people with intellectual disabilities by participating in leisure activities. The most notable conclusions of this study determine that the social relationships of people within the world of disabilities are reduced to a narrow circle of people who are “close” and a socially distant majority that comprises an authentic social barrier to full inclusion. Conversely, a theoretical- practical divergence was also observed, i.e., although belief in the right to leisure for people with intellectual disabilities has a broad consensus, respondents express difficulties in acting on such attitudes in practice. Keywords: Attitudes; Inclusive leisure; Intellectual Disabilities; Leisure; Public opinion; Rights. 1 Department of Sociology and CEMyRI, University of Almería. E-mail: jsprados@ual.es . 2 Management of “A Toda Vela” Association, Almería. E-mail: isabel@atodavela.org . 3 Department of Sociology, University of Almería. E-mail: mgm302@ual.es . Correspondence to: Juan S. Fernández-Prados, Department of Sociology and CEMyRI, University of Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain. Fax: +34 950 015340; E-Mail: jsprados@ual.es . Received: May 7, 2017; Revised: December 5, 2017; Accepted: December 10, 2017 © 2017 Associazione Oasi Maria SS. - IRCCS