In 2016-2017, a living conditions survey was conducted among people with intellectual disabilities in Sami areas in Norway. The aim of this article is to discuss methodological aspects of carrying out living conditions studies where people with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities answer the questions themselves. What kinds of methodological challenges related to the reliability and validity of the study arise? How do we cope with these challenges? How can they affect the quality of the study? The challenge, among other things, is whether we measure what we want to measure. We argue it is possible to let people with intellectual disabilities answer surveys if we carefully consider methodological and research ethical issues throughout the entire research process. To let people with intellectual disabilities answer for themselves will strengthen the quality of the research. At the same time, we must recognise the limitations.

This article illuminates the work inclusion policies and strategies and the situation today when it comes to including people with intellectual disabilities in workplaces in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The article draws on official documents, previous research, and statistics. We discuss challenges regarding the current situation in the light of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and a social relational understanding of disability. The discrepancy between the current situation when it comes to work inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities in these three Nordic countries, and the perspective of human rights and work inclusion are of special interest as these have increasingly provided the framework for policies in relation to the participation of people with disabilities in the labour market. Approaches in Nordic labour market policies and practices must change to protect and promote the rights of people with intellectual disabilities at work.

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