Feature Issue on Loneliness and People with Intellectual, Developmental, and Other Disabilities

As our cover suggests, loneliness has plenty of company these days.

Pervasive social isolation and loneliness threatens all of us, and just having a disability, particularly an intellectual and/or developmental disability (IDD), is a critical risk factor. Worse, people with disabilities often live in financial distress, lack appropriate support staff, or have other indicators of loneliness, and these are associated with costly physical and mental health outcomes.

This issue explores the latest research on loneliness and shares deeply personal stories and poetry written by people living with intellectual, developmental, and other disabilities. Be sure to check out Katherine McLaughlin’s clear-language primer on making and keeping friends, articles about the role technology plays in loneliness, and thoughtful discussions about how the experience of loneliness affects adults, young and old. The issue highlights programs tackling loneliness head-on, only to discover they were building disability advocacy at the same time. Others, including the Rainbow Support Group and CapeCodCAN, began as affinity or artistic groups and found a side benefit in social belonging.

Describing art’s possibilities in a 2023 documentary, television producer David Milch landed on that elusive, deeper connection that can fill the void so many of us experience in our lives. “For just an instant, you feel whole,” Milch said. “For just an instant, you feel part of things, and there’s a wave that comes over you, and you think, I’m home. I have a place in the world.”

Whether through art, identity, friendship, or simply a determination to create community, we hope this issue inspires you to find such a place.