Graphic support resources for workers with intellectual disability engaged in office tasks: a comparison with verbal instructions from a work mate

Background: Research into workplace adjustments for people with disabilities is a fundamental challenge of supported employment. The aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of several graphic resources as natural support for workers with intellectual disability.
Methods: Two case studies were conducted to assess the performance of five workers engaged in office tasks, with three different support conditions.
Results: Results reveal a 20% increase in quality of performance of the tasks undertaken with graphic support as compared to support in which the participants received verbal instructions (VIs) from a work mate; and between 25 and 30% as compared to a control condition which included no help of any kind.
Conclusions: These findings are consistent with previous studies which support the possibility of generating, at low cost, iconic materials (with maps or simple graphics), which progressively facilitate workers’ autonomy, without dependence or help from the job trainer. We observed that the worst performance is in the support condition with VIs, this shows the limitations of this type of natural support, which is provided on demand by work mates without specialist knowledge of work support.