The SIRG-QoL includes two sub-groups: person-centered quality of life, and family-centered quality of life. The officers and members at large reflect these two groups well.
Mission Statement
The mission of the SIRG-QoL is to further work that enhances the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and their families through research and its application.
The SIRG-QoL goals are to:
- hold an annual meeting to share information, and participate in other IASSIDD conferences and meetings
- participate in collaborative activities such as conferences and publications
- carry out collaborative projects and research
- disseminate research and its application within IASSIDD and to the wider community through text, journal articles, special issues, and allied means
- collaborate on ways to effect change at the societal level
Bylaws
The bylaws of the Quality of Life SIRG are contained within the IASSIDD bylaws at www.iassidd.org/content/bylaws
Documents and Publications
Annotated Bibliography 2025: Quality of Life in Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities: Annotated Bibliography (1986-2024)
Preethy S. Samuel, Anushya Pachathu, Nawal Elsabagh, Elizabeth McIntyre, Shehani Alles, Rayhauneh Molaei, Heidi Pickford, Kelly Clarkson, Jacqueline Jaboro, Lauren Manzo, Taslima Miah, Michaela Sexton, and Marcella Yaldo.
Quality of Life SIRG Consensus Document 2000
Ivan Brown, Roy I. Brown, Robert A. Cummins, David Felce, Leena Matikka, Kenneth Keith, Trevor Parmenter, and Robert L. Schalock
QOL Instruments
The following is a list of validated QOL instruments for measuring Individual QOL and Family QOL, with the actual instruments either hosted by the QOL SIRG or available at the source, for researchers and practitioners to use. A set of instruments measuring programme-centric QOL (how a programme or service affects the clients or patients in various domains of QOL) and programme effectiveness is also listed but this set of instruments is licensed and needs to be purchased.
If you wish to suggest an instrument to be hosted here, please contact us at olgamc1@blanquerna.url.edu.
International Family Quality of Life Survey online
Click here for a preview. To obtain a password and ID, and to start collecting data, please contact the site administrator, Ted Myerscough tross@vex.net
Download Intellectual disability and non-disability (control group) versions, translations in 16 languages, manual, SPSS data file, and information about projects.
Beach Center Family Quality of Life Survey online
Click here for a preview. To obtain a password and ID, and to start collecting data, please contact the site administrator, Ted Myerscough tross@vex.net
Future Events
● Pre-congress workshop at the 5th Asia- Pacific Congress (Singapore, 14-17 October 2025)
Past Events
Roundtables and Annual General Meetings:
- 2025 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD QOL SIRG 1st Conference. Lisbon, Portugal.
- 2025 Research Roundtable. Online, April 2.
- 2024 Annual General Meeting. Online, June 14.
- 2024 Research Roundtable. Online, March 1.
- 2023 Online Webinar. January 17.
- 2023 Roundtable and Consensus Building. Milan, Italy. May.
- 2022 Lecture at Virtual Conference. Online.
- 2021 Annual General Meeting. Online.
- 2019 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD World Congress. Glasgow, Scotland. August.
- 2018 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD Europe Region Congress. Athens, Greece. July.
- 2017 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD Asia-Pacific Congress. Bangkok, Thailand. November 13-16.
- 2016 Research Roundtable & Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with CPP SIRG and Academy. Zagreb, Croatia. October 20-21.
- 2016 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD World Congress. Melbourne, Australia. August 15.
- 2015 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with a non-IASSIDD international conference. Tel Aviv, Israel. July 7.
- 2014 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD Europe Region Congress. Vienna, Austria. July 14-17.
- 2013 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with Disability Studies International Conference. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. October 30 – November 2.
- 2012 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD World Congress. Halifax, Canada. July 9-14.
- 2011 Annual General Meeting & 2-Day Research Roundtable + 1-Day workshops for local service providers. Mexico City, Mexico. November 9-10.
- 2010 Annual General Meeting held in conjunction with IASSIDD Europe Region Congress. Rome, Italy. October 20-22.
Executive committee
Chair & Treasurer
Ivan Brown ivan.brown@live.ca
Past co-chairs
Dana Roth Danar@beitissie.org.il
Marco Lombardi marco.lombardi@hogent.be
Secretary
Olga Múries-Cantán olgamc1@blanquerna.url.edu
Executive members
Courtney Bishop courtney.bishop@durhamcollege.ca
Remco Mostert remco.mostert@hogent.be
Yang Ting Ang yangting.ang@minds.org.sg
Mian Wang miwang@ucsb.edu
Preethy Samuel preethy@wayne.edu
Former chairs
Robert Schalock rschalock@ultraplix.com
Roy Brown royibrown@shaw.ca
Alice Schippers alice.schippers@tiscali.nl
Keith McVilly keith.mcvilly@unimelb.edu.au
Meaghan Edwards meaghan.edwards@ucalgary.ca
Members at large
Rhonda Faragher rhonda.faragher@acu.edu.au
Laura Gomez gomezlaura@uniovi.es
Val Bradley vbradley@hsri.org
Barry Isaacs barry.isaacs@surreyplace.on.ca
Luigi Croce luigi.croce57@libero.it
Heather Aldersey hma@queensu.ca
Meet the members of the Executive Committee
Ivan Brown, PhD. Chair and Treasurer of the QOL SIRG
Ivan lives in Toronto, Canada, and, although semi-retired, teaches Disability Studies in the graduate department at Brock University. Between 1990 and 2020, he had very broad experience working in individual and family quality of life, including authoring several measures, carrying out numerous research projects, and providing education and training. He has published widely in the field of IDD on various topics, but especially on quality of life. As the current SIRG Chair, Ivan hopes to engage as many SIRG members as possible in a very productive program of activities. Outside IASSIDD, Ivan’s hobbies include gardening and writing humorous stories which he published regularly on his website bkbooksandcreatives.ca
Podcast: “Culture, Disability & Quality of Life”
Recently, the QOL SIRG have started a podcast entitled “Culture, Disability and Quality of Life” 🎙. Our goal with this podcast is to interactively showcase what it is like to live with a disability in different regions of the world, focusing on quality of life. 🌍 IASSIDD is an international association committed to diversity and inclusion. Therefore, we interview people from around the world in their preferred language, with English subtitles.
In the first episode, entitled “Academia, Disability and Quality of Life”, Olga Múries, PhD, lecturer of Psychology and Education at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and associate professor at the University of Barcelona, talks with Chilean sociologist Andrea Sepúlveda Ortega. With over 20 years of experience in research and consulting on diversity and inclusion, Dr. Sepúlveda shares her insights on the barriers in academia for people with disabilities and how these affect their quality of life. She is a recent graduate PhD at FPCEE Blanquerna (URL), focusing on studies related to university students with disabilities, quality of life, and social inclusion. You can watch it here.
Would you like to participate in an episode? Do you know someone who might be interested in joining and sharing their experience? Don’t hesitate to contact us at olgamc1@blanquerna.url.edu!
Newsletters
The QOL SIRG is very pleased to bring you a couple of Newsletters a year to keep you updated about activities from the SIRG and quality of life researchers. Due to the tremendous interest in quality of life around the world, we would like to spread the word from this small initiative, which is always open to suggestions and new related content.
Please, find via the following link, the Newsletters we have published so far.
