Issues concerning impairment, disability and functionality have become, in recent decades, an important focus of discussion and conceptual elaboration, with the production of a body of knowledge that gives scientific legitimacy to a more positive and dignifying vision about the conditions of disability and impairment. The basic premise of this knowledge production is the assumption of reciprocity of the relations' individual/environment, as the basic unit of analysis, conceiving disability not as an intrinsic characteristic of the person, but as the result of the mismatch between the functionalities of the individual and the demands of the settings where persons are called to participate. Hence, in this article, we propose to examine the implications that such views had in the deconstruction of the construct of mental retardation and subsequent changes to the designation intellectual disability, by the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. To accomplish this purpose we discuss the evolution of the concept of mental retardation, exploring the conceptual territory that established it and the one that contributes to its deconstruction. Finally, the theoretical standpoint of this paper aims to demonstrate the interdependence between modes of thinking and modes of action that, in the case of Special Education, is embodied in the gradual acceptance of the inclusion paradigm.
Special Education; Intellectual Disability; Functioning
