Overview
The project, The Proportion of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in State Mental Institutions (2013-2023),
was inspired by my younger brother. Many of my passion projects as a designer have revolved around Intellectual and Developmental Disability (IDD), with a particular interest in data visualization. However, in an ever-growing age of digital oversaturation and information overload, creating accessible, intriguing, and informative data visualizations is harder than ever.
Exploring ways to depart from the more traditional digital representations of data, I was eager to experiment with physical mediums. A study out of Cornell University looking at creating accessible data visualizations specific to the IDD community emphasises the benefit of physicality in their results, noting an improved outcome when information is communicated through familiar objects.
This particular visualization is constructed entirely out of legos, an homage to my brother’s fixation of choice, and a familiar medium to many in the IDD community. Taking advantage of 3-dimensional space, the display is an amalgamation of a classic bar chart, heatmap, and topographic map, showing the proportion of individuals with IDD who were institutionalized in each state between 2013 and 2023.
There are 561 total data points across 51 states (including the national average) and 11 years, cleanly and accessibly organized, differentiated by both height and color. The data shows a significant trending decrease in institutionalization across the country as the years progress. Over a third of the country’s states have done away with government institutions entirely by 2023, and have prioritized Medicaid-funded facilities that focus far more on accommodative support, rather than institutional suppression.
However, not all of the concerning outliers may be as negative as they seem. States like Kansas and Mississippi (the two highest institutionalization rates) lack the community resources and programs to meet the care demand for individuals with IDD, resulting in a higher reliance on large state institutions. While still undesirable by comparison, these states have increased funding allocation to aid in the improvement of conditions and structure of their congregate facilities to suppliment a more direct deinstitutionalization.
The Proportion of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in State Mental Institutions (2013-2023) was exhibited at Michigan State University’s Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum in April, 2026, and was awarded 2nd place in the creative arts category. The project is currently on display at MSU’s Kresge Art Center.