The global prioritisation of the inclusion of learners with disabilities, and of vulnerable young people’s resilience, means that
teachers worldwide require insight into how best to facilitate the resilience of adolescents made vulnerable by intellectual
disability (ID). To provide such insight, we conducted a secondary data analysis of a multiple case study of resilient
adolescents with ID attending special schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. The visual and narrative data that inform
this case study were generated by resilient adolescents with ID (n = 24), and their teachers (n = 18). Four school-related
themes emerge from their accounts of resilience-supporting factors associated with their schools for the physically and
severely intellectually disabled (SPSID). From these, we distill three uncomplicated actions mainstream school ecologies can
execute in order to enable the resilience of included adolescents with ID. Their simplicity and ordinariness potentiate
universally useful ways for mainstream teachers to champion the resilience of included adolescents with ID.

doi: 10.15700/saje.v36n2a1154