Brava to your friend!

I, personally, am not severly disabled, but being moderately so, I've met those who are (whenever I attend events or facilities aimed at serving the disabled, I meet folks with a wide range of abilities).

Unfortunately, folks with communication diffeculties are often not treated as "complete" people; because they can't make their feelings and observations known, they're often treated like they don't have any. That the staff who work these people can't tell your friend the kinds of things they need strikes me as sad evidence of this.

Therefore, arts and crafts are doubly, maybe even triply, important. Those who have trouble communicating verbally can communicate in other ways and make their inner lives known, perhaps for the first time. Since I don't know the range of physical abilities of these folks, I can't give any advice on the technical side.

But I'll just say this: The most important thing is Attitude. Help these folks work with the materials and media as independently as they can, and then give them the room to express themselves freely -- just as if you were teaching a "regular" arts & and crafts class -- don't let the label "severely disabled" throw you. So, even though some of them may have the mental capacity of a 2 year old, it shouldn't really matter... two year olds are still capable of creating their own art.

And regarding the label of "mentally disablied": I have personally seen some very bright people given that label, if not by the medical professionals, then by the lay people who work with them, because of the person's diffeculty with communication (where a physical diffeculty in the words out is confused with an inability to understand the words). And if that label is given in childhood, then it can be a self-fulfilling prophacy -- I, myself, would have been labeled "retarded" when I was 2, if my mother hadn't refused to be intimidated by the hospital psychologist.

So I repeat:

Brava to your friend!