Facing Obstacles to Solve Them
“I am here to learn how I can make a difference,” shared Aung San Suu Kyi who offered the keynote address of the Summit.
“Imposing assistance on people with intellectual disabilities is not the correct approach. It is they who really know their own needs and who are best placed to shape their own futures. They should be given the opportunity to participate in decision-making and to be active in their communities.”
The Summit discussed the obstacles faced by people with intellectual disabilities. In every community around the world, people with intellectual disabilities and their families face stigma and stereotype that results in low expectations for what they can accomplish and apathy and ignorance that limits their access to health care, education, housing, and employment.
They also experience a lack of protection under the law that denies them their humanity, robs them of their dignity, subjects them to poverty and abuse, and threatens their freedom to participate as full and equal members of society.