Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
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leadership and vision. That vision should come from
people who themselves use and require services to
live in the community.
In low-income countries the experience of isolation in
the community is, in part, the result of lack of services
(or limited and poorly directed services delivered by
INGOs) but also a result of social and cultural attitudes
about people with disabilities generally. While there
is clearly a need to develop a
consistent and inclusive approach to
the delivery of supports, a lot can be
achieved through the development of
community programmes which raise
awareness of the rights of people with
disabilities and which demonstrate by
example the ways in which people
with intellectual disabilities can
contribute and participate in society.
‰ Communities fail to organize
systems to be inclusive (education,
health, transportation, political
processes, cultural and religious
groups, employment etc.).
The most central and important finding of this report
is the clear message from self-advocates and families
that no matter how successful we are in providing
choice and control to people with intellectual
disabilities in their lives and in providing services and
supports to them and their families, without a
fundamental rethinking about the way that our
communities are organized (education, labour
markets, health care, political processes, cultural and
religious groups etc.) we cannot hope to achieve real
inclusion in the community. We know that our
communities benefit from and are stronger as a result
of inclusive planning and approaches. While the
processes for making these changes in our
communities are multiple, there are some key