Lack of data (as important as it is) isn’t the main problem. Lack of action is. I was invited to speak at European Parliament’s Employment Committee workshop on independent living (and deinstitutionalisation) in December 2025. Didn’t say anything new I’m afraid. ❗️800,000+ people with intellectual disabilities in institutions❗️Many adults living with their families and relying […]
No other sentence brings revealing facial expressions as reliably as this one. – Oh sure, “support person”. (Meaning: You’ll be just dictating him what to say.)– You? A support person? (Meaning: How can a director be a support person?) Sometimes (more often than you’d think) my job is supporting Soufiane El Amrani in his public […]
Contribution at disability conference of Denmark presidency of the Council of the EU, Copenhagen, October 2025. “Being included is also a sense of belonging and having someone you can trust,” I said during my panel contribution. It was very nice to be quoted on this by minister Sophie Hæstorp Andersen in her closing speech. LinkedIn […]
Lecture at West University of Timisoara for social work and psychology students, October 2025. How do you build inclusion? Through support to a person to have a place to live, things to do and people to see.In other words through social roles and relationships. But most people in institutions don’t have anything resembling a ‘normal’ […]
Series of articles which focus on some statistic and other numbers describing situation of people with intellectual disabilities and families. Started in February 2024. Newest first. 70 This year, we are joining Enable Scotland in celebrating 70 years of their work for an equal society where everyone has the right to live, work and participate […]
There are over 100 million people with disabilities in Europe. That’s a population larger than the largest of EU member states. But how many people with disabilities do you know who sit on the boards of associations, who are in the decision-making roles in these organisations? The Boardroom magazine invited me to write about this, […]
Every person leaving an institution needs support in establishing a new life, and in overcoming the harm and trauma caused by institutionalisation. Presentation of principles and some examples of supporting people with intellectual disabilities to live independently and to be included. With particular focus on support for people leaving “care” institutions. I made this presentation […]
Many politicians, public authorities, and disability service providers act as if they don’t know what the law says about inclusion of people with disabilities.As if they never heard of good disability support. They keep forcing people into “care” institutions, even building new ones.They delay the necessary de-segregation with talk about “need for evidence”, or about […]
It is not acceptable for funders to continue paying for segregation of people with intellectual disabilities. All funders need to respect the rights of people with disabilities.They need to listen to what people with disabilities are saying about how the money should be used. Funders are, for example: Countries (including national, regional, local public budgets); […]
Gerard Quinn, the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities, published a report on transformation of services for people with disabilities. I tried to summarise. (Written for Inclusion Europe.) The report calls for support services to implement these changes: Services based on personhood, focused on supporting personal development and inclusion in the community. Policy […]
