December 8, 2011

World Report on Disability - World Health Organization symposium

On 5-6 December I attended the a symposium hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and The University of Sydney titled: World Report on Disability: Implications for Asia and the Pacific.

Alana Officer, the executive editor of the World Report on Disability summarized the 9 major "cross cutting recommendations" of the report as:
  1. "Enable access to all mainstream policies, systems and services
  2. Invest in specific programmes and services for persons with disabilities
  3. Adopt a national disability strategy and plan of action
  4. Involve people with disabilities
  5. Improve human resource capacity
  6. Provide adequate funding and improve affordability
  7. Increase public awareness and understanding of disability
  8. Improve disability data collection
  9. Strengthen and support research on disability"
My colleagues and I presented the following paper that specifically related to recommendations 8 and 9:
  • McLeod, S., Harrison, L. J., McCormack, J. & McAllister, L. (2011, December). Prevalence, risk, impact, and unmet need of children with speech and language impairment in Australia
More information about the symposium is here
More information about the World Report on Disability is here
Video presentations from the symposium are here
Powerpoint presentations from the symposium are here


Prof Sally Hartley, Sharynne, Prof Lindy McAllister