Promoting inclusion at the United Nations

For a second year, our board member Robert Strike is off to New York to talk at the United Nations about making the world a more inclusive place for people with an intellectual disability.

Robert will be attending the eleventh session of the Conference of States Parties (COSP) to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and will be joined by our Quality and Inclusion Manager Rachel Spencer and Information and Inclusion Coordinator Kylee Roberts.

UPDATE: Watch a video of Robert presenting at the UN

The theme of this year’s COSP is “Leaving no one behind through the full implementation of the CRPD”.

Robert will be leading a panel to talk about the benefits of including people with intellectual disability. He hopes to influence delegates, government bodies, advocacy groups and disability organisations to start thinking more about how to better include people with intellectual disability.

“Organisations need to use Easy Read to make things more accessible for people with an intellectual disability,” Robert says.

“Using pictures with the text makes things easier for me to understand.”

Promoting the use of Easy Read is a passion of Robert’s. Easy Read uses plain English, large fonts and images to help people with learning difficulties understand.

Robert will be joined by fellow disability advocates Robert Martin, David King, Jayne Akinyi and Tanya Brown, who will offer their diverse experiences and perspectives on disability rights around the world.

People with intellectual disability are often the most excluded in the community, even within the disability advocacy and rights movement.

The workshop – which will be chaired by Sue Swenson, President-Elect of Inclusion International – will explore the theme of leaving no one behind in implementing the CRPD.

Robert will also talk at the Civil Society Forum about why it is so important to translate documents into Easy Read.

Robert’s personal ‘roadie’ Kylee will support him during the trip. She will look after his emotional wellbeing, help get him to and from New York, and help prepare his speeches to make sure he gets his message across.

“It’s about making the world more accessible for people with intellectual disability,” Kylee says.

“It’s the first time that people with intellectual disability have run their own side event. It’s an amazing achievement.”

Follow Robert’s journey on Facebook and Twitter from 11 to 14 June.