10 June 2011 -- In New York this week, the World Health Organization, together with the World Bank, launched the first ever World report on disability.
RI attended the launch and is encouraged by the information in the report and its potential to help guide the disabillity community, its partners and other stakeholders, in advancing the rights and inclusion of persons with disabilities worldwide.
One major outcome of the report is a new figure that estimates the number of people with disabilities worldwide to be over 1 billion. This new global estimate will help bring to light the many people with disabilites who have remained invisible and will highlight the need to adress the barriers and inequality that persons with disabilities are faced with. The new information in this report will help prevent governments and other key stakeholders from continuing to ignore or underestimate the needs of persons with disabilities, and will show that persons with disabilities make up too large of a minority to be neglected.
