European League of Stuttering Associations

ELSA, Zülpicher Str. 58 D-50674 Köln, Germany
Tel. +49 221 139 1106    fax + 49 221 139 1370
e-mail elsa@bvss.de
ELSA, 31 Grosvenor Road, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE2 2RL, Great Britain
Tel. +44 191 281 8003    fax+44 191 281 8003
e-mail elsa.europe@totalise.co.uk

NewsNotes Archive

JULY 2003

Includes the EYDP Prize Competition – see below for details!!

In this issue:

  • Welcome
  • The European Year of People with Disabilities (EYDP) 2003
  • Update: The EYDP bus tour in the UK, Ireland and Denmark
  • The 4th ELSA Youth Meeting – A few places left!
  • Second Call – ELSA Seminar – Stuttering Awareness in Strasbourg
  • 2004 World Congress for People who Stutter: All details now available
  • Future events: UK, Germany, Nordic Countries
  • News in Brief:
  • a. ELSA and European Disability Politics – Recent Developments
  • b. Stuttering self-help in Greece – a new start?
  • Miscellaneous

Welcome

This is the fourth ELSA electronic newsletter, we would like to welcome all our new subscribers and our existing subscribers and we hope you will find it of interest. For our first time readers in particular coming next is some basic information on the purpose of our newsletter.

The European Year of People with Disabilities (EYDP) 2003

The newsletter has been funded by the European Commission as part of the European Year of People with Disabilities 2003. Funding was granted to five European disability organisations representing the deaf, blind, autism, stuttering and intellectual disability. This was good news for pws and we at ELSA feel is an endorsement of all the good work carried out by many people in the stuttering field. The European Year is organised by the European Commission in collaboration with the European Disability Forum (EDF). The EDF is a European umbrella organisation representing more than 37 million disabled people in Europe. ELSA is a founding member of the EDF.

Disabled people are people with equal rights. Disabled people are workers, consumers, tax payers, politicians, students, neighbours, family and friends. But disabled people are not treated that way.

A recent European survey shows there is a serious lack of understanding of what disability means and how many people it affects. Disabled people should be treated as equal citizens who have the power to speak for themselves, not as objects of pity or charity. Disabled people are often excluded from society through poor education and unemployment, leading to poverty.

2003 is an opportunity to change the future for disabled people. And a good future for disabled people means a good future for all people.

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