The lecture focuses on the transition of people with mental disabilities from institutional living to community living in light of the UN’s convention.

Johnson, K., Mino, G., and Hopkins, R.
This article reviews the involvement of self-advocacy groups with intellectual developmental disabilities in Ireland in research on important topics relating to their lives, and what the research meant to them.

Dr. Dana Roth – Director of Research and Evaluation Unit, Beit Issie Shapiro
Dr. Benjamin Hozmi – Academic Director, Beit Issie Shapiro
This article examines the quality of life of residents with intellectual developmental disabilities in an organization that provides them with housing, employment and leisure services, while participating in the investigation, focusing, adapting evaluation tools and formulating practical recommendations for improving their quality of life.

Shosh Kaminsky, Head of the Community and Knowledge Resource Development Division, Beit Issie Shapiro
Dana Sharir – social worker, Volunteer Coordinator, Beit Issie Shapiro
Michal Giladi – community social worker, Coordinator of Volunteers with Disabilities Project, Beit Issie Shapiro
The idea of social integration is one of  Beit Issie Shapiro’s fundamental values as the integration of people with disabilities in various social circles and activities within the community in which they live, including volunteering circuit.
This article presents a models of inclusion of  volunteers with special needs and describes the existing system work model  in Beit Issie Shapiro.

As the Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities was established, six hundred and fifty million people changed status, from “object of charity” to a status of people with rights, who demand their rights while maintaining that “nothing about us – without us”. Prof. Stein engages in a general discussion of the Convention in his lectures. Other points covered in the lecture are related developments around the world, the UN disability conference held in Geneva and how the Convention is applied and monitored in different countries by the Harvard Law School.

Following the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, Prof. Kanter from the Faculty of Law, Syracuse University, USA, states in her lecture, that the existing concept of community life must be abandoned in favor of the understanding that people with disabilities are entitled not only to live in a community, but to also choose how to live in it: at their own residence or in a house with other people.

People with disabilities are entitled, according to the international Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, to be active partners in decisions related to their lives.
Prof. Nelson-Brian’s lecture describes the origin and goals of “Supportive Leadership” program for people with disabilities and promotes this basic right.  

Stan Goldman’s lecture describes the activities and vision of the Weinberg Foundation, which supports “elective communities”, designed to allow people with disabilities to choose their place and form of residence. The lecture describes examples of the success of this approach in the US and in Israel.