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> Posted by Joshua Goldstein

On May 9-10, I represented the Center for Financial Inclusion and Accion at the State Department’s “U.S. Leadership Conference for International Disability Rights.”  It was an extraordinary couple of days spent in the company of leaders of disability organizations from around the world, interested NGOs, like the CFI, and our State Department hosts.

People with disabilities constitute the largest minority in the world, an estimated 15 percent of humanity, (and a minority that any of us could find ourselves part of at any time)—yet they have not been given the attention they deserve by politicians and policy makers.  But that may be changing now, thanks, in part, to this high level conference.  Topics discussed ran the gamut from disability rights inclusion in health and education to disability rights in post conflict and crisis situations and accessible polling places. Rights abuses like infanticide or sterilization of people with disabilities were put in the spotlight. Read the rest of this entry »