Survey on the participation of children with intellectual disabilities

Date: 1st September 2013
Category: Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Inclusion Europe and Eurochild are working together on "Hear our Voices", a project to make sure that children with intellectual disabilities can take part in schools and free time activities just like other children, and are looking for good examples of how we can help children with intellectual disabilities take part in society.

Inclusion Europe and Eurochild have started this project on the participation of children with intellectual disabilities with three national partners (from Spain, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria) and in collaboration with Lumos.

The project is underpinned by Article 12 of the UN CRC, which states that "States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child".

The website of the project www.childrights4all.eu will grow in the next two years and offer information and concrete tools to implement child participation in practice at schools or in child care services.

As the first part of the project, they are looking for evidence from law, policy documents and also projects on child participation involving children with intellectual disabilities in different areas and from all European countries to increase understanding of how children with intellectual disabilities can be supported to effectively and meaningfully participate. They are looking for promising practices to disseminate them and to build on our project activities further.

They have created an online survey to collect your experiences: click on 'Hear Our Voices' to share your experiences, your opinions and promising practices from your field.

Inclusion Europe and Eurochild would be really delighted to have you participating in the survey, to collect as much relevant experience as possible to support children to effectively and meaningfully participate. The survey will be accessible until 15th September 2013.