HIV Conference: Include People With Disabilities

Donors supporting HIV programs, policymakers, and service providers should ensure that the world’s 1 billion people with disabilities have equal access to HIV prevention and treatment, Human Rights Watch said today, in advance of the 19^th International AIDS Conference. The conference will begin on July 22, 2012, in Washington, DC.
“The world’s 1 billion people with disabilities are largely invisible when it comes to HIV prevention, education, treatment, and counseling,” said Shantha Rau Barriga, senior disability rights advocate and researcher at Human Rights Watch. “To ensure effective programs, people with disabilities need to be included, beginning with the design of HIV services all the way through to the evaluation phase.”