Communications gaps

Communications gaps

UNAIDS recently co-sponsored a panel discussion on HIV/AIDS and disability in New York, sandwiched between World AIDS Day and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities - commemorative events that are usually kept separate, UNAIDS's Timpo said.

Disability will receive an even higher profile at the International AIDS Society conference in Washington D.C. in 2012, predicted Steve Estey, chair of the International Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.

The acceleration of inclusion has been "quite astonishing" since 2006, noted Estey, when "we were nowhere".

At the panel discussion in New York, though, questions circled around the communication gaps that have existed between the two communities for years, and why it has taken UN agencies so long to take action.

Eric Sawyer, civil society adviser to UNAIDS, said it was partly a function of working to scale-up basic services first.

"The UN system has been struggling just to get prevention messaging and treatment access available and accessible around the world," Sawyer said. "Once you are able to ensure people have that access, then you are able to increase the level of services. But of course we are working to ensure that the disabled have equal access and that is increasingly finding a place in people's consciousness."