Although public perceptions towards learning disability are improving, learning-disabled people are still excluded from society, facing discrimination and a lack of choice in every aspect of their lives. These are the disturbing findings of a new survey by Mencap.

The survey, published as part of National Learning Disability Week, found that:

• 87% of the public believe that people with a learning disability are employable. In reality, only 7% have jobs.
• 94% of the public thought that people with a learning disability should be treated with equal priority when receiving medical treatment. In fact only 3% of women with a learning disability receive cervical screening, and many people with Down?s Syndrome have been denied the opportunity for heart surgery.
• 70% of the public said they knew someone with a learning disability. But nine out of ten learning-disabled people experienced bullying last year.

?The gap between what people say and what they do suggests that agreeing in principle to positive action costs nothing. Put to the test we know that society's behaviour towards people with learning difficulties produces a much more disturbing picture."

Richard Kramer, Mencap?s Head of Campaigns commented: ?The days of ?does he take sugar? may be gone, but there is still a long way to go before people with a learning disability are fully included in our society.

?Slowly changing attitudes and the publication of the first White Paper in thirty years has helped open the door that little bit further, but there are still over a million people who are being left outside.?

Posted: July 20, 2001

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