Law ‘must recognise’ intellectually disabled

PERSONS with an intellectual disability are often educated and articulate and want to live independently and the legal community needs to recognise that and engage with them, the head of Down Syndrome Ireland (DSI) said yesterday.

DSI chief executive Pat Clarke said their organisation is preparing an education and awareness programme directed at the legal profession outlining why they should not be afraid to engage with those who have an intellectual disability.

Mr Clarke’s comments come in the wake of a report in yesterday’s Irish Examiner in which a mother of a man with Down Syndrome expressed her horror at her son being described in court as “a person of unsound mind”.