IASSID are very pleased to announce that the next IASSID World Congress will be held in Cape Town, South Africa. For information about all the wonderful sights around Cape Town go to the tourist office website at www.tourismcapetown.co.za

The World Congress venue is CTICC, the Cape Town International Conference Centre, a beautiful modern conference centre. In order to see the venue go to www.cticc.co.za for a virtual tour.

The conference management will be conducted by the University of Cape Town conference management centre. The conference management centre website is at www.uct-cmc.co.za . The Local Organising Committee includes four distinguished South African members of IASSID: John Cruickshank, Jennifer Cartwright, Jennifer Kromberg and Chris Molteno.

David Felce (IASSID President) and Glynis Murphy (IASSID President-Elect) visited Cape Town at the end of last August 2006. The visit was timed to be on the same dates as the conference will be, so as to check on the weather at that time of year (it was good, mostly sunny).

Posters and postcards advertising the conference have been sent out to IASSID council members (please let Glynis Murphy - email [email protected] - know if you would like more of either of these). A number of journals have also advertised the conference for us and more adverts will be rolling out over the next year.

The Congress Programme will be structured much as it has been in previous years, with plenary speakers, parallel sessions for symposia and papers, and posters. To see the draft Congress Programme and plenary speakers scroll further down this page.

The first announcement is already out and is being emailed to IASSID members. The booking form will be ready in June 2007. Abstracts may be submitted from September 1st 2007 and the closing date for abstracts will be the end of December 2007.

IASSID is funding some research into intellectual disabilities in Africa. It has pledged $30,000 to support research projects. To read more about the research fund and the research projects recommended for scroll down to links below.

Draft Congress Programme

The timetable during the conference will be like that for previous World Congresses, with plenary speakers, parallel sessions for papers, and plenty of posters.

The themes for the conference will include: ageing and lifespan; biological and biobehavioural issues; challenging behaviour; cognition and communication; education; employment; empowerment, rights and ethics; families and parenting; mental health; physical health; populations, policy and service systems; profound and multiple disability; quality of life.

Plenary speakers are being finalised now and will include a mixture of speakers from the African region and from elsewhere. Plenary speakers who have already agreed are:
" Dr Erna Alant from South Africa, on communication
" Prof Eric Emerson, from UK, on poverty and intellectual disabilities
" Prof Chris Molteno, from South Africa, on foetal alcohol syndrome
" Dr Frank Njenga, from Kenya, on autism in Africa
" Prof Vianne Timmons, from Canada, on inclusive education
" Dr Carla Vlaskamp, from the Netherlands, on profound and multiple disability
" Prof Patricia Walsh, from Ireland, on health indicators and intellectual disability
" Prof Michael Wehmeyer, from USA, on self-determination and intellectual disability

The first day of the conference (25th August 2008) will start in the late afternoon and will include plenary speakers and an opening reception. The plan for days 2, 3, 4, 5 (26th - 29th August) is shown below, with 16 parallel sessions each day, as well as posters:

The sixth day (30th August) will include plenary sessions only and will be especially focused on research of relevance to South Africa. It will also be open to local people, who may not have been able to attend the rest of the conference, in addition to IASSID Congress delegates.

We hope for the first time at the IASSID World Congress, there will be pre- or post-conference workshops. Roy Brown and colleagues are working on the planning of these.

For an update on 'Research in Africa' - Funding
Click here