understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Topic of the issue:Easy to readinformation

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Autumn 2012

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy Issue 8

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

2 Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

EDITORIAL

This newsletter was supported by a grant from the Open Society Fundations.

EditorSenada Halilčević

JournalistsHrvoje FornerSnježana KanjirFadil Špuren BracoNera Bajzec

AsisstantsIvana PoslonIvana KramarićDamjan Janjušević

TOPIC OF THIS ISSUE:EASY TO READ INFORMATION

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

3

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Voice of Self-Advocates

4

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

SITUATION IN THE REPUBLIC OF CROATIA

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

5

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Voice of Self-Advocates

6

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

GOOD PRACTICES FROM EUROPE

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

7Voice of Self-Advocates

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

NEWS

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

8

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

9Voice of Self-Advocates

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

10

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

11Voice of Self-Advocates

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

12

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

13Voice of Self-Advocates

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

14

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

SPORTSOlympic Games were held in Londonfrom 27 July to 12 August 2012.Croatian athletes did very well.Croatia won 6 medals.3 gold medals went to:

waterpolo team,Giovanni Cernogoraz in shotgun events, Sandra Perković in discus throw.

We also won 1 silver medal in rowing and2 bronze medals in handball and taekwondo.

Written by Nera Bajzec

JOKESWhat is the capital of Zagorje?Vineyard.

A wife makes her husband do the housework...The husband is standing in the bathroom and trying to wash his T-shirt in the washing machine.After thinking for two minutes, he yells to his wife:Which program do I need to wash this T-shirt?Wife: It depends, is it cotton or synthetic, what does it say on the T-shirt ?!Husband: Beer rules.

Written by Fadil Špuren i Hrvoje Forner

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

FUN PAGES

Newsletter of the Association for Self-Advocacy

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

15Voice of Self-Advocates

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Find these 6 words in the word search.The �rst word is already circled.

FALL CHESTNUT OCTOBER WINE

FOG PUMPKIN HARVEST

WORD SEARCH J C W M U K

F H R V E

R E B O C

K S L F A L

V T C O Z E

J N A G R N

A

T

W B

S T

D

L Z

S I

U Z

O

P U M P K I

G T B A M W

N L

D XWritten by Ivana Kramarić

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

ADVICE CORNER

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon

understanding or learning new things.That is why it is important to make informationclear and easy to understand.Easy to read information helps personsmake decisions about their life.

Without easy to read information persons with intellectualdisabilities cannot make decisions about their lives.They are excluded from society.Someone else makes decisions about their lives.That is not right.Everyone has the right to decide about his or her life as much as possible.

Where do we need easy to read information?We need easy to read information everywhere.News in newsletters and newspapers, on the internet, television and radio should be easy and understandable.It is important to be familiar with all the events around us.

Laws should be written in easy to read formso we could know our rights and responsibilities.

Signs on buildings, schools and hospitalsshould be easy to read so we could know where we are going.Information on buses, trains and ships should also be easy to read.

Do persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatia have the right to easy to read information?Persons with intellectual disabilities in Croatiahave the right to easy to read information.It is written in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Republic of Croatia rati�ed the Convention in Croatian Parliament.

Bleiweisova 13, 10 000 Zagreb

Phone: 01 555 66 80, Fax: 01 555 66 89

E-mail: kontakt@samozastupanje.hr

Visit our web site: www.samozastupanje.hr

or visit us on Facebook!

You can contact us Monday through Friday

from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.

CONTACT US

Dear readers,

this time last year I wrote that we would start

to print our newsletter in a real printing office

thanks to support from Open Society Foundations.

Now I am happy to tell you we will continue

to print our newsletter.

Just like last year, we received the funds

from the Open Society Foundations.

Thank you again for your support!

What is easy to read information?Easy to read information is written for adult

persons with intellectual disabilities.

Sentences should be short.

In addition to words, pictures are also

used to help to understand text better.

Text has only the most important information.

Examples from everyday life are used to help

to explain difficult things.

Many persons with intellectual disabilities understand easy to read text.However, some persons need help to understand what it says.

Why is easy to read information important?Persons with intellectual disabilities have di�culties

This means Croatia must ensure easy to read informationfor persons with intellectual disabilities.

Article 9 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: States should ensure accessible and understandable informationfor persons with disabilities. Article 21 says:States should ensure that newspapers, television and internet are accessible and understandable for persons with disabilities.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Fadil Špuren

Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities say that all persons with disabilities have the right to freedom of expression and opinion and access to information.

This means they have the right to get information in easy to read form.Unfortunately, this right is violated.In Croatia laws are not written in easy to read form.

Information on television, Internet and radio are not easy to read.Signs on buildings are not easy to read.There is very little easy to read information in Croatia.

Since the beginning, Association for Self Advocacy has been writing brochures and other materials in easy to read form.

Self-advocates write brochures with the support of assistants.

In Europe, as in Croatia, there are very little documents and other information for persons with intellectual disabilities.

Inclusion Europe is the European organization ofpersons with intellectual disabilities and their parentswhich produces easy to read information in Europe.Inclusion Europe has written 19 brochures for persons with intellectual disabilities so far.

In 2007 Inclusion Europe started a project to help people to learn how to write easy to read information.

People from 8 countries worked together.They produced European rules for making easy to read information.The rules say what easy to read information should look like.

The rules were translated into 9 languages.That way more people will be trainedto make easy to read information.

Association for Self Advocacy translated the rules for making easy to read information into Croatian language.

We also held a training where we taughtassistants how to write easy to read information.Assistants from several self-advocacy groups from the Association for Promoting Inclusion and Centre for Rehabilitation Silver participated at the training.

9 assistants participated.The training lasted for 6 days.

Assistants learned how to write easy to read information.When they return to their groups, they will explain all about the rules for producing of easy to read information to self-advocates and assistants.

Advisor to the Ombudsmen for Persons with Disabilities and representative of Centre for Social Care joined the training.Association for self-advocacy will publishbrochures on the rules for producing easy to read information.

Written by Snježana Kanjir and Ivana Kramarić

SOME RULES FOR MAKING EASY TO READ INFORMATION1 Persons with intellectual disabilities should always be included

in producing easy to read information. 2 Use simple words that people know and understand.3 Write short sentences.4 Write the most important information.5 Use examples from everyday life.6 Use pictures to help explain the text.

Round table on easy to read informationOn 28 June 2012 Association for Self Advocacyheld a round table in Human Rights House in Zagreb.At the round table we presented our project calledAdvocating for the right of access to informationfor people with intellectual disabilities in Croatia.

Self-advocate Fadil Špuren presentedour newsletter the Voice of Self-advocates.

Self-advocate Snježana Kanjir introduced guests to our brochures in easy to read form.Senada Halilčević presented European project Pathways 2 in which Association for Self Advocacy is a partner.

Krešimir Miletić, representative of City of Zagreb,Jasmina Papa from UNDP and Branka Meić from the O�ce of Ombudsman for persons with disabilities also spoke at the round table.All speakers agreed that this is a very important issue.Some of them told us they would like to learn how to write easy to read information.We invited them to participate at our training for producing easy to read information.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We �lmed a video about how our newsletter is producedOn 6 September 2012 on our website we uploaded a video under the title the Voice of Self-advocates.

The video was �lmed this year. It shows the making of our newsletter.If you want to learn how you canmake your own newsletter, visit our website:http://www.samozastupanje.hr/video-price/voice-of-self-advocates-2425/ or enter Voice of Self-advocates on You Tube.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Award from the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences!On 27 September 2012 our associationreceived an award from the Faculty of Education andRehabilitation Sciences, or ERF for short.We received the award for our contribution to the work of the Faculty and for several years of successful cooperation.

We received award on the occasion of the 50 anniversary of ERF.We are very proud because of the award.We also participated at International Science Conference organized by ERF.There we presented a poster about Pathways 2 project.

Written by Ivana Poslon

Coalition for Community LivingAssociation for Self Advocacy is implementingthe project Together for community living.Open Society Foundations provided the funds for the project. The project is a continuation between organizationswhich worked together on the project Community for all.

The project will continue to advocate for the right to live in the community for all persons with disabilities.

Strategic planning was held within the project in Premantura near the town of Pula from 1 to 3October 2012.Representatives of 7 organizations met to discuss what they would do together in the future.It was decided they would make their connectioneven stronger and o�cially establish the Coalition for community living.

They do not want to give equal right to voteto persons deprived of legal capacity. They say that court should decide whether a person deprived of legal capacity would have the right to vote or not.

This is contrary to the Convention. The Convention says that persons withdisabilities have equal right to vote as all other citizens.

We think this is discrimination. That is why we wrote a press release together with other organizations from Platform 112.We hope this press release will help the Ministry change their mind and write a new proposal of the Law that will respect the right to vote of persons deprived of legal capacity.If the Ministry does not do that, we will invite self-advocates from Croatia to �ght for their right to vote!

If you want to read the press release of Platform 112, visit ourwebsite or Facebook page.

Written by Ivana Poslon

We joined Facebook!Now you can follow the work ofAssociation for Self Advocacy on Facebook.There you can read about the latest eventsconcerning the work of Association for Self Advocacy, as well as news from other human rights organizations.You can also look at our photographsand write your comments.Unfortunately, our Facebook page isonly in Croatian for now.

Written by Ivana Poslon

International conference in WashingtonFrom 25 to 28 October in Washington,capital of the United States of America,a Conference was held organized by Inclusion International and Arc.Inclusion International is an international organization which assembles families of persons with intellectual disabilities.Arc is an American organization which provides service of living in the community for persons with intellectual disabilities.These organizations advocate human rights ofpersons with intellectual disabilities.

There were more than 90 participants from 35 di�erent countries.Self-advocates, parents and expertsparticipated at the conference.

They talked about:employment,housing,self-advocacy,providing support to persons and their families to help them be involved in the community,lifelong learning anddecision making.

Self-advocates also met with representatives of World Health Organization.They talked about forced sterilization.

QuestionI have a boyfriend. I love him very much, but I am a little jealous.Lately I have been afraid that my boyfriend is cheating on me. How can I check that?

AnswerDid anything change in your relationship?Is your boyfriend distancing himself from you suddenly?Did he stop con�ding in you?Is he avoiding you and avoiding going out with you?Even if the answer to some of these questions is YES, it still does not mean that he is cheating on you.Maybe he has a problem, but he is not comfortable talking to you about it.Maybe he has problems at home, in his community or at work.It will be best to talk to him openly and tell him honestly what is bothering you. Ask him why he is treating you di�erently.Maybe you want to check the messages on his mobile phone or go through his things.Don’t do that. That is wrong. Respect his privacy. If you look at his mobile phone or his private things, he will lose his trust in you.

Through involvement in European projects, we learned how to writeeasy to read text according to European standards.

After that, we got a certi�cate that we can write easy to read materials according to European standards.

We write brochures, posters and lea�ets for otherpersons with intellectual disabilities.In our brochures we write about the rightsof persons with intellectual disabilities.

So far we have written 8 brochures:Brochure on the rights from the Constitution of the Republic of CroatiaWhat is discriminationMy rights: Human rights and legal capacitySelf-determinationThe Convention on the Rights of Persons with DisabilitiesLiving in the community with support To live and work as other peopleCookbook

This newsletter is also written in easy to read form.If you want to read brochures and the newslettervisit our website www.samozastupanje.hrThe website is written in easy to read form.

In addition to writing brochures and newsletters, we teachother people how to write easy to read texts correctly.

This summer we had a workshop on making easy to read information.Self-advocacy assistants from several Croatian cities participated at the workshop.

Written by Senada Halilčević

The goals of the Coalition are following: encouraging the development of a society in which children with developmental di�culties and persons with disabilities with the right of free choice receive full support in the community with respect for their human rightsnetworking and mutual cooperation between members to promote the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The founders of the Coalition for Community living are:Association for Self Advocacy, Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir, Croatian Association of the Blind, Shine – Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities, The Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ, Association for Promoting Inclusion and Association For Promotion of Equal Opportunities (APEO).

Written by Damjan Janjušević

Fight for the right to vote!Civil society organizations assembled in Platform 112 warned that 17 thousand peopleare missing in the electoral register.Most of them are adult persons deprived of legal capacity due to physical disabilities, mental health problems or intellectual disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is the reason why many self-advocates in Croatia do not have the right to vote.

They are not equal to other adult citizens in Croatia. Ministry of Administration proposed a new Law on Register of Voters.

We at the Association for Self Advocacy hoped that the new Law would change this injustice.Unfortunately the Ministry disappointed us.

Senada Halilčević represented Association for Self Advocacy.She gave two speeches.

In 1 speech she talked about her life.In 2 speech she talked about how self-advocates �ght for the right to live in the community.The next Inclusion International conferencewill be in 2014 in Kenia in Africa.

Written by Ivana Kramarić

Performance Welcome to my shoesOn 10 December 2012 members of the Coalition for Community Livingwill have an action together or a performance calledWelcome to my shoes - An eye opening performance.Through this performance we want to invite the publicto become persons with disabilities for a short time and try out our life.A performance means that we will act our message to the public.

The performance will be held at the same time inAssociation for Self Advocacy,Croatian Alliance of Deaf-Blind Persons Dodir,Croatian Association of the Blind,Association for Social A�rmation of People with Mental Disabilities - Shine,Association of Parents of Children with Special Needs PUZ,Association for Promoting Inclusion andAssociation for Promotion of Equal Opportunities.

Written by Ivana Poslon