Bill Learmonth knows how much the care and treatment of people with learning disabilities has changed.
He remembers visiting a long-stay institution on a glorious summer night many years ago and discovering that the residents had all been sedated and put to bed before 7pm. If there was education, he says, then it was about a few handicrafts and little else.
For Mr Learmonth's daughter Lesley it is different. Lesley, who has Down's Syndrome, leads an independent life in her own home and has a job of her own and, increasingly, this is how men and women with learning disabilities live: part of society, not shut away from it. But there is still work to be done, which is why The Herald is launching a fundraising appeal on behalf of the learning disability charity Enable.
Like Mr Learmonth, Enable has seen great improvements in the 60 years since it was established in 1954 but there are still problems. Many people with learning disabilities are living in poverty, for example. Many have also been the victim of bullying.
Enable is working to change this through projects such as respite care and campaign work, and the ambition is clear: to make the next 60 years very different from the last 60.
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