Williams, Bob, Increasing Literacy: The Greatest Crippler of People with Developmental Disabilities. 5th Symposium on Literacy and Developmental Disabilities, sponsored by the The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, Durham, NC, (January 1996).

This is the video of the keynote lecture delivered at the 5th Symposium on Literacy and Developmental Disabilities by Bob Williams, Commissioner of the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. He speaks from the dual perspective of policymaker and individual with severe speech and physical impairments about the power of literacy to convince others of the individual’s capabilities as well as to demonstrate for the individual the power s/he has with literacy. The Symposium on Literacy and Disabilities is held each January in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. This two-day interdisciplinary meeting brings together families, educators, health care professionals, researchers, and manufacturers for presentations and discussions of literacy learning and instruction for children and adults with a wide array of disabilities.