Stanford University’s William Mobley is studying the link between Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome, and says public attitudes toward people with DS have “a long way to go.” He says he hopes research will help them lead richer, fuller lives.

It is still seen as a sentence and these folks still don’t have their just place in society. They still don’t get their fair share of school and help. They aren’t allowed into jobs in a way that they should be allowed into jobs. They are still felt not to be “full players” in our society. I think that is changing for the better, but I think we’ve got a ways to go.

… If we can help increase their cognitive ability, even modestly, we can make it easier for them to go to school, to make friends, ideally to live independently, have jobs, get married and drive cars … I think that’s possible and I’m hopeful that will actually happen — maybe not in my lifetime, but hopefully it will in my lifetime.

It’s not that we want to negate all the possibilities that they bring into the world, which are considerable. They have this amazing ability to engage socially, to break down social barriers, to express concern and interest, and to really change families in a really positive way — those are things we want to keep. In fact, we want to learn more about genes that cause that to happen. We shouldn’t just be looking for genes that make things miserable. We’ve got to be looking for the genes that make things better for them.

Interview in LAist.com in connection with upcoming fundraiser for the Down Syndrome Research and Treatment Foundation.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 7:46 pm and is filed under Down syndrome, education, employment/jobs, public attitudes, research news, stigma. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.