Prof Juan Bornman from the Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) was invited to deliver one of the keynote addresses at the International Conference on Cerebral Palsy and other Childhood-onset Disabilities, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden, from 1 to 4 June 2016.

Her plenary address was on 'Human rights of children with disability: reality or fantasy'. She presented the six collaborative studies by the CAAC and the CHILD group from Jönköping University, which were funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Prof Bornman's address had three aims: to discuss why human rights – and particularly children's rights – matter; to highlight the provision, protection and participation components of children's rights; and to discuss a large-scale South African study of children with intellectual disabilities and their primary caregivers, with regard to children's rights.

The conference was attended by 1 500 delegates from 66 countries. The plenary sessions were held in the Aula Medica at the Karolinska Institutet, the same venue where the annual Nobel Prize for medicine is awarded. Prof Bornman received positive feedback from numerous delegates. She certainly put the CAAC and the University of Pretoria in the spotlight in that many people commended South Africa on the quality of work that is done on disabilities.