The Joint Council has played a significant role in the international rehabilitation field. In addition to the past and present chairpersons and members of the Management Committee have held a number of key positions in international rehabilitation organizations, the Joint Council maintains close connections with the following international rehabilitation organizations:
Asian Federation on Intellectual Disabilities (AFID)
Workability Asia (WI)
Over the years, the Joint Council has collaborated with various international rehabilitation organizations to organize large-scaled conferences in Hong Kong.
1968
Co-organised the “4th Pan-Pacific Rehabilitation International Conference” with Rehabilitation International, with about 1,100 attendance from various countries.
1991
Co-organized the “3rd International Abilympics” with International Abilympic Federation, with over 2,000 participants with disabilities from 83 countries joined the skills contests.
1998
Collaborated with Rehabilitation International to organize the “11th Rehabilitation International Asia-Pacific Regional Conference cum Campaign ’98 for Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons”, with over 1,700 representatives from 36 countries attended.
2017
Co-organized the “2017 Hong Kong Conference” with the Workability International and Workability Asia, with a theme of “Creating a Sustainable Ecosystem for Persons with Disabilities at Work”, with an attendance of 400 participants in which 200 of them came from overseas.
Every year, the Joint Council subsidizes its members to participate in overseas conferences and study visits to keep abreast of the development of rehabilitation services all over the word in order to broaden their horizons and improve the quality of local services.
Some examples of past overseas conferences subsidized by the Joint Council include:
- Asian Pacific Congress on Deafness
- Asian Conference on Mental Retardation
- Asian and Pacific Disability Forum
- International Abilympics
- International Conference on Accessible Tourism
- International Conference on Mobility and Transport for Elderly and Disabled Persons
- Seminar on Four-cities Conference
- Rehacare International
- Rehabilitation International Asian and Pacific Regional Congress
- Rehabilitation International World Congress
- Retinal International World Congress
- Workability Asia Conference and Annual General Meeting
- World Blind Union General Assembly
- World Congress on Conductive Education
Some examples of past overseas study visits subsidized by the Joint Council include:
- The application of International Function, Disability, and Health Classification System (ICF) in rehabilitation policies and services (Taiwan)
- Career planning for people with hearing impairment (Taiwan)
- Career planning for people with intellectual disabilities (Taiwan)
- Service models and development for children with special learning difficulties (Singapore)
- Minimum wage and employment services for people with disabilities (Australia and New Zealand)
- Operation of social enterprises (United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, and Finland)
