Invited Speakers

Aiko Akiyama is an international expert on disability rights and disability-inclusive development.

Aiko has been a disability focal point at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) since 2002, in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Aiko promotes disability-inclusive development and the realization of the rights of an estimated 690 million persons with disabilities in Asia and the Pacific, through enhancing knowledge of Governments, producing knowledge products, formulating regional norms and making regional inputs to global initiatives, and through engaging in intergovernmental and other types of advocacy. 

Aiko has been maintaining technical cooperation projects funded by the Governments. 

Prior to her current position at the United Nations, she was a policy assistant for a female parliamentarian in Japan, who was active on promoting policy interest in disability rights and pro-feminist social welfare policies.  Being in the position, Aiko built a foundation of policy dialogue between persons with diverse disabilities and parliamentarians and policy makers.  It ultimately led to the adoption of the anti-discrimination law on disability in Japan later.

Before joining in the Japanese legislative work, Aiko was a project coordinator at an US-based NGO on international grass-roots exchange primarily between the U.S. and Japan.  During this period, she also translated a book “No Pity” a journalistic account of the U.S. disability rights movement into Japanese. 

Aiko has a BA in Cultural Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a MA in Disability Studies at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom.

Aiko is versatile, an enthusiast on disability work and humanitarian issues, and compassionate and engaging speaker.