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Stephen Naysmith Social affairs correspondent http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/how-you-can-help-vulnerable-people-live-independent-lives.22773689 Today The Herald launches its Christmas fund-raising appeal on behalf of learning disability charity Enable Scotland. SUPPORT: Lesley Learmonth, who works at Eurocentral , and her father Bill who campaigns for people with a learning disability. Picture: Martin ShieldsThe charity will mark 60 years campaigning next year for better treatment for people with learning disabilities and their families next year. Set up by five sets of parents in 1954 as the Scottish Society for the Parents of Mentally Handicapped children, the charity today has 46 branches across Scotland and is the leading charitable organisation for people who have learning disabilities. It's members have seen vast changes since the charity was set up. In 1954, parents were regularly made to feel ashamed for having a child with a learning disability and the expectation for many was that their child would be hidden away. Those with severe learning disabilities had no automatic entitlement to go to school or to live independently. By 1970, life in an institution was the most likely outcome for them. There were 22 long-stay hospitals in Scotland, housing more than 7000 children and adults with learning disabilities. However since 1974, children with learning disabilities have had a right to education, and the expectation now is that many will have the chance to live independently, have meaningful relationships be educated, and work. Bill Learmonth, of Glasgow, has seen much of that change from the front line. A volunteer with Enable Scotland for more than 45 years, he credits it with much of the improvement to the rights of people with learning disabilities over the past 60 years. His daughter Lesley was born with Downs' Syndrome, and he and his wife Anne joined what was to become Enable when she was six weeks old. "We were just young parents and there was nothing around at the time. After she was born a professor of gynaecology told me 'she will be little more than a vegetable - take her home and love her'," Mr Learmonth recalls. "We decided we had to educate ourselves about what was available." In fact, they mostly saw what was not available, he says, as well as the public attitudes which made their life and that of their daughter so much more difficult. People with learning disabilities were seen as frightening and might be asked to leave restaurants and other public places, he recalls. "The biggest gap was education. Those who were capable were allowed to play with raffia and do handcrafts. But that was it." When he visited a long-stay institution and realised that on a glorious summer night, 42 men staying there were all in bed at 6.45pm - having been sedated - he became determined things must change, Mr Learmonth says. "It wasn't about being angry. But we saw what was going on in parts of the States and Europe and thought 'We've got to raise the bar'." Lesley will turn 46 next month and has a job and home of her own. But while major advances have been made, there is still a long way to go. The statistics for employment are poor - three-quarters of people with learning disabilities are not in employment or even in training for employment. Bullying is rife, and still affects 93% of children with a learning disability. One in four such children is assaulted. Poverty is a major problem for the families of those with learning disabilities, of whom 18% cannot afford to heat their homes, and one in five families misses meals due to poverty. Nine out of 10 people with a learning disability has experienced hate crime. This is why the work of Enable Scotland remains vital and why we have chosen to help kick off their anniversary year by asking readers to donate to support it. Your money could help the charity continue its work in a wide range of settings, including training people with learning disabilities and helping them find work, supporting them socially to reduce isolation and loneliness and campaigning to tackle prejudice and prevent bullying and victimisation. Peter Scott, chief executive of Enable Scotland said: "We are absolutely delighted to be The Herald's chosen Christmas charity. "We look forward to sharing our stories with you, highlighting the work we do across Scotland, providing support for people to play an active role in their communities, to live independent lives of choice and control, to gain employment, to make friends and to campaign for positive change. The support of The Herald readers will allow Enable Scotland to continue our work to improve the lives of people who have learning disabilities in Scotland." Over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting various aspects of Enable Scotland's work, but you can donate right now.