assessment centers in completing comprehensive case reports prior to deadline. Thus, the MOHW has proposed improvement measures such as formulating procedures and guidelines governing joint assessment centers for local governments to implement and use, and paying regular visits to the centers to provide guidance. The NHRC will continue to follow up on the improvement results. 34. Per a Control Yuan investigation report19, the NHRC discovered a severe shortage of professional workers such as audiologists and speech therapists in the offshore islands and remote areas. These professional workers are concentrated in metropolitan areas. Thus, these offshore islands and remote areas are unable to respond to the number one need (in terms of the functional delay category) of children with developmental delays, which is language and communication. 35. The NHRC understands that the needs of children with disabilities are often overlooked. When protecting the rights of persons with disabilities, adults’ perspectives are generally adopted, resulting in the rights of children with disabilities being overlooked and jeopardized, and the protection of such rights being challenged. Therefore, in the concluding observations of the CRPD report released worldwide, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of the UN repeatedly indicated that the State should systematically ensure the right of children with disabilities to participate in relevant decision-making. Nevertheless, government at all levels has still not selected representatives of children with disabilities to participate in decision-making, thereby failing to respect and protect the rights of these children to express their opinions.20 Thus, 19 20 The Control Yuan investigation report approved on February 18, 2020 indicated that speech therapists and audiologists are the two jobs with the fewest workers. Speech therapists and audiologists are primarily found in the six special municipalities of Taiwan. The number of speech therapists and audiologists in the offshore islands of Taiwan are: Penghu, three speech therapists and one audiologist; Kinmen, two speech therapists; and Lienchiang County, no speech therapists or audiologists. According to survey results from the Social and Family Affairs Administration of MOHW (the results were presented in a reply made by the administration), from 2017 to 2019, there were 9, 3, and 7 children with disabilities representing children in local governments. These children accounted for approximately 1% to 2% of child representatives as a whole. Although this number was similar to the number of children with disabilities as a percentage of children as a whole, a closer look at different cities and counties revealed that only 5, 3, and 5 cities or counties had representatives who were children with disabilities, respectively. In 2019, the MOHW as well as committees working to protect the rights of persons with disabilities in all cities and counties had not included representatives who were children with disabilities. Regarding this problem, the MOHW issued the following reply: 26