This paper charts recent changes in the Czech Republic that have led to significant changes in the lives of some people with learning disabilities. But many people with learning disabilities still live in large institutions and just under 7 per cent of people living in social care institutions have their own rooms. The country is still coming to terms with the legacy of a social policy described by the author as archaic. Two major events have helped to provide the impetus for change: the fall of communism in 1989 and the entry into the European Union in 2004.