Disability Advocacy
Tue, Mar 3, 2009
“Much has been accomplished, but the world continues its struggle to create societies in which disabled persons enjoy the same opportunities as other members of the human family, and are viewed and treated as equal partners in the social, cultural, political and economic life of our communities.”
Kofi Annan, Beirut, Lebanon, 3 December 2001.
What is disability?
The definition of disability has shifted over the past two or three decades. It used to be defined purely in medical terms as a health condition. This approach located ‘the problem of disability’ in the person with a disability and ‘the solution’ in treating the person with a disability. Now, disability is more often recognized as the interaction between a person and his or her environment, including the social, economic, legal and built environment. This understanding is endorsed by WHO and used in Australia [1].
Definitions – A disability advocacy approach
In an effort to promote the social model of disability – an approach that acknowledges three distinct barriers: attitudinal, institutional, and environmental, which marginalise and exclude people with impairments, it is important to understand the difference between disability and impairment. These two terms are often used interchangeably but have distinctly different meanings [2].
Impairment: “Any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function”[3]
Disability: Is the outcome of the interaction between a person with an impairment and the attitudinal and the environmental barriers he/she may face [2].
Models of disability
| Medical Model | Charity Model | Social Model |
|---|---|---|
| • Views PwD as having physical problems to be cured • PwD relegated to the passive role of patient, with medical personnel and care- professionals making many decisions • Excessive focus on the desirability of fixing the disabled person’s impairment • PwD become defined solely in terms of their diagnosis, as a patient with medical needs and no longer as a person with a whole range of needs. |
• View PwD as victims of impairment and as the beneficiaries of charity, alms, and services • Services are designed for them and delivered to them, perhaps with the best of intentions, but with insufficient consultation • Carers may become unacceptably powerful, making decisions about what is best for those in their care. |
• Identifies three major barriers that confront PwD: • Physical (exclusion from the built environment) • Institutional (systematic exclusion or neglect in social, legal, educational, religious, and political institutions), and • Attitudinal (negative valuations of disabled people by non-disabled people) • Removing these barriers is possible and has a hugely beneficial impact, both on the lives of disabled people and on the whole community |
Source: [2]
Publications & Resources
Fact Sheets
- NSW Department of Disability, Ageing and Home Care (DADHC)
Disability Terminology Style Guide - National Disability Services:
What is Disability? - Mobility International USA:
Press Kit
In The News
- Disability World:
Article by Amartya Sen and James D. Wolfensohn titled “Helping Disabled People Out of the Shadows” (2004) - World Bank Development Outreach News:
Disability Special (2005)
Manuals
- Department of Human Services (DHS) [VIC]:
Communicating With People With Disabilities (2005) - Healthlink Worldwide: Resource Centre Manual:
How To Set Up and Manage a Resource Centre (2003) - Oxfam and Action on Disability and Development:
Disability, Equality, and Human Rights A Training Manual for Development and Humanitarian Organisations (2003) - Tearfund:
Advocacy Toolkit: Understanding Advocacy (2002)
Reports
- Community Based Rehabilitation Conference Paper:
Strengthening the Role of Disabled People in Community Based Rehabilitation Programmes (2004) - Handicap International:
Understanding Community Approaches to Handicap in Development (2001) - United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific:
Focus on Ability, Celebrate Diversity: Highlights of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002 (2003) - World Health Organisation (WHO):
Disability, Including Prevention, Management and Rehabilitation (2005)
Links
- Museum of Disability:
Museum of Disability History - Disability Awareness in Action:
The international disability and human rights network - Disability World:
Interview with the International Institute for Disability Advocacy - International Institute for Disability Advocacy:
Provide undergraduate scholarships for students with disabilities from developing nations. - Tear Fund:
Advocacy Toolkit - UK Disability Rights Commission:
Video - Working With Indigenous Peoples With Disability:
Tools & materials for working with people with disabilities in remote indigenous communities - SD Dimensions:
Empowering the rural disabled in Asia and the Pacific
[Click here for other disability & development links]
References
- National Disability Services, What is Disability? p. Fact sheet.
- Harris, A. and S. Enfield, Disability, Equality and Human Rights: A training manual for development and humanitarian organisations, Oxfam, Editor. 2003, Oxfam & ADD: UK.
- UN Enable, The United Nations and Disabled Persons -The First Fifty Years. 2003.
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