Disability Rights Advocacy Workbook - Handicap International

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SECTION 1:ADVOCACY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIESHow do most people understand people with disabilities?Although current estimates suggest that people with disabilities make up 10% to 20% ofany community, they can be invisible and isolated in society. Physical and socialbarriers exclude them from participating in mainstream society and fully realizing theirhuman rights.One broad barrier faced by people with disabilities results from the ways most peoplemisunderstand disability. Many automatically respond with pity and an impulse to carefor those they consider weak and helpless. They assume people with disabilities cannottake care of themselves, live independently, or earn a living. Although they may thinkthey are being compassionate, people who have this attitude can do great harm: theyconsistently underestimate people with disabilities and deprive them of their dignity andtheir potential. This mistaken understanding of disability is often called the “charitymodel of disability” because it assumes that what people with disabilities need ischarity or benevolent caretaking. Charity can have a positive effect in some contexts,but in regard to disability, charity is generally negative because it can disempower andlimit people with disabilities.Equally disempowering is the “medical model of disability.” Some people considerdisability to be a health problem and focus on the “sickness” of the disability. Thedanger of this misunderstanding is that it emphasizes “fixing disabilities” rather thanfixing society by removing barriers and changing attitudes. Furthermore, it makes themedical profession responsible for people with disabilities rather than emphasizing thatthe whole society has the responsibility to integrate people with disabilities fully.Although charity and efforts to “fix” disabilities may be well intentioned, both thecharity model and the medical model isolate people with disabilities in hospitals,institutions, and their homes rather than integrating them into society. Such attitudes donothing to increase opportunities to achieve social and economic independence.What is the “social model” for understanding disability?Today the prevailing approach to disability advocacy worldwide promotes a “socialmodel” for understanding disability and actively discourages regarding people withdisabilities as needing charity (the charity model of disability) or a cure (the medicalmodel). The social model affirms that people with disabilities are full members ofsociety who have important contributions to make to their families and communities.What prevents them from achieving their potential is not their disabilities but theunhealthy and disempowering misunderstanding of society.Advocacy Workbook, Landmine Survivors Network 5
The social model emphasizes identifying, exposing, and examining the barriers thatphysical and social environments place on people with disabilities such as:• Legal barriers that limit the rights of people with disabilities;• Physical barriers that prevent access to shops, restaurants, schools, work,transportation, and other places;• Communication barriers that inhibit access.Rather than “fixing” people with disabilities to fit better into society, the social modelfocuses on changing society to eliminate the limitations imposed by the society.What is a “rights model” for understanding disability?The social model of disability of understanding disability is complemented by a rightsmodel for understanding disability. This approach is based on principles of humanrights, as embodied in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UDHR) and other international human rights documents.Fundamental to human rights is the principle that all human beings are equal in dignityand rights and that they are entitled to their human rights without distinction of any kind.Thus, people with disabilities are rights-holders who can and should determine thecourse of their lives as much as any other member of society. In a rights-based approachto disability, limitations imposed on people with disabilities by the social and physicalenvironment are regarded as violations of their basic human rights. A human rightsapproach transforms the needs of people with disabilities into rights they can claim.What do we mean by “advocacy”?Advocacy means a process designed to create positive change. Advocacy consists of avariety of actions taken to draw attention to an issue and to direct legislators, policymakers,service providers, and other important actors to a solution. Such advocacyactions can be taken at the individual, local, national, regional, or international levels.Advocacy is almost never undertaken by a single individual or organization workingalone. Effective advocacy benefits from the collective action of groups with differentexperience and perspectives working together to achieve a shared goal.Advocacy rarely uses a single action to achieve change. Instead, advocates andadvocacy organizations develop an advocacy strategy, which consists of many kinds ofactions such as:• Educational actions:Do we have the facts we need about the issue (research and analysis)?How can we draw people’s attention to an issue (public outreach)?How can we change people’s attitude toward this issue (education andtraining)?Advocacy Workbook, Landmine Survivors Network 6
Page 2: COPYRIGHT 2004, 2007LANDMINE SURVIV
Page 5: After completing this workbook, you
Page 9 and 10: • Social rejection and exclusion
Page 11 and 12: What you do not know is sometimes m
Page 13 and 14: • Are you addressing the underlyi
Page 15 and 16: [R]ecognition of the inherent digni
Page 17 and 18: How can a rights-based approach emp
Page 19 and 20: • Has your government taken a pos
Page 21 and 22: THE UN STANDARD RULES INCLUDE:• S
Page 23 and 24: How does a new UN convention come i
Page 25 and 26: 1. Educate yourself• Understand t
Page 27 and 28: GLOSSARY(Words in capital letters a
Page 29 and 30: 17. INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONO

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