Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities, UNICEF

3 DISABILITY ANDINCLUSIONThe history of disability is for the most part one ofexclusion, discrimination and stigmatization. Oftensegregated from society, persons with disabilities –and in particular, children with disabilities – have beenregarded as objects of charity and passive recipientsof welfare. This charity-based legacy persists in manycountries and affects the perception and treatmentreceived by children with disabilities.The ’social model’ of disabilityThe human rights approach to disability has led to ashift in focus from a child’s limitations arising fromimpairments, to the barriers within society thatprevent the child from having access to basic socialservices, developing to the fullest potential and fromenjoying her or his rights. This is the essence of thesocial model of disability.The emphasis given to equality and non-discriminationin international human rights instruments isreflected in the social model of disability. This modelrejects the long-established idea that obstacles to theparticipation of disabled people arise primarily fromtheir impairment and focuses instead on environmentalbarriers. These include:• prevailing attitudes and preconceptions, leadingto underestimation;• the policies, practices and procedures of localand national government;• the structure of health, welfare and educationsystems;• lack of access to buildings, transport and to thewhole range of community resources available tothe rest of the population;• the impact of poverty and deprivation on thecommunity as a whole and more specifically onpersons with disabilities and their families.A great deal can be done to remove or reduce thebarriers faced by children and adults with disabilities.For persons with disabilities, this is both a liberatingand an empowering view, one that emphasizes thepositive contribution that they themselves can makein removing the barriers to their participation. At thesame time, the social model emphasizes the role ofgovernment and civil society in removing the obstaclesfaced by citizens with disabilities in becoming activeparticipants in the various communities in whichthey live, learn and work.Emphasizing the social construction of disability inno way implies rejecting medical and professionalservices and supports. Nor does it mean denying thepotential of intervention in reducing or alleviating animpairment or in providing rehabilitation or training.Provision of technical aids, medical intervention andprofessional support are all important ways of promotingempowerment and independence and are anintegral part of the social model. For example, a simplemedical procedure may be all that is required tohelp a child with eye or ear infections to benefit fromclassroom learning.Nevertheless, the medical model (sometimes knownas the ’defect model’) still exerts a disproportionateinfluence at many levels. For example, teachersand parents sometimes ask questions such as “Canchildren with Down’s Syndrome attend an ordinaryschool?” or “How do you teach children with musculardystrophy?” The answer to the last question wasgiven by a group of 48 children with muscular dystrophyfrom France:Care providers cannot understand that we are alldifferent, even if we have the same condition, thesame disability. What we want to say to all adultswho take care of us is that we are 48 differentpersonalities. There is no personality type knownas muscular dystrophy. 7This quotation emphasizes that the rights, needs andvoice of the individual child are fundamental. It is thisprinciple that lies at the heart of the Convention onthe Rights of the Child and is reflected as well in theConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.Disability and povertyThe World Bank has estimated that persons withdisabilities account for up to one in five of the world’spoorest people, that is, those who live on lessthan one dollar a day and who lack access to basicnecessities such as food, clean water, clothing andshelter. 8 These figures have been brought to life ina recent report from Inclusion International whichdocuments the poverty and exclusion experienceddaily by people with intellectual disabilities and theirfamilies in all regions of the world, but which alsorecords many examples of how these obstacles arebeginning to be overcome. 9Poverty is both a cause and a consequence of disability.Correlates of poverty, such as inadequatemedical care and unsafe environments, significantlycontribute to the incidence and impact of disability,and complicate efforts for prevention and response.By the same measure, many of the factors contributingto high levels of impairment among children are5 Promoting the Rights of Children with Disabilities Innocenti Digest No. 13