A Social Report for Ireland Volume II - the NESC Website

people with disabilities 241the National Disability Authority and recognised disability groups. Progress onthe implementation of the National Disability Strategy is monitored by the SeniorOfficials Group on Disability which reports to the Cabinet Committee on SocialInclusion. A National Disability Strategy Stakeholder Monitoring Group, comprisingthe Senior Officials Group on Disability, a Disability Stakeholders Group and theNational Disability Authority, has also been established to monitor progress onthe overall implementation of the strategy. The National Disability Authorityprovides advice on disability policy and practice, complemented by organisationsin the community and voluntary sector who have important advocacy and servicedelivery roles.The promotion of the well-being of people with disabilities in Irish policy andpractice is informed by the following principles:s Dignity for the person;s Independence and individual autonomy;s Equality of opportunity;s Respect for difference;s Participation; ands Accessibility.These principles are very much in line with the understanding of well-beingemployed throughout this report. In this chapter a person with a disability is aperson of any age with an impairment which limits their functioning and activitiesin relation to participation in their environment.9.2 Assessing the Well-being of People with DisabilitiesComparative Monitoring at International LevelThe UN Disability Rapporteur has stated that:The principles of full participation and inclusion, which are the dominant ideasin modern disability policy, strongly favour building effective monitoring of thehuman rights of persons with disabilities as an integral part of existing monitoringmechanisms (Report of the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission for SocialDevelopment, 2000-2002).Nevertheless, the monitoring of the well-being of people with disabilities hasbeen limited. In 1990 the UN published a Disability Statistics Compendium. Thispublication was based on the national statistics available in DISTAT, which is theUnited Nations Disability Statistics Database, established in 1988. DISTAT containsdisability statistics from the national household surveys, population censuses, andpopulation or civil registration systems of 55 countries. The Disability StatisticsCompendium provides national data on a range of topics in relation to peoplewith disabilities, including: age, sex, residence, educational attainment, economicactivity, marital status, household characteristics, causes of impairment andspecial aids used.