Exposing the protected: Ghana’s disability laws and the rights of disabled people

Disabled people in Ghana continue to experience various forms of discrimination and social exclusion. These occur despite the fact that there are several anti-discriminatory laws that are meant to protect the rights of disabled people and facilitate their participation in mainstream social, political and economic activities. As it is, the laws have not completely eroded the discrimination and in some instances appear to even institutionalise the discrimination that disabled people experience. It is important that the state pays more attention to amending aspects of these laws and putting them into practice.     

The future of children's rights

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was a great achievement. The rights strategy must continue to be pursued. The Convention itself is an imperfect instrument and a new Convention or Protocols needs to address many children whose rights are currently neglected, including disabled children, gay children, girl children and street children. Rights themselves need rethinking, and so does the reporting and implementation process. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effectiveness of adult day services for disabled older people

Adult day care has attracted a considerable amount of attention among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. However, there have been few efforts to synthesize empirical results. This paper reviews research that determines the effectiveness of adult day services in improving client functioning, alleviating caregiver stress, and delaying nursing home placement. In addition, the strengths and limitations of the research are considered. This paper concludes with a discussion of policy-relevant issues that must be addressed when determining the effectiveness of adult day services.     

The struggle for citizenship: the case of disabled people

The notion of 'citizenship' has become a popular slogan of governments who espouse a commitment to democratic ideals. Such discourse tends to emphasise responsibilities with little serious significance being given to the question of rights. In this paper we explore the continual discrimination which disabled people experience and which militates against the realisation of meaningful citizenship. The struggle for citizenship is viewed as an affirmation of the value of choice, independent and control which disabled people conceive in terms of human rights.     

Time for justice: safeguarding the rights of disabled children

This article reviews two core strategies for safeguarding the rights of disabled children and examines the extent to which these processes advance justice for children in accessing an inclusive and equitable education. The article evaluates the adequacy of the legal system in the face of increased evidence of exclusionary practices of schools, and the low uptake of the disability tribunal as a vehicle for redressing discriminatory practices. It reviews the work undertaken with schools to develop procedures and processes to support them in identifying disabled pupils in order to monitor the impact of their policies and practices. Although there were some limitations, this work provided a platform from which to ensure that schools engaged with their responsibilities and understood more about the ways in which a child’s impairment impacted on their participation in school life. Instead we are dependent on the work of voluntary associations to safeguard children’s rights.     

Public health,research and rights: the perspectives of deliberation panels with politically and socially active disabled people

Public health research purports to provide the evidence base for policies, programmes and interventions to improve the health of a population. However, there is increasing awareness that the experiences of disabled people have played little part in informing this evidence base. This paper discusses one aspect of a study commissioned by England’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to review the implications for public health of theories and models of disability. This part of the study focused on the development of a tool or decision aid to promote ethical inclusion of disabled people in public health randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and evaluative research. The tool was introduced at four regional ‘deliberating panels’ involving politically and socially active disabled people. In addition, we held a panel with public health professionals. The deliberation panels debated how the focus of public health was narrowing, why disability was excluded and positive and negative issues with using rights to guide research and evaluative practice. Politically active disabled people argued for a social model of human rights to guide any rights based tools or decision aids in public health and disability research.     

Choices and rights: eugenics, genetics and disability equality

Pre-natal screening is a highly contentious ethical and political issue. The paper discusses aspects of the debate, and focuses on the context in which reproductive decisions are taken and the lack of a disabled voice in genetic policy. Eugenic aspects of the practice of genetics, particularly surrounding the role of professionals and the notion of consent, are explored. The paper concludes with recommendations on a disability equality approach to genetics and obstetrics.     

Socially disabled: the fight disabled people face against loneliness and stress

Abstract

In 2018, the United Kingdom appointed its first Minister for Loneliness. This article discusses some of the barriers which may contribute to why disabled people were found to be one of the largest groups affected by loneliness. Utilizing ethnographic examples supported by facts, the article demonstrates how even when seeking to fight loneliness, and to reduce the stressors of everyday life, disabled people are often at a disadvantage, or excluded. The article raises questions concerning self-social exclusion and discusses recommended avenues for further research.     

The Researched Opinions on Research: disabled people and disability research

Thirty-five disabled people with a range of physical, sensory and mental impairments were interviewed about (1) their experiences of research; (2) their general opinions concerning research; (3) whether they thought research had served/was serving disabled people well; (4) how research on disability should be conducted; (5) who should conduct research on disability; and, finally, (6) what they would like to be researched. In this paper, the results of aspects two to five are reported. It was found that the opinions of disabled people mirror quite strongly the recent arguments forwarded by disabled academics concerning the need for emancipatory and empowering research strategies. In particular, the respondents articulated a need for inclusive, action-based research strategies, where disabled people are involved as consultants and partners not just as research subjects, There were few arguments, however, for an exclusive approach, where disability research would be conducted solely by researchers who were themselves disabled.     

International guidelines and the inclusion of disabled people. The Ugandan story

Uganda has made much progress towards including disabled people in its mainstream development, particularly in the political agenda. The exact process by which this has been achieved and the relationship between this and international guidelines and legislation are not known. This study undertakes to examine this from two specific perspectives: (1) How do international documents relevant to disabled people relate to national legislation in Uganda? (2) What can this comparison, together with the perceptions of stakeholders, tell us about how the legislation and services could improve? International legislation and Ugandan legislation is reviewed and compared. Data from 5 semi‐structured key informant interviews and 6 focus group discussions involving a total of 38 people are collected and analysed. The themes arising from the data are related to the documents, legislation, policies and other relevant literature. The results examine the barriers to service provision; the role of change; the importance of representation; policy and legislation issues; and the effects of devolution. Five specific findings relate to how legislation and services can improve: more resources to increase access for disabled people; strong leadership and collaboration between Disabled People’s Organisations (DPOs) funding bodies and governments; awareness raising and training; representation from all impairment groups; and raising the profile of disabled people through further legislation.     

Forced marriage of people with learning disabilities: a human rights issue

This paper reports some of the findings of an exploratory study which sought to better understand the demographics of forced marriage of people with learning disabilities and the contexts in which such marriages may occur. It was found that forced marriages of people with and without learning disabilities showed broad similarities in relation to ethnicity, some differences in terms of age and substantial differences in terms of gender. Men and women with learning disabilities are equally likely to be victims of forced marriage. The reasons for people with learning disabilities being forced to marry are most often associated with a desire on the part of families to secure permanent care, but can also be associated with cultural (mis)understandings of the nature of disability. These findings are contextualised by considering the relationship between forced marriage, human rights and learning disability.     

Ending reassessment for employment and support allowance for some disabled people in the UK

In October 2016 the newly appointed UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Damian Green, announced that some disabled people receiving Employment and Support Allowance would not face reassessment for their financial support to continue. This article critically engages with this announcement in the context of the publication of Improving Lives. The Work, Health and Disability Green Paper shortly afterwards.     

The crisis of local authority funding and its implications for independent living for disabled people in the United Kingdom

The recent financial collapse of Northamptonshire County Council sets a worrying precedent for local authorities in the United Kingdom, and in particular for disabled people who depend on services provided by local authorities, such as Direct Payments for personal assistance, for their daily living needs. While the Northamptonshire situation has been blamed on financial incompetence, we argue that it has deeper roots in austerity policies implemented by Conservative-led governments since 2010 on a national level. We also argue that the placement of responsibility for funding personal assistance services in the hands of local authorities creates a deeply unjust ‘postcode lottery’ for disabled people, and we call for a national right to all services necessary for independent living, regardless of cost.     

Denial of disability discrimination by disabled people in China

In contrast to the previous scholarly focus on anti-discrimination, which has long been described as a salient topic in the disability research area, this article discusses evidence to conclude that disabled people in China are inclined to deny social discrimination instead of finding ways to fight for social inclusion. Through interviews and observations, this article generalizes five types of causes – institutional causes, environmental causes, societal causes, familial causes and psychological causes – to explain an ‘observed phenomenon’ of discrimination denial in China. The authors worry that the phenomenon of discrimination denial might represent an even deeper type of discrimination, which might severely hinder the inclusion of disabled people into the mainstream. It is hoped that scholars may pay more attention to the intricate nature and fundamental paradox related to disability discrimination in non-western societies.     

Self-identity and the arts education of disabled young people

Overall, little is known about the ways in which disabled children and young people produce artwork or how they experience arts education. Neither is it known to what extent they are encouraged to produce work that engages with the expressive development of a sense of self that incorporates experiences of impairment and disability. This article is based on my recent PhD research which has investigated the ways in which a group of disabled young students are being enabled, via their arts education, to engage in a process of self-realisation whereby negative and oppressive perceptions of disability have been identified and addressed via their artwork. Whilst current post-social model discourses that emphasise the multiplicity or plurality of identity are acknowledged, my research has demonstrated that disabled young people can be empowered through the expression of the lived experience of impairment and disability and thereby encouraged towards a positive, inclusive and potentially multi-identity perspective.     

Aging, disability, and disabled older people in India

India is witnessing a demographic revolution, leading to a considerable increase in the proportion of older people in the population. Similarly, life expectancy of both the mentally and physically disabled has improved considerably. About 5% of Indian older people have problems with physical mobility. Aging has become a gender issue in India not only because more women are surviving into old age; they are also vulnerable and disadvantaged in many ways. In most cases they are the only caregivers available for the old and disabled. Older Indians are considered a high-risk group for multiple morbidity. It is estimated that nearly four million Indians suffer from mental problems. India has around 12 million people designated as "handicapped." However, little information is available about disabled people who grow older. The National Policy on Older Persons, which has been recently formulated, aims at providing an improved quality of life for millions of older Indians. However, the concerns of older disabled and of the disabled who grow old are still treated separately in both policy and practice.