People with Disability: Definition &

Position in Society
By: Ms. Tulasa Neupane
Definition
• United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 2017 provides
for the definition of “Discrimination on the basis of disability” as any distinction,
exclusion or restriction on the basis of disability which has the purpose or effect of
impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal basis with
others, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural, civil or any other field. It includes all forms of discrimination,
including denial of reasonable accommodation”.
Protection and Welfare of the Disabled Persons Act, 2039 (1982)
• "Disabled Person" means a Nepali citizen who is physically or mentally handicapped
or incapable to maintain normal daily life. The term also denotes one eyed, blind,
deaf, dumb, half-dumb, feeble, crippled, lame, limping, handless or mentally
handicapped person also.
• "Helpless Disabled Person" means the disabled person who has not any property or
nobody to rear and care and unable to maintain livelihood by his own employment.
Position of Disabled in Society
• People with different forms of impairment or acquirement can
experience inequalities differently. The World Report on Disability
finds that ‘people who experience mental health conditions or
intellectual impairments appear to be more disadvantaged in many
settings than those who experience physical or sensory impairments’
• People with other invisible disabilities (such as debilitating pain or
fatigue), often face significant discrimination.
• In some countries, people who have been disabled as a result of conflict
enjoy higher status than those whose disabilities have another cause, as
a result of the value placed on them as ‘war heroes’ or ‘innocent victims
Position of Disabled in Society: WHO
• According to WHO over 1 billion people live with some form of disability.
• The number of people with disability are dramatically increasing. This is due
to demographic trends and increases in chronic health conditions, among
other causes.
• Almost everyone is likely to experience some form of disability – temporary
or permanent – at some point in life.
• People with disability are disproportionately affected during the COVID-19
pandemic.
• When people with disability access health care, they often experience stigma
and discrimination, and receive poor quality services.
• There is an urgent need to scale up disability inclusion in all levels of the
health system, particularly primary health care.
Poverty and Disability
• While not all people with disabilities are poor, it is increasingly recognised that
‘disability is an important issue in poverty reduction and poverty alleviation
efforts’
• people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries are ‘poorer than
their nondisabled peers in terms of access to education, access to healthcare,
employment, income, social support and civic involvement’
• It is often stated that disability is ‘both a cause and consequence of poverty’ and
poverty and disability ‘reinforce each other, contributing to increased
vulnerability and exclusion’
• Disability accentuates poverty because the systemic institutional, environmental
and attitudinal barriers that people with disabilities encounter in their daily lives
result in their entrenched social exclusion and lack of participation in society
which leads to discrimination, social marginalisation and isolation.
Poverty and Disability
• Poverty increases the likelihood of disability:
chronically poor people are often at risk of ill health
and injuries, which may lead to disability
• Poverty is associated with malnutrition, inadequate
access to public health services, poor living
conditions, and environmental exposures, which can
lead to health conditions which result in disability
Access to jobs, livelihoods, and social protection programmes
• A large majority of people with disabilities are either not employed,
under-employed or earn lower wages.
• Employment differences across disability status are more pronounced
among males than females. women with disabilities have worse
employment rates and wages than men with disabilities
• People with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses or multiple
disabilities have been found to be less likely than people with other
disabilities to access the labour market
• during the economic crisis many people with disabilities lost their jobs
and funding for employment support was cut, and recent evidence
indicates that the disability employment gap has been widening
Access to jobs, livelihoods, and social protection
programmes
• Formal Employment
• Barriers to participation in education and training place people with disabilities at
a disadvantage in the job market
• Even when people with disabilities have the required skills, additional barriers
may include: their social isolation limiting the development of networks;
discriminatory attitudes and misconceptions by employers; workplace
harassment; low expectations of their capabilities by individuals with disabilities
and their families; inaccessible work environments and lack of accommodations;
and discriminatory legislation
 Access to jobs, livelihoods, and social protection
programmes
• Formal Employment
• An estimated 80 per cent of economically active people with disabilities in developing countries are
selfemployed, as this is often their only option
• Self-employment is associated with job insecurity, and lack of pensions and other welfare benefits,
while lack of education, skills training and access to finance schemes creates further challenges
• In addition, stigma and prejudice towards people with disabilities may prevent customers using
their service
• Access to microfinance
• Many microfinance institutions (MFIs) avoid clients with disabilities, who constitute less than one
per cent of clients for most MFIs
• This is often as a result of incorrect assumptions that people with disabilities will be unable to pay
back the money borrowed
• While some organisations of and for people with disabilities provide microfinance, they are often
only able to reach relatively small numbers of people, and their programmes are often not self-
sustainable
 Access to jobs, livelihoods, and social protection
programmes
• Begging
• The strong links between disability and poverty also increase the likelihood of turning to begging,
to earn all or part of a living, in urban areas.
• In some cultures begging is often considered ‘an acceptable way, and in some cases the only way,
for people with disabilities to make a living outside the home’
• People with disabilities decide to beg as a result of a lack of social networks; internalised social
stigma; education and skills levels; limited employment prospects; social protection floors; and a
downward spiral of poverty
• Social Protection
• A growing number of countries have social protection programmes that either target people with
disabilities or mainstream disability. Yet statistical and anecdotal evidence shows that many people
with disabilities are not reached by social protection programmes, because of varied barriers.
• Begging by people with disabilities appears to be far less common in countries with established
social protection systems
• Social protection programmes risk strengthening dependency and segregation, and reducing incentives to work
Support and participation in society
• Children and adults with disabilities are often isolated from mainstream social,
cultural, and political opportunities
• Stigmatisation can lead to lack of registration of the birth of children with disabilities,
which is a fundamental barrier to their participation in society and increases their
invisibility and vulnerability to exploitation
• Provision of assistance and support
• Barriers to assistance and support include: lack of awareness and funding; lack of adequate
human resources; inappropriate policies and institutional frameworks; inadequate and
unresponsive services; poor service coordination; and attitudes and abuse
• Exclusion from society
• People with disabilities often encounter negative attitudes held by government officials, policy
makers, community members ‒ and even family members ‒ which results in their exclusion
from society
• Negative social attitudes can result in disabled people’s families keeping them hidden at home
or sending them to institutions
Political participation
• People with disabilities have often been excluded from playing an active part in the
political process in their own countries and wider international development
processes
• They face challenges in exercising their fundamental right as a citizen to vote in
elections
• Existing laws can confuse and discriminate against the political rights of people
with disabilities
• Polling stations are often located in inaccessible places and their staff do not have
training to assist people with disabilities
• People with disabilities also face difficulties in accessing information about voter
registration and the candidates, and many are even prevented from registering as
voters
• In addition, people with disabilities may be prevented from standing as candidates
Education
• Children with disabilities are less likely to go to school than children without
disabilities and are more likely to drop out
• Girls with disabilities are even less likely to receive an education than boys with disabilities
• Children with physical impairments are generally more likely to be enrolled than those
with intellectual or sensory impairments
• Barriers to education
• inaccessible school buildings (e.g. multi-storey with no lifts, inaccessible toilets);
• limited communication modes (e.g. no materials in Braille);
• location, combined with lack of transport links;
• stigmatisation and bullying;
• lack of teacher confidence and training;
• low expectations of children with disabilities;
• prohibitive costs and inadequate resources; and
• policies that prevent inclusive education
Education
• Long-term implications
• Lack of access to education for children with disabilities has repercussions throughout their
lives. The well-established links between illiteracy or marginal literacy and poverty
significantly increase the likelihood that they will raise their own children in poverty
• Exclusion from schools denies children with disabilities an opportunity for social networking
and community participation, as well as all sorts of medical, social, nutritional and
developmental resources, which can lead to isolation, decreased autonomy, and lower quality
of life
• Exclusion from mainstream education also helps propagate discriminatory attitudes at the
societal level, creating further barriers to participation in other domains
Health
• Having a disability is not synonymous with having a health problem: many
persons with disabilities live healthy lives. People with disabilities often have
a diverse range of health needs
• they experience poorer levels of health and require more healthcare than the
general population
• Mortality rates for children with disabilities are estimated to be as high as 80
per cent in countries where under-five mortality as a whole has decreased to
below 20 per cent
Health
• Healthcare challenges
• People with disabilities may face inequities in access, quality and delivery of care
in mainstream health services, leading to poorer overall treatment outcomes
• Health facilities are often inaccessible; information is often not communicated
appropriately; transport is often not accessible or affordable; health services are
often not affordable; misconceptions and stigma around disability may prevent
families seeking healthcare; and discrimination by healthcare providers may limit
provision of appropriate services
• The incorrect but common assumption that people with disabilities are sexually
inactive limits provision of sexual and reproductive healthcare, and women with
disabilities may experience ‘forced and/or coerced sterilisation.
• Healthcare workers are often unfamiliar with people with disabilities. They
hesitate to take on routine care in the mistaken belief that specialist care is always
needed
Accessibility: Transport, infrastructure and digital technology
• Transport
• Inaccessible transport has been cited in a number of studies as a key barrier to
people with disabilities accessing healthcare and employment, especially those
living in rural areas
• Barriers to accessible transport include: lack of effective programmes; obstacles to
special transport services and accessible taxis; physical and informational
barriers; lack of continuity in the travel chain; lack of pedestrian access; and lack
of staff awareness and negative attitudes
• Infrastructure
• In many countries accessibility requirements have yet to be integrated into all
aspects of the planning and design of buildings
Violence
• Adults with disabilities were ‘at a higher risk of violence than are
nondisabled adults, and those with mental illnesses could be particularly
vulnerable’, although robust studies are absent and there are large gaps in
knowledge about the prevalence and risk of violence against adults and
children with disabilities.
• Children with disabilities are estimated to be three to four times more likely
to be victims of violence(Unicef, 2013)
• Hate crimes against people with disabilities, and physical violence and
sexual abuse against people with disabilities in homes, institutions,
communities and other settings
Violence
• Contributing factors to increased risk
• People with disabilities are at increased risk of interpersonal violence because of:
• ‘exclusion from education and employment, the need for personal assistance with
daily living, reduced physical and emotional defences, communication barriers
that hamper the reporting of violence, societal stigma, and discrimination’
• Residential care is also a major risk factor for sexual and physical abuse
• Stigma and stereotyping may result in their complaints not being taken seriously
or believed, while the justice system is often inaccessible to them
• Many abusers believe that these young people will be unable to report the abuse or
will not be believed
Violence
• Women and girls
• Women and girls with disabilities are at heightened risk of ‘physical,
psychological, sexual or financial violence, neglect, social isolation, entrapment,
degradation, detention, denial of health care and forced sterilization and
psychiatric treatment’, at home, in the community, and in refugee camps
• In addition, they are especially vulnerable to trafficking
• Women with disabilities are at least ‘twice as likely to experience domestic
violence and other forms of gender-based and sexual violence as non-disabled
women, and are likely to experience abuse over a longer period of time and to
suffer more severe injuries as a result of the violence
• People with intellectual and mental disabilities are at particular risk of sexual
abuse, especially girls and women
Access to justice
• people with disabilities found that while there are often laws in place to
prevent discrimination against people with disabilities, they are not
effectively implemented; and professionals feel that access to justice is
sometimes or usually harder for people with disabilities
• This exclusion can be caused by various factors in all institutions of the
justice system, including discrimination, poverty, low institutional trust or
confidence in the process, lack of capacity (both staff in the judicial system
and people with disabilities), communication barriers, weak access to
information, or living in remote areas with a lack of judicial facilities
• As a result of problems with access to justice, there is said to be ‘an
atmosphere of impunity surrounding abuses committed against people with
disabilities
Conflict and emergencies
• Disasters and conflicts exacerbate existing disabilities and create new ones
• they have a disproportionate impact on people with disabilities
• Natural disasters
• According to emergency management statistics, people with disabilities die in far
higher percentages of the population than other people in natural disasters
• Conflict
• People with disabilities have also been reported to be directly targeted during conflict
• In Iraq, there were reports of people with Down’s syndrome being used as suicide
bombers
• In conflict, people with disabilities are also at increased risk of death and injury as a
result of mobility challenges and communication problems, which may make it harder
to flee violence
• The disruption and destruction of services and social safety nets caused by conflict can reduce the
quality of life of people with disabilities
Conflict and emergencies
• Flight and refugees
• Refugees with disabilities are ‘among the most isolated, socially excluded and marginalized
of all displaced populations’
• People with disabilities may be abandoned by their families as they flee conflict or disaster
• People with disabilities can become more dependent and isolated as a result of the loss of
their assistive and mobility devices, services, and support structures
• Attitudinal, physical and social barriers means they are excluded from or unable to access
mainstream assistance programmes.
• Services provided in camps such as toilets and schools may not be built to be accessible
• Food distribution procedures are often inaccessible, especially for those with physical or
visual impairments, or put people with disabilities at risk
• There are few opportunities for formal participation of refugees with disabilities in camp
management and programme planning, implementation and management
• People with disabilities, especially women and girls, are also at increased risk of physical and sexual
violence, discrimination and harassment
Post-conflict reconstruction
• The long-term effects of conflict and emergencies on people with disabilities
is under-researched, but they are often left out of the reconstruction process
• Women with disabilities have been found to be at risk of being left behind
during repatriation efforts
• disabled women living in rural post-conflict areas ‘face the greatest of
difficulties in the peace-building process, and are more vulnerable to forms
of physical and sexual violence, exploitation and extreme forms of abject
poverty
• Immediate post-conflict support for people with disabilities may not be
designed in a sustainable way; for example, the camps for amputees in Sierra
Leone were located too far from urban centres, which reduced opportunities
for integration, schooling, shopping and employment
 Lack of data and the invisibility of people with
•
disabilities
Disability is still largely absent from data collection and monitoring mechanisms in
international development
• The invisibility of people with disabilities in the mainstream development narrative has
‘resulted in development interventions unintentionally leaving out people with disabilities
from their target groups’
• It has contributed to the false impression that people with disabilities are a ‘very small
group, reserved for the specialist attention of health or rehabilitation professionals and
beyond the scope of development studies’
• The UN Expert Group on Disability Data and Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation finds
that ‘data disaggregated by disability in all areas will be essential to ensure progress is
measured and persons with disabilities are not left behind in future mainstream
development programmes’
• Disability is complex and therefore difficult to measure: ‘no gold standard measure exists,
different measures exist for different purposes, and the use of different measures in different
countries makes international comparison of prevalence or outcomes difficult’