Inclusion (disability rights)

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Inclusion, in relation to persons with disabilities, is defined as including individuals with disabilities in everyday activities and ensuring they have access to resources and opportunities in ways that are similar to their non-disabled peers. Disability rights advocates define true inclusion as results-oriented, rather than focused merely on encouragement. To this end, communities, businesses, and other groups and organizations are considered inclusive if people with disabilities do not face barriers to participation and have equal access to opportunities and resources. [1] [2]

Contents

Common barriers to full social and economic inclusion of persons with disabilities include inaccessible physical environments and methods of public transportation, lack of assistive devices and technologies, non-adapted means of communication, gaps in service delivery. Discriminatory prejudice and stigma in society, and systems and policies that are either non-existent or that hinder the involvement of all people with a health condition in all areas of life. [3] [4]

Inclusion advocates argue that one of the key barriers to inclusion is ultimately the medical model of disability, which supposes that a disability inherently reduces the individual's quality of life and aims to use medical intervention to diminish or correct the disability. Interventions focus on physical and/or mental therapies, medications, surgeries, and assistive devices. Inclusion advocates, who generally adhere to the social model of disability, allege that this approach is wrong and that those who have physical, sensory, intellectual, and/or developmental impairments have better outcomes if, instead, it is not assumed that they have a lower quality of life and they are not looked at as though they need to be "fixed." [5]

Approaches

Inclusion is ultimately a multifaceted practice that involves a variety of approaches across cultures and settings. It is an approach that seeks to ensure that people of differing abilities visibly and palpably belong to, are engaged in, and are actively connected to the goals and objectives of the wider society.

Universal design is one of the key concepts in and approaches to disability inclusion. It involves designing buildings, products, or environments in a way that secures accessibility and usability to the greatest extent possible. [6]

[7] [8]

Disability mainstreaming is simultaneously a method, a policy, and a tool for achieving social inclusion. In short, it is a process that is centered on integrating formerly marginalized individuals into "mainstream" society. This is accomplished by making "the needs and experiences of persons with disabilities an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of policies and programs in all political, economic, and societal spheres so that persons with disabilities benefit equally and so that inequality is not perpetuated." [9] In educational settings, it is the practice of placing students with special education services in a general education classroom during specific time periods based on their skills to enable a person with a disability to take part in a "mainstream" environment without added difficulty by creating inclusive settings. [10] For example, education initiatives such as IDEA or No Child Left Behind promote inclusive schooling or mainstreaming for children with disabilities, such as autism, so that they can participate in the community at large.

Inclusion in the United States

In the United States, federal laws that pertain to individuals with disabilities aim to create an inclusive environment by promoting mainstreaming, nondiscrimination, reasonable accommodations, and universal design. There are three key federal laws that protect the rights of people with disabilities and attempt to ensure their inclusion in many aspects of society.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects individuals from discrimination based on disability. The nondiscrimination requirements of the law apply to employers and organizations that receive financial assistance from federal departments or agencies. [6] It created and extended civil rights to people with disabilities and allows for reasonable accommodations, such as special study areas and assistance as necessary for each student. [11]

The United States Department of Justice published the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. It is a civil rights law that protects the civil liberties of individuals with disabilities. As it pertains to universal design, the ADA requires covered employers and organizations to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. [12] The ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in several areas: Employment; Public accommodations (such as restaurants, hotels, libraries, private schools, etc.); Transportation; State and local government services; Telecommunications (such as telephones, televisions, and computers).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was published in 2010, touches on disability inclusion in that it designates disability status as a demographic category and mandates data collection to assess health disparities. [6]

While laws have been created to ensure physical access, such as mandatory wheelchair ramps, the disabled community still does not have a high rate of participation in cultural activities. Additionally, the attitudes and prejudices held by people without disabilities towards the disabled community remain a persistent issue. [13] To this end, when it comes to societal perceptions of individuals with disabilities, barriers to inclusion generally include other people's behaviors, misunderstandings, lack of awareness about disabilities, and even a lack of understanding about the functions performed by service animals. This is in addition to physical barriers already present, including transportation, level of lighting, or handicap accessible buildings and equipment. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990</span> 1990 U.S. civil rights law

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 or ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin, and other characteristics illegal, and later sexual orientation and gender identity. In addition, unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accessibility</span> Modes of usability for people with disabilities

Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible developments ensures both "direct access" and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology.

The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities.

Special education is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual differences, disabilities, and special needs. This involves the individually planned and systematically monitored arrangement of teaching procedures, adapted equipment and materials, and accessible settings. These interventions are designed to help individuals with special needs achieve a higher level of personal self-sufficiency and success in school and in their community, which may not be available if the student were only given access to a typical classroom education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social model of disability</span> Societal failure to adapt to disabilities

The social model of disability identifies systemic barriers, derogatory attitudes, and social exclusion, which make it difficult or impossible for disabled people to attain their valued functionings. The social model of disability diverges from the dominant medical model of disability, which is a functional analysis of the body as a machine to be fixed in order to conform with normative values. As the medical model of disability carries with it a negative connotation, with negative labels associated with disabled people. The social model of disability seeks to challenge power imbalances within society between differently-abled people and seeks to redefine what disability means as a diverse expression of human life. While physical, sensory, intellectual, or psychological variations may result in individual functional differences, these do not necessarily have to lead to disability unless society fails to take account of and include people intentionally with respect to their individual needs. The origin of the approach can be traced to the 1960s, and the specific term emerged from the United Kingdom in the 1980s.

Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible to people, regardless of ageism, disability or other factors. It emerged as a rights-based, anti-discrimination measure, which seeks to create design for all abilities. Evaluating material and structures that can be utilized by all. It addresses common barriers to participation by creating things that can be used by the maximum number of people possible. “When disabling mechanisms are to be replaced with mechanisms for inclusion, different kinds of knowledge are relevant for different purposes. As a practical strategy for inclusion, Universal Design involves dilemmas and often difficult priorities.” Curb cuts or sidewalk ramps, which are essential for people in wheelchairs but also used by all, are a common example of universal design.

People with disabilities in the United States are a significant minority group, making up a fifth of the overall population and over half of Americans older than eighty. There is a complex history underlying the U.S. and its relationship with its disabled population, with great progress being made in the last century to improve the livelihood of disabled citizens through legislation providing protections and benefits. Most notably, the Americans with Disabilities Act is a comprehensive anti-discrimination policy that works to protect Americans with disabilities in public settings and the workplace.

The medical model of disability, or medical model, is based in a biomedical perception of disability. This model links a disability diagnosis to an individual's physical body. The model supposes that this disability may reduce the individual's quality of life and aims to diminish or correct this disability with medical intervention. It is often contrasted with the social model of disability.

Inclusive design is a design process in which a product, service, or environment is designed to be usable for as many people as possible, particularly groups who are traditionally excluded from being able to use an interface or navigate an environment. Its focus is on fulfilling as many user needs as possible, not just as many users as possible. Historically, inclusive design has been linked to designing for people with physical disabilities, and accessibility is one of the key outcomes of inclusive design. However, rather than focusing on designing for disabilities, inclusive design is a methodology that considers many aspects of human diversity that could affect a person's ability to use a product, service, or environment, such as ability, language, culture, gender, and age. The Inclusive Design Research Center reframes disability as a mismatch between the needs of a user and the design of a product or system, emphasizing that disability can be experienced by any user. With this framing, it becomes clear that inclusive design is not limited to interfaces or technologies, but may also be applied to the design of policies and infrastructure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-discrimination law</span> Legislation designed to prevent discrimination against particular groups of people

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A reasonable accommodation is an adjustment made in a system to accommodate or make fair the same system for an individual based on a proven need. That need can vary. Accommodations can be religious, physical, mental or emotional, academic, or employment-related, and law often mandates them. Each country has its own system of reasonable accommodations. The United Nations use this term in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, saying refusal to make accommodation results in discrimination. It defines a "reasonable accommodation" as:

... necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments not imposing a disproportionate or undue burden, where needed in a particular case, to ensure to persons with disabilities the enjoyment or exercise on an equal basis with others of all human rights and fundamental freedoms;

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Accessible tourism</span> Accessibility of tourism for disabled people

Accessible tourism is the ongoing endeavor to ensure tourist destinations, products, and services are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical or intellectual limitations, disabilities or age. It encompasses publicly and privately owned and operated tourist locations. The goal of accessible tourism is to create inclusivity of all including those traveling with children, people with disabilities, as well as seniors. This allows those with access requirements to be able to function as an independent using products following the universal design principle, a variety of services, and different environments.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is American legislation that guarantees certain rights to people with disabilities. It was one of the first U.S. federal civil rights laws offering protection for people with disabilities. It set precedents for subsequent legislation for people with disabilities, including the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ADA Amendments Act of 2008</span>

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 is an Act of Congress, effective January 1, 2009, that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other disability nondiscrimination laws at the Federal level of the United States.

Ableism is discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities. Ableism characterizes people as they are defined by their disabilities and it also classifies disabled people as people who are inferior to non-disabled people. On this basis, people are assigned or denied certain perceived abilities, skills, or character orientations.

Disability studies in education (DSE) is a field of academic study concerned with education research and practice related to disability. DSE scholars promote an understanding of disability from a social model of disability perspective to "challenge social, medical, and psychological models of disability as they relate to education". A DSE perspective situates disability within social and political context and is concerned with the civil and human rights of students with disabilities, including issues of equity, access, and inclusion in educational settings, curricula, and activities.

Disability rights are not specifically addressed by legislation in New Zealand. Instead, disability rights are addressed through human rights legislation. Human rights in New Zealand are protected by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Human Rights Act 1993. New Zealand also signed and ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Disability in Algeria</span>

People with disability in Algeria are protected under the law. Algeria has adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. Algeria is working to make the country more accessible to people with disabilities. Overall, about 2.5 percent of the country has some type of disability with men having a higher rate of disability than women.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with disabilities</span>

Individuals with disabilities are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and have higher mortality rates compared to those without disabilities. This is particularly true for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, those residing in care facilities, and women with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities face heightened risks of mental health issues related to the pandemic, such as increased feelings of loneliness and isolation. They were also more likely to face domestic violence and abuse during the pandemic. People with disabilities are more likely to experience unemployment as a result of the pandemic and may require changes to the types of accommodations they require for work. Children with disabilities experience complications in their educational programming. Remote learning poses a host of challenges for children with disabilities, including disruptions to physical and occupational therapies and access to assistive technologies.

Under Italian Law 104/1992, "disability" is defined as a loss of the ability of the person to perform basic daily activities unaided."

References

  1. ↑ CDC (2019-04-09). "Disability Inclusion | CDC". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  2. ↑ "Disability Inclusion Overview". World Bank. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  3. ↑ CDC (2019-09-04). "Disability and Health Disability Barriers | CDC". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  4. ↑ Fitzgerald, Hayley (2018), Brittain, Ian; Beacom, Aaron (eds.), "Disability and Barriers to Inclusion", The Palgrave Handbook of Paralympic Studies, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 55–70, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-47901-3_4, ISBN   978-1-137-47901-3 , retrieved 2021-03-07
  5. ↑ Fisher, Pamela; Goodley, Dan (2007). "The linear medical model of disability: mothers of disabled babies resist with counter-narratives". Sociology of Health & Illness. 29 (1): 66–81. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2007.00518.x . ISSN   1467-9566. PMID   17286706.
  6. 1 2 3 "Disability and Health Inclusion Strategies |". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. 2020-09-15. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  7. ↑ "Ronald L. Mace on NC State University, College of Design". projects.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  8. ↑ "The Goals and Benefits of Universal Design". www.buffalo.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  9. ↑ "Disability Mainstreaming Policy" (PDF). Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-12-22. Retrieved 2022-06-23.
  10. ↑ "Definition of mainstreaming". Encarta. 2011-05-25. Archived from the original on 2011-05-25. Retrieved 2021-03-07.
  11. ↑ This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division document: A Guide to Disability Rights Laws. Information and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act. July 2009.
  12. ↑ "2010 ADA regulations". www.ada.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  13. ↑ Ludwig, Erin (2012). "Stigma in the Arts: How Perceptual Barriers Influence Individuals' with Disabilities Participation in Arts Organizations". The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society. 42 (3): 141–151. doi:10.1080/10632921.2012.729498. ISSN   1063-2921. S2CID   145124615.
  14. ↑ Hinton, Cynthia F.; Kraus, Lewis E.; Richards, T. Anne; Fox, Michael H.; Campbell, Vincent A. (December 2017). "The Guide to Community Preventive Services and Disability Inclusion". American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 53 (6): 898–903. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2017.06.025. PMC   5769691 . PMID   28869093.

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