Hi all, Please find at end of message, accessible download links for the World Report on Disability 2001 produced jointly by the WHO and World Bank as an evidence based report on implementing the UNCRPD globally.
*I am pleased that so many key aspects of the report, echo my learnings over the years - of embracing the diversity in disabling conditions / situations instead of a rigid, stereotypical perception of what constitutes disability !* *Some points that resonated : * *DISABILITY IS A MATTER OF MORE OR LESS, NOT YES OR NO.* Disability is part of the human condition. Almost every one of us will be permanently or temporarily disabled at some point in life. *RECOGNIZING DISABILITY : "Hey - That's disabling!" * Disability is interpreted in relation to what is considered normal functioning, which can vary based on the context, age group, or even income group. Aspects of self-identification as having a disability despite having significant difficulty in functioning leads to significant under-reporting. Generalizations about “disability” or “people with disabilities” can mislead. Persons with disabilities have diverse personal factors with differences in gender, age, socioeconomic status, sexuality, ethnicity, or cultural heritage. Each has his or her personal preferences and responses to disability (47). Persons with disabilities are diverse and heterogeneous, while stereotypical views of disability emphasize wheelchair users and a few other “classic” groups such as blind people and deaf people (44). Disability encompasses the child born with a congenital condition such as cerebral palsy or the young soldier who loses his leg to a land-mine, or the middle-aged woman with severe arthritis, or the older person with dementia, among many others. * Health **conditions can be visible or invisible; temporary or long term; static, episodic, or degenerating; painful or inconsequential. * *THE DIVERSITY OF DISABILITY EXPERIENCES : ADDRESSING LATENT INEQUALITIES * The disability experience resulting from the interaction of health conditions, personal factors, and environmental factors varies greatly. Also while disability correlates with disadvantage, not all people with disabilities are equally disadvantaged. Women with disabilities experience the combined disadvantages associated with gender as well as disability, and may be less likely to marry than non-disabled women (48, 49). 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 (50). Conversely, wealth and status can help overcome activity limitations and participation restrictions (52) Often, “types of disability” are defined using only one aspect of disability, such as impairments – sensory, physical, mental, intellectual – and at other times they conflate health conditions with disability. *People with chronic health **conditions, communication difficulties, and other impairments are often overlooked in these 'estimates', despite encountering comparable difficulties in everyday **life.* Here is an implicit assumption that each “type of disability” has specific health, educational, rehabilitation, social, and support needs.However, diverse responses may be required – for example, two individuals with the same impairment may have very different experiences and needs. People with the same impairment can experience very different types and degrees of restriction, depending on the context. Persons with disabilities and households with disabilities experience worse social and economic outcomes compared with persons without disabilities. In all settings, disabled people and their families often incur additional costs to achieve a standard of living equivalent to that of non-disabled people. Countries requiring estimates of the number of people needing income support, daily assistance with activities, or other services will construct their own estimates relevant to local policy. Disability is a matter of more or less, not yes or no. *However, **policy-making and service delivery might require thresholds to be set for impairment severity, activity limitations, or participation restriction assessments and classifications. * *SPECTRUM MODEL OF DISABILITY : * * 360 degree recognition of disability and functioning, * * 3D approach to continuum of services and quality of life appraisal * Disability varies according to a complex mix of factors, including age, sex, stage of life, exposure to environmental risks, socioeconomic status, culture and available resources – all of which vary markedly across locations. *Viewing disability as a human rights issue is not incompatible with prevention of health conditions as long as prevention respects the rights and dignity of people with disabilities. *Preventing disability should be regarded as a multidimensional strategy that includes prevention of disabling barriers as well as prevention and treatment of underlying health conditions (59) Article 25 of the CRPD specifies Access to Health as an explicit right for people with disabilities, but primary prevention of health conditions does not come within its scope. Accordingly, this Report considers primary prevention only in so far as people with disabilities require equal access to health promotion and screening opportunities. Increasing rates of disability in many places are associated with increases in chronic health condition – diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, cancer, and respiratory illnesses – and injuries. Global ageing also has a major influence on disability trends because there is higher risk of disability at older ages. The environment has a huge effect on the prevalence and extent of disability, and on the disadvantage faced by persons with disabilities. Because disability is measured on a spectrum and varies with the environment, prevalence rates are related to thresholds and context. Disability can be conceptualized on a continuum - from minor difficulties in functioning to major impacts on a person’s life. Countries are increasingly switching to a continuum approach to measurement, where estimates of prevalence of disability – and functioning – are derived from assessing levels of disability in multiple domains. Estimates vary according to where the thresholds on the continuum of disability are set, and the way environmental influences are taken into account. The evidence in this Report suggests that many of the barriers people with disabilities face are avoidable and the disadvantages associated with disability can be overcome. Implementing the recommendations requires involving *different sectors* – health, education, social protection, labour, transport, housing – and *different actors* – governments, civil society organizations (including disabled people’s organizations), professionals, the private sector, and people with disabilities and their families. It is essential that countries tailor their actions to their specific contexts. Where countries are limited by resource constraints, some of the priority actions, particularly those requiring technical assistance and capacity-building, can be included within the framework of international cooperation ----------------------------------------------------- *DOWNLOADS (as accessed from http://www.who.int/disabilities/world_report/2011/en/index.html - 9 June 2011 )* * * DAISY version - *SUMMARY* - World Report on Disability 2011. Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/41pe1s DAISY version - *PREFACE* - World Report On Disability 2011. Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/nigxio DAISY version - *FOREWORD* - World Report On Disability 2011. Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/9r5ou5 *EASY READ* version - World Report on Disability 2011. Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/26nvuj *PRESS RELEASE* - World Report On Disability 2011. Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/oe4ye4 *SUMMARY* - World Report On Disability 2011. Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/pac1kj *ACCESSIBLE pdf - WHOLE REPORT - World Report on Disability 2011. Download link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/xmtwo0* Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
