Models of Disability and How They Shape the Global Response

Disabled Women, Children, Youth, Older People, Indigenous Populations, People with Mental Health Problems and Intellectual Disabilities, and Others

Source: Edmonds (2002b).

65. The core thrust toward poverty reduction in the citizenship model is that empowerment is achieved when all people with disabilities and the people who support them, such as family groups and parents, attain the following:

7 Best practice is a term used to describe an intervention that has met a set of criteria. Some of the commonly used criteria are: grounded in theory, proven effective, collaborative approach, responds to

the needs of audience, high reach for cost, necessary support available (Health Communication Unit 2001).

(i)

reach their potential to possess the knowledge and skills for „

technical and functional independence and self-advocacy,

critical analysis and awareness of the environment for policy development,

management of knowledge/resources involving multistakeholder and participatory strategies for social action;

(ii) access a continuum of programs and services of their choice that are culturally, socially, and economically appropriate; and

(iii) achieve results through an integrated and coordinated decision-making approach to planning, programming, and evaluating programs and services through a process of multistakeholder participation that is empowering for all.

66. One implication of the citizenship model is that all stakeholders must be educated and involved to create an environment of power sharing and capacity for partnership. Society must be changed to embrace the full range of these empowering activities for the needs of people with disabilities. It requires a balanced combination of measures for the equalization of opportunities, rehabilitation, management, and prevention through access to the full range of options available to all members of their communities. It requires building the capacity of all agencies and support systems in communities to understand the needs of people with disabilities and the strategies for their integration. This is the challenge for the region.

Application of the Citizenship Model to the Asia-Pacific Region

67. There are many barriers to overcome in the region before disability services and programs are mainstreamed across all sectors and full citizenship of people with disabilities is achieved. In many communities, basic survival overwhelms people with disabilities and their communities; the medical and charity models are the prevailing paradigms. Accordingly, to progress toward “citizenship,” ESCAP and the Asia-Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD) have adopted a set of strategic targets. These are presented in ESCAP’s Biwako Millennium Framework (BMF) for Action Toward an Inclusive Barrier-free and Right’s based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and

the Pacific. 8

68. The BMF document was developed to support the new Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons 2003–2012. It emphasizes that the highest strategic priority for the region is to strengthen the leadership capacity of DPOs and related family and parents’ associations, with a particular focus on the inclusion of women with disabilities. This requires access to knowledge and skills in (i) self-help and technical interventions, such as employment and education; (ii) critical awareness skills to promote an enabling environment (barrier free and human rights); and (iii) management capacity for leadership and social action. The evidence suggests that the quality of life of people with disabilities and of the broader community improves when people with disabilities themselves participate in policy making. The role of DPOs is to voice their concerns and

http://www.unescap.org/esid/psis/disability/bmf/bmf.html

advise the community and policy makers regarding best-practice strategies for making communities barrier free, with services that are accessible, of high quality, and empowering.

69. The BMF contains seven priority areas for action:

Early detection, early intervention, and education.

Poverty reduction through capacity building, social security, and sustainable livelihood programs.

Access to built environments and public transport.

Access to information and communications and relevant technologies.

Training and employment, including self-employment.

Self-help organizations of persons with disabilities and related family and parents’ associations.

Women with disabilities.

Details are available in the BMF website (refer to footnote 8).

70. The imperative is to shift the region from dominance of institutional medical and charity model programs to that of independent living and community-based rehabilitation approaches for addressing the current and pressing challenges for achieving citizenship.

71. This model of inclusion and integration (Figure II.2) has been designed by organizations of and for people with disabilities through the Asia-Pacific Development

Center on Disability (APCD), one of the key agencies involved in the education process. 9 Its mission is “to empower people with disabilities and those empowered to promote a

barrier-free society in which four barriers—environmental physical barrier, information barrier, government and system barrier, and human attitudinal barrier—have been identified”. This framework is core to moving the organizations, agencies, and policies in the region toward the citizenship model of disability.