ss basic services. Only 2 per cent of children with disability in the developing world receive any education or rehabilitation. It is a special need, that the interests and needs of children with disabilities should be addressed in the work of all ministries and other responsible bodies. Social workers have to consider that there is a feminization of poverty especially women with disabilities, who are marginalized within an already marginalized group. Of women in poverty those with disabilities are frequently the poorest.
The education of children with disabilities has been absent or minimal in some contexts and often involves segregated settings in many countries. Thus the social exclusion of children begins at an early stage with children being placed in parallel education systems. Later this is reflected by low numbers of persons with disabilities achieving tertiary education thus denying them many employment opportunities.
In the industrialized world, poverty is directly related to the low rates of employment for people with disability. For example, 17 per cent of Europe’s general population and about 15 per cent of the working population suffer from a disability or chronic illness. People with disabilities are reported to have twice the rate for non-participation in the labour market as compared to persons without disabilities. The unemployment rate for persons with a severe disability is about three times the level for persons without disabilities. Workers with disability typically receive a lower wage than others. Often people with disabilities need a specially modified working environment but employers are not willing to undertake such modification. This is a form of attitudinal discrimination so often experienced by people with disability.
People with intellectual disability
People with intellectual disabilities constitute a significant number of disabled persons. They have particular issues in that they are often more vulnerable to exploitation and victimisation. People with intellectual disability experience health inequalities compared with the general population. Although their life expectancy is increasing it remains much lower than the rest of the population. Additionally people with intellectual disabilities have higher level of health needs than others which are often unrecognised and experience barriers in accessing health and social services. People with intellectual disabilities are often placed in psychiatric hospitals which are inappropriate to their needs. There is now debate around the rights and legal capacity of people with intellectual or cognitive impairments and how can they best be protected while maintaining human dignity and worth and self determination.
Many families are the key support for children with disabilities and for adults requiring supports – especially adults with intellectual disabilities and higher support needs. Family support services are vital for these families and require services from specially trained social workers.
People with emotional impairments
Individuals identified as having an emotional impairment manifest problems primarily in the affective domain. Often persons with an emotional impairment especially children cannot profit from learning experiences without additional education support.
They are unable to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships in school or in the work place. What are seen as inappropriate behaviours, lead to misunderstanding in schools at home and at the work place. In Germany children with emotional impairments are often sent to an educationally “subnormal” school.
Disability across the life span
The needs of persons with disability change over the life span from children through to young adulthood to adulthood and ageing. Programs and services need to reflect those changes. Early intervention is crucial for all aspects for disability programs and services. Women with disabilities experience deeper discrimination as witnessed by even lower rates for employment than men with disabilities and higher rates of abuse and viole