n a non-inclusive society and individuals.
Persons using a wheelchair might have difficulties gaining employment not because of the wheelchair, but because there are environmental barriers such as inaccessible buses or staircases which impede access, as well as attitudinal barriers that discriminate against people with disabilities and hinder their full participation in society.
Human rights and people with disability
The rights of people with disability have been an ongoing issue both in terms of international legislative initiatives as well as through disability rights movements. Most important of international instruments and events are:
the UN Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons (1971),
the Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons in 1975,
the International Year for Disabled Persons in 1981,
World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons (UN, 1982), and
the United Nations Decade of Disabled Persons (1983_1992).
Culmination of all these is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2006, which has now been signed by more than 144 countries. In the 20th and 21st centuries a number of industrialized countries made laws to minimize the discrimination of people with disability (to guarantee the rights of people with disability) . Alongside this legislation there has been a concerted effort to improve the lived experiences of people with disabilities. This has resulted in policies that aim to reduce institutional care and in its place promote community living. There have been many questions and issues around community living. While espoused as an ideal, its implementation has not necessarily delivered quality outcomes for all people with disabilities.
Throughout the world, the links between poverty and disability are well documented and deeply concerning, though this is particularly stark in the developing world. It is estimated that approximately 80 per cent of the world’s persons with disabilities live in low-income countries – the majority are poor and cannot access 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 expe