Making disabled people’s voices vulnerable

This paper attempts to utilise creative writing to contribute to discourse in the fields of critical disability studies and inclusive education. Twelve semi-structured interviews were carried out with young disabled adults with different physical and/ or sensorial disabilities who followed or were following courses at further and higher education levels. Research findings that show day-to-day experiences that disabled persons live are presented in short poems to reveal their presumed struggles. The evidence espoused that inclusive education is a process and a way of living. Support from parents, peers, administrators and lecturers are key to individual and community building. Self-help strategies are crucial in developing agency which, with a washback effect would transform society into a more democratic one. However, disabled persons need to be given the opportunity by eradicating the deficit mentality in society towards disability and disabled persons. The discussion unveils how society makes the voices of disabled persons disempowered and vulnerable. It is suggested that in Malta, wider opportunities for disabled persons to pursue their education at further and higher education levels and to enter the employment sector are needed to promulgate inclusive communities. Entities need to emulate a positive and proactive attitude towards social inclusion and cohesion. The contribution of this paper is to create awareness about the dire need for social praxis in fostering emancipation and social justice from a rights-based standpoint in favour of disabled people.peer-reviewe

Integrating Women and Girls With Disabilities Into Mainstream Vocational Training: A Practical Guide

[From Foreword] This guide has been developed as an ILO contribution to implementing the Agenda for Action of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, 1993-2002, and to the Platform for Action adopted by the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing which has called specifically for action by Governments, in cooperation with employers, workers and trade unions, international and on-governmental organizations, including women’s and youth organizations, and educational institutions to ensure access to quality education and training for, among others, women with disabilities, to improve their employment opportunities. It is also part of the ILO strategy to promote the observance of the ILO Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159), and Recommendation, 1983 (No. 168). These are the main reference documents for the ILO activities on the employment and training of disabled persons, along with the ILO Recommendation on Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled, 1995 (No. 99). This guide is intended primarily for instructors and administrators in vocational training institutes in both the public and private sectors

Employment Sector Working Paper No. 3, Recognizing ability: The skills and productivity of persons with disabilities, Literature Review.

The ILO will increase its efforts to advocate access to adequate skills development opportunities for disabled persons, in the coming years, as part of the process of implementing these international standards. To provide a solid knowledge base for these activities, a literature review of skills development initiatives targeting persons with disabilities was commissioned, focusing in particular on the contribution of skills development to enhancing the productivity of disabled persons. It is hoped that the review will contribute to opening opportunities for disabled persons to acquire skills which will lead them to obtaining and keeping decent work. Tony Powers of Powers and Associates (Australia) was the author of this working paper. The research was guided by Barbara Murray, Senior Specialist on Disability, Jo-Ann Bakker edited and prepared the manuscript for publication. The research was conducted as part of the preparation of the report for the General Discussion on Skills for improved productivity, employment growth and development at the 97th session of the International Labour Conference (2008). This working paper reviews the available evidence connecting the employment and economic status of disabled persons with their skills and productivity. It examines skills development strategies and their effect on employment, income-generation and productivity in both the formal and informal sectors in developed and developing countries. It also considers the impact of policies and practices designed to assist disabled people to achieve their productivity potential at work, including workplace accommodations and teleworking. It includes a number of illustrative case studies. It concludes with key policy messages which emerge from the literature review

Global trends in disability rehabilitation and their implications for leprosy programmes

[Excerpt] Globally, the disability rehabilitation scenario today is at an exciting stage. After many years of effort, the International Convention on Rights of Persons with Disability is in sight, a major step forward, and binding on governments to protect the rights of their disabled citizens. At the regional level, the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons (1993–2002) is extended from 2003 to 2012, and the Biwako Millenium Framework promoted by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is being followed in the Asian region for programmes for people with disability. The period 2000–2009 was formally proclaimed the African Decade of Disabled Persons in June 2002. The African Decade seeks to replicate the practices of the Asian and Pacific Decade. The Arab Decade of Disabled People was launched in 2004. The Decade of Disabled Persons in the Americas was launched in 2006. All these international statements focus on rights and inclusion of people with disabilities. To gain a better understanding of the current scenario and their implications for leprosy rehabilitation programmes, a brief summary of the Biwako Millenium Framework of the Asian and Pacific Decade1 is given below

Tax and Benefit Reforms in a Model of Labour Market Transitions. ENEPRI Research Reports No. 25, 9 October 2006

This paper presents a method for taking advantage of labour market transitions to identify the effects of financial incentives on employment decisions. The framework used is very flexible and by imposing few theoretical assumptions it allows us to extend the modelled sample relative to structural models. The authors take advantage of this flexibility to include disabled persons in the model and to jointly analyse the behaviour of disabled and non-disabled persons. A great deal of attention is paid to the appropriate modelling of financial incentives in the labour market. In the case of disabled persons, taking account of financial incentives turns out to be an extremely complex process but one that in the end turns out to be well worth the effort. The model is used to compare reactions in the labour market to marginal changes in financial incentives and also to model one of the most important reforms of the UK Labour government – the introduction of the Working Families’ Tax Credit. The methodology relies on matching the transition and income data derived from cross-sectional and panel surveys, and could be used in other countries for which detailed, reliable income data are not collected in a panel format

Future bathroom: A study of user-centred design principles affecting usability, safety and satisfaction in bathrooms for people living with disabilities

Research and development work relating to assistive technology 2010-11 (Department of Health) Presented to Parliament pursuant to Section 22 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 197

The employment requirements of disabled persons : a study of the development of state supported employment provision.

Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/378) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis deals with the historical background concerning the development of disability-related employment measures and the employment exclusion experienced by disabled persons. In particular, the enquiry focuses upon the early post-war period up until the introduction in 1997 of the New Deal for Disabled Persons. The thesis postulates that: 1. major policy shifts within the Employment Service Disability Services (ESDS) in the early 1990s did not sufficiently reflect the employment integration needs of disabled persons; in spite of a major social values shift, to welfare-to-work measures for disabled persons these measures proved to be problematic; problems existed because of the following three inter-related negative social factors; 3.1 lack of adequate neeeds assessment and response to disabled persons labour-market requirements; 3.2 lack of support for work capability enhancement; and 3.3 lack of suitable work-integrated environments,accessible jobs and adequate socially 'adjusted' working conditions. Although the study was carried out prior to the New Deal for Disabled Persons (NDDP), the main concerns raised by this study, regarding disabled persons labour market integration needs, would still appear to prevail. However, the post- NDDP developments and implications for the employment of disabled persons under the NDDP would require further research that is beyond the ambit of the present study which terminated prior to the introduction of the New Deal. The study examined national developments of disability policy of the Employment Service (ES), in the light of transitions within service philosophy during the 1990s. This took the form of a major shift on the part of policy makers of the 'position' of disabled persons to mainstream labour markets. Prior to the early 1990s, the position of disabled persons was largely one of relative labour-market marginality. Many disabled persons experienced social alienation, denoting exclusion from or restricted entry into employment, on terms that were often significant of a position of exploitative 'integration'. With the collapse in the 1980s and 1990s of the Keynes-Beveridge Welfare State, the outcome for disabled persons was a reconceptuality of their relationship to labour markets. This factor was driven by rising state-benefit dependency and decommodification. The perspective of the New Right, with its anti-statedependency ideology, ushered in a new regime wherein disabled persons were to be exposed to similar labour-market rigours as the non-disabled. While the two tier disability-employment regulatory system, set in place by Tomlinson (1942), remained relatively intact, the new requirements of what has been described as a 'Schumpeterian Workfare State' (Jessop, 1992,1994), ensured that the ES, Disability Service, faced a need for radical reform. It is the framework and conception of this revised approach, to disabled persons labour-market involvement, that constitutes the basis of the present study. The research ' contribution to disability and employment lies in the presentation of employment service users' own perceptions of the suitability of the ESDS. However debate presented, maintains that the fundamental relationship of disabled persons to employment, without corresponding change towards the social values perceptions of disabled persons, ensures that employment associated alienation will remain intact