New technologies and participation allow us to imagine support services of persons with disabilities beyond traditional models based on impairment and dependency. This report offers a framework to rethink these services with personhood, autonomy and human rights at their centre.
The UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities reflected profound changes in the way persons with disabilities position themselves and relate to the community. It marked a departure from the medical understanding of disability as a deviation from the “normal”, towards an understanding of it as an intrinsic part of human diversity.
This report calls for changing the way in which support services are conceived and provided for persons with disabilities, to reflect the paradigmatic shifts in respect to disability in society. It is based on 3 core predicates:
1. The need for services based on personhood, focused on supporting personal development and inclusion in the community.
2. The need for policy and legislation changes aimed at dismantling institutionalization and segregation, to reflect the departure from the medical model of disability.
3. The need to integrate businesses and the private sector along with civil society and the state as partners in social services and support.
The full report can be accessed here: https://srdisability.org/thematic-reports/t/?ref=disabilitydebrief.org
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'your silence will not protect you'