People with Disabilities in Ireland
4th Floor Jervis House
Jervis Street
Dublin 1
Telephone: 01 87 21 74 4
Fax: 01 87 21 77 1
Email: info@pwdi.ie
Disability Legislation Consultation Group
Disability legislation is necessary for creating a society where all people with disabilities can participate fully as equal and active citizens. By exercising rights that assist in removing barriers to full participation people with disabilities can live with maximum autonomy, independence and dignity. The DLCG considers disability legislation to be one element of a genuinely inclusive society that is open to all by promoting and supporting equality, participation and social inclusion of people with disabilities. This legislation should implement the commitments made in A Strategy for Equality, it will complement national, European and international obligations, and set an ambitious agenda for the future rooted in a social and human rights model of disability.
The human rights model sees people with disabilities as people with the same enforceable rights as everyone else. Instead of the disabled person being seen as a 'problem' to be cured or cared for, this approach reflects the need for the State to remove discrimination and enable people with disabilities to participate fully in society. This is reflected in the Barcelona and Madrid Declarations, in United Nations, Council of Europe and EU policy, reflecting a vision where disabled people are holders of rights to autonomy and independence.
In this context it would be appropriate for the disability legislation to build on, and not undermine, existing national anti-discrimination legislation. Furthermore, the expressed reluctance of the courts to engage in socio-economic rights does not prevent the introduction of legislation for new rights for people with disabilities that can be enforced in the courts.
Effective legislation for people with disabilities needs to combine two approaches:
A major emphasis given to the new disability legislation by the DLCG concerns the development of positive and enforceable rights for people with disabilities that go beyond anti-discrimination. A shift to a rights-based approach was first signalled in A Strategy for Equality, the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities. In the area of anti-discrimination, disability is also one of the nine grounds covered in the Employment Equality Act (1998) and the Equal Status Act (2000).
The DLCG believe that rights of people with disabilities need to be further elaborated beyond those found in the anti-discrimination legislation to ensure that appropriate economic and social supports are available to enable people with disabilities to exercise those rights in practice. This requires a focus on social policies that can help to meet the different and diverse needs of individuals and to enhance their autonomy and participation so that the person with disabilities is at the centre of service provision. In this context the legislation should also lay out clear duties on public bodies to promote equality and to remove barriers to full participation.
The principles of this Bill should be carried through to other relevant areas of legislation, including the forthcoming Education Disabilities Bill and the equality legislation.
This section outlines the main purpose of and principles underpinning the legislation. The purpose of the legislation should be to provide enforceable rights, duties on public bodies to promote equality and the active participation of people with disabilities. The principles underpinning the legislation include advancing the dignity, freedom and quality of life for people with disabilities, maximum independence, autonomy, privacy, bodily integrity and dignity, and for realising her/his potential to the full.
The DLCG believes that the legislation should be based on individual rights and duties on public bodies, with mechanisms for it to be cross-cutting and implemented by all Government departments. It should be based on the following underpinning principles:
The purpose of the legislation is to:
In this section definitions are provided for disability, mainstreaming, access and accessibility, equalisation of opportunities, positive action, reasonable accommodation and service.
The DLCG proposes that the definition of disability in disability legislation be based on that found in Section 2(1) of the Equal Status Act and Section 2(1) of the Employment Equality Act. The legislation should include an obligation to develop and broaden the definition of disability in the light of new EU and international obligations and a review of national legislation. This should adopt a social and human rights model of disability that recognises how social organisation creates disabling conditions that result in social, economic, political and cultural exclusion. This should be in keeping with the definition of disability found in A Strategy for Equality which includes "children and adults who experience any restriction in their capacity to participate in economic, social or cultural life on account of a physical, sensory, learning, mental health or emotional impairment". Account should be taken of different definitions in the EU, the Council of Europe and the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Ultimately there must be common definitions of these concepts in the Disability Bill and in the equality legislation.