Promoting the rights of Children with disabilities innocenti digest no

3 disability and
inClusion
The history of disability is for the most part one of 
exclusion, discrimination and stigmatization. Often 
segregated from society, persons with disabilities – 
and in particular, children with disabilities – have been 
regarded as objects of charity and passive recipients 
of welfare. This charity-based legacy persists in many 
countries and affects the perception and treatment 
received by children with disabilities. 
the ’social model’ of disability
The human rights approach to disability has led to a 
shift in focus from 
a child’s
limitations 
arising from 
impairments, to the 
barriers within society
that 
prevent the child from having access to basic social 
services, developing to the fullest potential and from 
enjoying her or his rights. This is the essence of the 
social model of disability.
The emphasis given to equality and non-discrimi-
nation in international human rights instruments is 
reflected in the social model of disability. This model 
rejects the long-established idea that obstacles to the 
participation of disabled people arise primarily from 
their impairment and focuses instead on environmen-
tal barriers. These include:
prevailing attitudes and preconceptions, leading 
• 
to underestimation; 
the policies, practices and procedures of local 
• 
and national government; 
the structure of health, welfare and education 
• 
systems;
lack of access to buildings, transport and to the 
• 
whole range of community resources available to 
the rest of the population;
the impact of poverty and deprivation on the 
• 
community as a whole and more specifically on 
persons with disabilities and their families.
A great deal can be done to remove or reduce the 
barriers faced by children and adults with disabilities. 
For persons with disabilities, this is both a liberating 
and an empowering view, one that emphasizes the 
positive contribution that they themselves can make 
in removing the barriers to their participation. At the 
same time, the social model emphasizes the role of 
government and civil society in removing the obsta-
cles faced by citizens with disabilities in becoming ac-
tive participants in the various communities in which 
they live, learn and work. 
Emphasizing the social construction of disability in 
no way implies rejecting medical and professional 
services and supports. Nor does it mean denying the 
potential of intervention in reducing or alleviating an 
impairment or in providing rehabilitation or training. 
Provision of technical aids, medical intervention and 
professional support are all important ways of pro-
moting empowerment and independence and are an 
integral part of the social model. For example, a sim-
ple medical procedure may be all that is required to 
help a child with eye or ear infections to benefit from 
classroom learning. 
Nevertheless, the medical model (sometimes known 
as the ’defect model’) still exerts a disproportion-
ate influence at many levels. For example, teachers 
and parents sometimes ask questions such as “Can 
children with Down’s Syndrome attend an ordinary 
school?” or “How do you teach children with muscu-
lar dystrophy?” The answer to the last question was 
given by a group of 48 children with muscular dystro-
phy from France:
Care providers cannot understand that we are all 
different, even if we have the same condition, the 
same disability. What we want to say to all adults 
who take care of us is that we are 48 different 
personalities. There is no personality type known 
as muscular dystrophy.
7 
This quotation emphasizes that the rights, needs and 
voice of the individual child are fundamental. It is this 
principle that lies at the heart of the Convention on 
the Rights of the Child and is reflected as well in the 
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.