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Disabled persons in developing, as well as industrialised countries, find barriers in the planned environment, which restricts their independence. It is important, therefore, that those who develop policies for both building and urban planning should take into account the needs of the disabled by providing incentives or implementing policies that provide accessibility for the disabled to private facilities, as well as public. Barriers in the private arena prevent the full integration of the disabled into the economic and social life.
If the needs of the disabled are considered at the planning stage there would be less cost for owners then if they were forced to remodel or renovate. Thus, the Government should provide assistance to private owners to meet the needs of the disabled, such as ramps and making windows, sanitary and electrical controls, and bathrooms accessible to disabled persons.
Governments can do a variety of things such as: assisting owners in their hiring and payments to contractors who would do the work; enact building codes that state that new buildings be accessible to the disabled; and/or give existing private facilities a time period in which to remodel while giving them financial assistance.
Paragraph 11 (g) of the Recommendation concerning Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment states that all barriers and obstacles affecting transport of disabled persons and access to and free movement in premises for their training and employment be eliminated.
Paragraph 17 of The Habitat Agenda states that the one of the agenda's goals is to increase the accessibility of persons with disabilities to shelter, thereby improving their quality of life. According to Chapter III paragraph 25 (d), it states that the standards for accessibility must be in accordance with The Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities.
Paragraph 23 of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons states that "…anyone in charge of any kind of enterprise should make it accessible to people with disabilities." This includes public agencies, non-governmental organisations, and private firms and individuals. Paragraph 113 states that States should adopt a policy of observing accessibility aspects in the planning of human settlements, including programmers in the rural areas of developing countries.
It is very difficult for countries to mobilise adequate resources to meet the needs of the disabled; thus, foreign financial assistance is needed, as is evident in the existence of food aid which is designed to compensate for shortfalls during times of famine and drought. Greater progress can be achieved in reaching these goals if close co-operation is maintained at every level. This includes
a) co-operation and co-ordination among countries, b) multilateral and bilateral assistance agencies, c) international financial institutions, such as the World Bank and regional development banks, d) international organisations, and various organs and bodies of the United Nations system, including South-South, North-South and South-North exchanges of best practices and the e) continuous development of tools and instruments for policy, planning and management.
Bilateral and multilateral donors should set aside adequate resources for the disability component in their financial assistance. Also, donors may tie their aid to disability projects. For example, a donor will send financial assistance if a certain percentage of the aid would be used to satisfy the needs of persons with disabilities.
Donor agencies must establish working relations with disabled persons and/or their organisations. The staff of the donor agency needs to be sensitised about disabled person's concerns. One method would be to organise joint workshops, which would facilitate the implementation of policy guidelines that adequately take into account the concerns of disabled persons.
Paragraph 12 of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action urges the international community to help alleviate the external debt burden of developing countries in order to help developing countries attain the full realisation of the economic, social, and cultural rights of their people.
Article 23 (c) of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development states that the achievement of the objectives of social progress and development requires the implementation of the provision of technical, financial and material assistance, both bilateral and multilateral, to the fullest possible extent and on favourable terms, and improved co-ordination of international assistance for the achievement of the social objectives of national development plans.
Paragraph 7 of the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition notes that in order to give impetus to food production in developing countries, international action should be taken to provide them with sustained additional technical and financial assistance. In additional, all donor countries should implement the concept of forward planning of food aid and make all efforts to provide commodities and/or financial assistance.
Paragraphs 147 and 148 of The Habitat Agenda state that the international community should support Governments. It should promote:
a) Co-ordination of macroeconomic polices at all levels to achieve an international financial system that is conducive to economic and social development, as components of sustainable development b) An environment in all countries that attracts foreign direct investment and encourages savings and domestic investment c) Capacity building in all developing countries d) Financial assistance to developing countries to promote sustainable development e) Facilitate access to international financial resources for all developing countries to benefit from the growing international financial markets in order to promote development
Paragraph 179 of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons states that donor countries should be responsive to requests for assistance in the area of disability. Donor countries are urged to include disability assistance in their bilateral and multilateral assistance programmes.
Paragraph 174 urges international organisations or multilateral financial institutions collaborating with Member States in financial ventures to give priority to programmes that assist the disabled. Multilateral and bilateral aid agencies should include in their programmes measures that ensure the allocation of increased resources for both capital investment and recurrent expenditure for services related to prevention, rehabilitation and equalisation of opportunities.
Paragraph 53 of the Tallinn Guidelines for Action on Human Resources Development in the Field of Disability states that international development assistance programmes should include a specific component that ensures the participation of disabled persons in such schemes.
There should be a strong commitment to enact legislation that equalises employment opportunities for the disabled. States should encourage the implementation of measures and programmes that ensure that disabled persons' entitlements are equal to others. Such measures should include worker's compensation, disability insurance, and unemployment insurance.
Involuntary unemployment exists and, therefore, it is important to ensure that social systems provide employment assistance and economic support to those who are involuntarily unemployed. Special measures should be adopted that are designed to meet the specific needs of the disabled who have a particular problem in the labour market. Measures such as the following: (a) long term cash benefit to compensate for loss of income due to disability; (b) financial assistance as a supplement in the case of low income due to disability; (c) income maintenance during rehabilitation periods and (d) supplementary or special benefits in cash or in kind to compensate for extra expenses due to disability.
Compensation for injury or harm caused by occupational accidents or diseases has occurred in three ways: (1) private insurance, (2) social insurance and (3) civil liability or tort law. The disabled should be able to get compensation by using either one or all three of these avenues. However, worker's compensation is the easiest and most inexpensive avenue for disabled workers to utilise. In enacting legislation, several issues have to be addressed, such as how to determine contribution to the worker's compensation funds and how the benefits will be distributed.
Disability insurance ensures economic and social protection during disability. Legislators must determine what type of benefits are to be covered, i.e. medical treatment, rehabilitation, and restoration of earning capacity.
It is important to ensure that social systems provide employment assistance and economic support to those who are involuntarily unemployed. Unemployment has borne heavily on people with disabilities; thus, they must be taken into account in unemployment insurance schemes. It benefits the disabled whose impairments limit their job opportunities. Unemployment insurance will help disabled persons find employment through special programmes geared to their particular problem, and at the same time it provides economic support, which aids them in providing for themselves and their families.
Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights confers that each person has the right to security in the event circumstances beyond one's control affect one's livelihood. Article XVI of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man proclaims the right of every person to enjoy the protection of the State.
Article 19 of the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Field of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights states than employees right to social security should cover at least medical care and an allowance or retirement benefit in the case of work accidents or occupational disease.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right states that everyone has a right to social security, including social insurance.
Article 26 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises a child's right to social insurance.
Article 11 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women urges States to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights. Article 11 (1) (e) states that such measures are taken in order to ensure the right to social security in cases where there is an incapacity to work.
Article 31 of the Convention concerning Minimum Standards of Social Security urges States to secure to persons the provision of employment injury benefit. According to Article 34, the benefits should include general and specialist practitioner care, nursing care, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, and hospitalisation. Article 35 provides that Governments administering medical care shall co-operate with the general vocational rehabilitation services, with a view to the re-establishment of handicapped persons in suitable work.
Article 4 of the Convention concerning Benefits in the Case of Employment Injury states that national legislation concerning employment injury benefits shall protect all employees in the public and private sectors. Article 6 sets forth the contingencies covered due to an employment injury: (a) a morbid condition; (b) incapacity for work resulting from such a condition and involving suspension of earnings, as defined by national legislation; (c) total loss of earning capacity or partial loss thereof in excess of a prescribed degree, likely to be permanent, or corresponding loss of faculty and (d) the loss of support suffered as the result of the death of the breadwinner by prescribed categories of beneficiaries.
Articles 7 and 8 urge States to define industrial accident and prescribe a list of diseases to be regarded as occupational diseases in their legislation. Article 9 provides that States shall secure to the persons protected the provision of the following benefits: (a) medical care and allied benefits in respect of morbid condition and (b) cash benefits in respect of the contingencies specified in article 6 (b), (c) and (d). Article 9 also states that eligibility for benefits may not be made subject to the length of employment, to the duration of insurance or to the payment of contributions and that benefits be granted throughout the contingency.
Articles 13 and 14 state that cash benefits in respect of temporary or initial capacity for work, and loss of earning capacity likely to be permanent or corresponding loss of faculty shall be periodical payments. Article 16 states that increments in periodical payments or other supplementary or special benefits shall be provided for disabled persons requiring the constant help or attendance of another person.
Articles 19 and 20 state that in the case of a periodical payment, the rate of the benefit shall be as such as to attain, in respect of the contingency in question, for the standard beneficiary, at least the percentage indicated therein of the total of the previous earnings of the beneficiary, or at least the percentage indicated therein of the total wage of an ordinary adult male labourer. Article 23 (1) states that every claimant shall have a right of appeal in the case of refusal of the benefit or complaint as to its quality or quantity.
Article 53 of the Convention concerning Minimum Standards of Social Security urges States to secure to persons the provision of invalidity benefit. According to Article 54, the contingency covered shall include inability to engage in any gainful activity which inability is likely to be permanent or persists after the exhaustion of sickness benefit. Article 53 states that the benefit be provide in periodical payments.
Convention concerning Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment recognises the importance of ensuring that social security systems provide employment assistance and economic support to those who are involuntarily unemployed. Article 2 urges States to take steps to co-ordinate its system of protection against unemployment and its employment policy. It shall seek to ensure that its system of protection against unemployment, and in particular the methods of providing unemployment benefit, contribute to the promotion of full, productive and freely chosen employment, and are not such as to discourage employers from offering and workers from seeking productive employment.
Article 7 encourages States to declare as a priority objective a policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment by all appropriate means, including social security. Such means should include employment services, vocational training and vocational guidance. Article 8 adds that States should establish special programmes to promote additional job opportunities and employment assistance and to encourage freely chosen and productive employment for disadvantaged persons having or liable to have difficulties in finding lasting employment such as disabled persons.
Article 14 states that in cases of full unemployment benefits shall be provided in the form of periodical payments calculated as to provide the beneficiary with partial and transitional wage replacement and, at the same time, to avoid creating disincentives either to work or to employment creation. In addition, article 16 states that these benefits, in combination with any other benefits, to which they may be entitled, should guarantee them healthy and reasonable living conditions in accordance with national standards.
Article 24 sets forth that when a State provides unemployment benefits that the periods which benefits are paid should in its calculation take into account disability. Article 27 provides that in the event of refusal, withdrawal, suspension or reduction of benefit or dispute as to its amount, claimants shall have the right to present a complaint to the body administering the benefit scheme and to appeal thereafter to an independent body. The appeal procedure shall enable the claimant to be represented or assisted by a qualified person of the claimant's choice or by a delegate of representative workers' organisation or by a delegate of an organisation representative of protected persons.
Article 21(b) of the Recommendation concerning Vocational Rehabilitation of the Disabled sets forth that financial assistance is an appropriate measure to be taken to enable disabled persons to make full use of all vocational rehabilitation services. Furthermore, paragraph 22.1 states that financial assistance be provided in order to facilitate the preparation for and retention of suitable employment.
Article 11(a) of the Declaration on Social Progress and Development states that social progress and development should aim for the implementation of insurance schemes for all persons who, because of illness, disability, or old age, are temporarily or permanently unable to earn a living.
Paragraph 29, Commitment 2 (d) of The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action recommends the implementation of policies to ensure that all people have adequate economic and social protection during disability.
Rule 8 (2) of The Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities sets forth that in countries where social insurance schemes exist or are being developed, States should ensure that such schemes do not exclude or discriminate against the disabled.
Paragraph 131 of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons encourages co-operation at the central and local level between government and employers' and workers' organisations in order to develop measures for rehabilitating employees impaired in the job.
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