The aim of the “Disability Movement” was to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities, which it is still its primary goal. It began in the 1970’s encouraged by the African-American civil rights and Women’s Rights movements; it focused a lot to help disabled people access public areas, education and employment. The overall motive is to enable the disabled users to become active participants in mainstream society, without being stigmatised and left isolated. Since the 1960’s there have been a growing number of disability movements advocating the civil rights for people with disabilities.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_Rights_Movement]
Disabled Peoples’ International and Disability Awareness in Action were amongst the many organisations set up to ensure that people with disabilities were not violated against under any human rights laws. The impact of the social policy was expected to be shaken by the disability movement as stated the aim “of the disability movement is to change the way society operates so that disabled people are accommodated on equal terms” (Swain, Finkelstein, French and Oliver 1993: 23). The statement mentions, “The way in which society operates” suggesting that there were clear defects in dealing with the disabled people.
The main area of the social policy change brought about by the disability movement was on education. The Education Act 1944 urged that disabled children should get educated in mainstream schools. Educational Authority were making decisions to provide education for children according to the 3 A’s, “age, aptitude and ability”. What made this a disadvantage to the disabled children that the schools failed to maximise the potent ional of the children, hence the need of schools for Special Needs.
The introduction of Special Needs schools also had disadvantaged the children, due to a very acute syllabus and the low expectations of the teachers of children who were deemed needing “special needs”. The obvious segregation meant that there was a policy dilemma between “integration VS segregation” which was identified as the most significant issue of education and disability, which unfortunately has not been resolved. There was to be a separate syllabus for children with learning disability which would provide efficient learning opportunity for all pupils ensuring that their needs are met more specifically, to deal with adult life.
Only in 1995 it became illegal in Britain to discriminate against disabled people ‘in connection with employment, the provisions of goods, facilities and services and education’. The ‘weak and toothless’ law of 1995, was amended after the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act was implemented in 2001, which made it unlawful for education providers to discriminate against disabled pupils, students and adult learners . The disability Rights commission as well as other disability governing bodies are pressing the goverment to adhere to new plans to address the low expected institutes and systems to be able to provide premium, service for all special needs people.
Before the Disability Discrimination Act, disabled people could legally be refused employment by employers. The disabled people will unreasonably correspond to jobs of lower status and lower salary jobs, as a result of poor foundation schooling and the lack of opportunities that was made available for the disabled, as mentioned earlier. The stigmatism occurred when the disabled were deemed as ‘unemployable’ and those who were in employment were openly discriminated against, due to the majority opinion. Employers had a stereotypical outlook to the ability and level of productivity of disabled people.
The empowerment of the disabled people is an area of mention. The rise of the disability movement has been based on empowerment of themselves, as it has been mainly led by the disabled themselves. This encourages the disabled users of service to denote unity, and to provide the people of the society a view of ‘ability’ as opposed to ‘disability’.
The Community Care Act 1996 is a clear example of attempts of increasing the employment for disabled people. This has had many benefits as the government allows local authorities to release funds directly to service users, who purchase their own services and allocate the services to whom they assess as being eligible. It empowers the users to assess their own needs and decide which services cater for their specific needs.
Individuals may come into their own conclusions after reading such statements and arguments bought forward. I, myself have come to a conclusion that the impact of the Disability movement on Social Policy has been major. The amendments to the law suggest that the society as well the government were failing in providing disabled people with what they required as humans. British society by making necessary adaptations to laws and services automatically give in to the argument that disabled people were not treated equally, were not provided for equally and were not perceived as equal to those without disability.
The significance of the acceptance of the disabled people may be more satisfying to them as opposed to the legislations that were amended to provide for needs, although I do not belittle the benefit that came out of the amendments. The way in which they were addressed has also been impacted as they were called “crippled” which may have been offensive, to the more accepted “people with disability”. With regards to the social model the government has failed to accomplish their full purpose of providing for all, hence has impacted them by pressuring them into making changes.
The impact of disability movement on businesses and service provision are also major, as adapting to the disabled needs by physical changes, such as ramps, lowered light switches and lowered reception desks and payphones. The impact of the Social Policy of Britain has been impacted very deeply, and has been able to make significant improvement not just to the individuals who have disability but to the general public.
The societal learning of disability is the main way of overcoming this stigma, which moral and physically may offend the disabled. It is clear that the disabled people have played a major role in aiding the British Social Policy, and should in fact be people worthy of mentioning and even to honour them as “freedom fighters”
References
Books
Borsay, A. (2005). Disability and Social Policy in Britain since 1750. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan
Dalley, G. (1991). Disability & Social Policy. London: Policy Studies Institute
Oliver, M. (1996). Understanding disability – from theory to practice. Hampshire: Macmillan Press Ltd
Pierson, J. & Thomas, M. (2002). Dictionary of Social Work. Glasgow: Harper Collins
Shakespeare, T. (2003) The Disability Reader – Social Science Perspectives. London: Contiuum
Swain, J. and Finkelstein, V. and Oliver, M. (1993). Disabling Barriers – Enabling Environments. London: Sage Publications
Swain, J. and French, S. and Cameron, C. (2003). Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society. Buckingham: Open University Press
Journals
Barnes, C. (2002). Disability, Politics and Policy in Policy and Politics. Vol 30 No 3
Drake, R.F. (2002). Disabled people, Voluntary Organisations and participation in Policy Making in Policy and Politics. Vol 30 No 3
Websites
General Social Care Council. [Online], Available: [10th Nov 2006]
