Examining the Connections between Poverty and Disability:

All too often, in developed and developing countries, persons with disabilities live in poverty.  In many places, people make derogatory assumptions about persons with disabilities, presuming that laziness is the cause of their poverty. Blaming persons with disabilities for their economic condition, however, perpetuates negative stereotypes, overlooks discrimination, and fails to address real barriers to accessibility and full integration within society.

Ongoing debates in the United Kingdom and the United States highlight negative perceptions of persons with disabilities in the public realm.   National Public Radio (NPR) recently ran a six-part series on the increasing number of Americans receiving disability benefits, entitled: “Unfit for work: the startling rise of disability in America.”  Further, in spite of legitimate concerns voiced by advocates and persons with disabilities, massive social benefit cuts have taken effect in the UK.  The cuts will likely do the most harm to persons with disabilities and other disadvantaged sectors of the population.  Certainly, in these tough economic times, the bottom line is a serious consideration for all politicians.  However, the negative rhetoric that portrays persons with disabilities as freeloaders living off of the state’s bankrolls demonstrates not only insensitivity but also a lack of understanding of the relationship between poverty and disability.

In developing countries, persons with disabilities are sometimes faulted for adopting economic survival tactics such as street begging.  An article from Rwanda, for example, describes a plan “designed to sensitise disabled beggars to shun the deplorable habit.”  The underlying suggestion is that persons with disabilities choose not to work or are somehow lazier than other people.

The first step to actually addressing the needs of persons with disabilities is to understand the real links between poverty and disability.  As the World Bank explains, persons with disabilities are overrepresented among the world’s poorest populations, and yet the international development industry has often failed to integrate persons with disabilities into development programming.  Poverty is a common outcome when people are denied equal educational opportunities, face discrimination in hiring practices as well as significant accessibility barriers in the employment realm.  It is thus critical to address these root causes of unemployment or underemployment among persons with disabilities and not to presume laziness or a sense of entitlement.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) recognizes the Right to Work as a critical human right of all persons with disabilities.  Countries can begin to take a step toward economic inclusion and poverty reduction by examining their policies related to disability and employment.  While it is critical to combat discrimination with laws on the books, policies that provide incentives for government and private sector employers to hire persons with disabilities can have a positive impact in advancing implementation of such laws.  Governments and civil society organizations can reduce poverty by striving to make education inclusive of children with disabilities and by providing job skills training to youth and adults with disabilities.  Lastly, governments must take accessibility seriously, as lack of accessibility remains a fundamental barrier to full participation for many persons with disabilities in both developed and developing countries.  Rather than blaming and cutting benefits for persons with disabilities, let’s work toward creating societies that are truly inclusive of all people.

To learn more about the Right to Work, please refer to Human Rights. YES! Chapter 10, which discusses this subject in detail: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/HR-YES/chap-10.html