Welfare policies in relation to people with disabilities tend to focus Essay

Welfare policies in relation to people with disabilities tend to focus on what people with disabilities are unable to do rather than what they can do - Essay Example The policies of states for people with disabilities usually reflect the level at which the needs of these people are respected by the local society. However, again problems and delays are identified in the development of these policies in practice. Most commonly, the welfare policies for people with disabilities focus on what these people are unable to do – rather on what they can actually do. This problem is reviewed and analyzed in this paper. Reference is made to the level at which welfare policies address the actual needs of people with disabilities; the barriers that these policies have to face are also presented aiming to show the reason why the policies referring to the needs and the rights of people with disabilities are based on these peoples’ inabilities rather and not on their potential/ capabilities. It is concluded that the specific strategy – using this criterion for developing the welfare policies for people with disabilities – can be explai ned using different approaches. These approaches are differentiated in each country; however, similarities exist on which the relevant explanations can be based. Another important finding of this study has been the fact that this trend – focusing on these people’s inabilities – seems to be expanded, probably because specific interests are served, as explained analytically below. It should be noted that the criteria used by the legislators when developing policies related to the needs/ interests of people with disabilities are not standardized; the political characteristics of each country – as these characteristics are changed through the decades – are of crucial importance for deciding on the terms under which disabled people will be supported (Chaudhary 2006, p.12). However, often the reasons for which welfare policies refer to the inabilities rather than the abilities/ skills of disabled persons are independent from the political and social ethi cs and trends – for instance, when these policies are applied across a particular organization, the criteria on which these policies are based cannot be controlled using the common ethical rules (Krieger, 2003); this issue is also explored in this study at the level that it helps to understand the trend of welfare policies to focus on the inabilities of disabled persons. 2. Welfare policies for people with disabilities – why these policies tend to focus on what people with disabilities are unable to do rather than what they can do The welfare policies developed within each society are usually related with the local social needs and culture; however, infrastructure available for the relevant policies is also considered to have a critical role in deciding the welfare policies that would be most appropriate for a specific country. On the other hand, the increase of the number of people with disabilities who do not work (Cousins, 2007, p.252) leads to the assumption that m ore funds are required for the financial support of these people; the identification of these funds can be a challenging task for a government – especially in periods of financial crisis and in countries that face severe financial turbulences – like Ireland; the deterioration of a country’s economy can be used as a justification for the limitation of the financial support provided by the state to people with disabilities. In countries where the support provided to disabled people has been traditionally related to the social ethics, the challenges that the local government has to face for retrieving the relevant funds are more; for instance