Age and disability in a life-cycle perspective – some policy implications

1. Age and disability in a life-cycle perspective – some policy implications Rune HALVORSEN NOVA Norwegian Social Research, NTNU Social Research & Nordic Center of Excellence in Welfare Research www.nova.no

2. Age and disability – setting the agenda • Two demographic changes of importance for future disability policy in Europe: • rise in life-expectancy • agingpopulation • The disability population is skewed toward the older age cohorts • Europe has had the highest proportion of population aged 65 and over among major world regions for several decades and should remain the global leader well into the twenty-first century. • Rates of disability among the population over the age of 65 are declining. • primarily the result of decreases in the more-severe forms (Robine and Romieu 1998; Freedman, Aykan and Martin 2001).

3. Age and disability in UN CRPD • The UN Convention indicates rather than defines who persons with disabilities are pursuant to the Convention: • “Persons with disabilities include those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.” (CRPD, Article 1)

4. Age and disability in the CoE Action Plan • Those with special needs and those who have a higher risk of exclusion • Action Line 9 Health care • Cross-cutting issue 4.3 People with disabilities in need of high level of support • Cross-cutting issue 4.5 Ageing of people with disabilities • Overall approach and general principles in the Action Plan; universal design and mainstreaming • accessibility to information and communication (Action line 3). • accessibility to the built environment (Action line 6) • accessibility to transport (Action line 7),

5. CRPD: The principle of accessibility • Article 9 • Preamble (point V) • Article 3 on general principles (point 3 f) • Article 4 on general obligations (accessible information, point 4 h) • Article 21 on access to information (points a, c and d) • Article 31 on accessibility to statistical and research data of relevance for the realization of CRPD • Article 49 on ensuring that CRPD is available in accessible formats

6. CRPD: The principle of accessibility II • Universal design: whether environments, facilities, products and services are designed to make them usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible and hence to minimize the need for particular adaptations or special designs (Art 2, Art 4 point f). • Reasonable accommodation: whether it is provided necessary and appropriate modifications or adjustments of social environments to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities (Art 2, Art 5 point 23, Art 24 point 2 c, Art 27 point i) • Usability: whether the facilities, products or services persons with disabilities have access to, fully serve the purposes or functions they are meant to serve (Art. 2) • Availability: whether the products, facilities or services we talk about actually exist and are relevant for the lives of people with disabilities or whether such products, facilities and services are unavailable to economic or other reasons (Art 4 point f & g, Art. 9 point f, Art 26 point 39)

7. Reasonable accommodation • 'disproportionate or undue burden' (CRPD Article 2) • 'anticipatory reasonable accommodation' (‘reasonable adjustment’ under UK law) • accommodation “shall be provided by anticipation” (COM(2008) 426 final, Art 4)

8. Availability • The functioning of the market • The scope of employer provisions • The scope of non-market provisions • The financial situation of persons with disabilities

9. Accessibility policy in Europe – patterns and development trends • Nordic policy makers have assumed and expected a mutually supportive and interdependent relationship between social support and market regulation • In practice distribution of assistive technology and the provision of practical assistance and other public services to compensate for individual impairments have been considerably more developed than social regulation of the market to prevent barriers to participation to occur in the first place(Hvinden and Halvorsen 2003, Hvinden 2004, Whittle and Halvorsen 2007).

10. Accessibility policy in Europe – patterns and development trends • In Europe disability protection and market regulation have to a large extent been two separate policy domains. • Europe has had a higher level of social protection than the United States • In Europe statutory regulations to advance in accessibility and non-discrimination of persons with disabilities is a relatively new policy approach in most European countries. • The US has been leading the way in adopting statutory accessibility requirements for persons with disabilities • The US has been less advanced in distributing resources to enable the individual to enjoy and participate equally in the market and other sectors of society

11. Concluding remarks: response to ageing population • Any rational response to the ageing population in Europe must entail providing more opportunities for the elderly – which includes a substantial and growing number of persons with disabilities – to participate in the market as consumers and workers and live independently (EC 2005). • The market needs to be made fit for demographic changes and adapt to the reality and needs of the growing number of aged and disabled citizens.

12. Concluding remarks: Need for new policy mixes • This yields a threefold policy prescription: • Reengineering of disability protection services and programmes to enable a life of choice, independent living and participation in mainstream society. • Enactment of non-discrimination law and policy to prevent discriminatory attitudes, behaviour and stereotypes in both public and private sector • Use of market regulation tools to create more space for difference among people, including people with disabilities.