Realizing Equal Rights in Practice for People with Disabilities in Argentina and the United States

2012 ◽  
pp. 327-358
Author(s):  
Mary MacLennan
2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene S Kanter

This article explores the developing ‘right to live in the community’ for people with disabilities under international law and the domestic laws of two countries: the United States and Israel. In 2006, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD). This Convention embraces a human rights approach to disability, based on the principles of equality, dignity, freedom and inclusion. Based on these principles, Article 19 of the CRPD includes a specific right of all people with disabilities ‘to live in the community, with choices equal to others’. The author argues that the mandate of community living in Article 19 supports an explicit legal right of all people with disabilities not only to live in the community, but to choose where to live and with whom, and with supports, as needed. This new international legal right to live in one's home in the community also advances the goals and principles of the domestic laws of the US and Israel.In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects the right of people with disabilities to receive services in ‘the most integrated’ setting. Relying on this ‘integration mandate’, the US Supreme Court, in 1999, upheld a limited right of people with disabilities to live in the community inOlmstead v LC and EW. In Israel, the Parliament (Knesset) enacted a law similar to the ADA in 1998. This law, the Equal Rights of Persons with Disabilities Law (‘Equal Rights Law’) includes a general right of people with disabilities to equality and non-discrimination. Although the current version of the Equal Rights Law does not include a specific article on the right to live in the community, the basis for such a right may be found in other articles of the law as well as other Israeli laws. In addition, in the recent case ofLior Levy et al., the Israeli High Court of Justice was asked to consider the right to live in the community under Israeli law. While the Court in this case recognised a limited right to live in the community, it failed to invalidate as discriminatory the Israeli government's policy of placing people with disabilities in large institution-like hostels rather than in homes in the community. The author concludes the article with a discussion of the scope and meaning of community living and the extent to which institutions, as well as community housing that functions just like institutions, should be prohibited under the CRPD as well as under US and Israeli law.


Author(s):  
Melissa A. Pierce

In countries other than the United States, the study and practice of speech-language pathology is little known or nonexistent. Recognition of professionals in the field is minimal. Speech-language pathologists in countries where speech-language pathology is a widely recognized and respected profession often seek to share their expertise in places where little support is available for individuals with communication disorders. The Peace Corps offers a unique, long-term volunteer opportunity to people with a variety of backgrounds, including speech-language pathologists. Though Peace Corps programs do not specifically focus on speech-language pathology, many are easily adapted to the profession because they support populations of people with disabilities. This article describes how the needs of local children with communication disorders are readily addressed by a Special Education Peace Corps volunteer.


1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Sherron de Hart

“ERA Won't Go Away!” The words were chanted at rallies and unfurled on banners at countless marches as the deadline—June 30, 1982—approached for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. To include in the Constitution the principle of equality of rights for women, supporters insisted, was an essential of republican government in a democratic society. Congress had shared that perception in 1972, passing a series of measures aimed at strengthening and expanding federal legislation banning discrimination on the basis of sex. Included was a constitutional amendment simply stating that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” Thirty-five of the thirty-eight states necessary for a three-fourths majority needed to amend the Constitution had given their approval.


Author(s):  
Richard D. Brown

While cherishing ideas of equal rights and equality, Americans have simultaneously sought inequality. The Revolution of 1776 committed Americans to the idea of equal rights, but just as fundamentally it dedicated the United States to the protection and increase of individual property and the power to direct it to heirs. Although equal rights and individual property rights have proved compatible with religious and ethnic equality, social and economic inequality, both meritocratic and inherited, have been integral to the American social and political order. Moreover, based on the emerging biologies of race and sex, the idea of equal rights for people of color and for women faced new barriers in nineteenth-century America and beyond into the twenty-first century.


Author(s):  
Carmen Van Ommen ◽  
Barbara S. Chaparro

According to a survey conducted by the CDC, it is estimated that 26% of Americans are living with a disability. Of those with disabilities in the United States, it is estimated that 33 million play video games. People with disabilities face many barriers in gaming, which is likely to impact game satisfaction. Measuring game satisfaction among this population can be problematic if the scale is not adapted to their needs, which can vary significantly based on the disability. To understand how best to assess game satisfaction among these populations, we discuss the issues people with cognitive, sensory, and/or motor disabilities may face when completing assessment scales and then use the validated Game User Experience Satisfaction Scale (GUESS) as a framework for understanding the game design issues that may impact satisfaction.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Brett Krutzsch

The introduction addresses how gay activists memorialized select people as martyrs in order to influence national debates over LGBT rights. In particular, the chapter lays out how religion shaped both the process of gay political memorialization as well as gay assimilation in the United States more broadly. The introduction additionally covers the history of American gay activism, the rise of assimilatory tactics following the American AIDS crisis, and the promotion of gays as “normal” citizens. As became common at the turn of the twenty-first century, many gay activists argued that gays were just like straights and, therefore, deserving of equal rights. The chapter also details how Protestant sexual standards shaped the nation’s ideas about acceptable sexual citizens and, in turn, how gay activists promoted Protestant values as necessary for the rights of full American citizenship.


2019 ◽  
pp. 0739456X1984456
Author(s):  
Lynn McCormick ◽  
Alex Schwartz ◽  
Chiara Passerini

Although some scholars have discussed the serious shortage of appropriate housing for people with disabilities, planners and housing policy makers have been largely silent on this issue. We summarize the literature, to date, about the housing needs of people with disabilities in the United States. We investigate what progress states have made in addressing these needs since the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) by examining recent court-ordered state Olmstead plans and their U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Consolidated plans. We find that states are mostly aware of the size and housing needs of people with disabilities but have not yet developed sufficient programming.


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