European Support for People with Disabilities
| Date | 01 June 1992 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/00483489210021099 |
| Pages | 74-87 |
| Published date | 01 June 1992 |
| Author | Terry Moreton |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
Personnel
Review
21,6
74
European Support for People
with Disabilities
Terry Moreton
University of
Leeds,
UK
This article examines the
financial
provisions of
the
European Social Fund (ESF)
for people with disabilities, in the United Kingdom. It provides some
quantification of funds provided for the period 1990-1992 and explains how these
funds are administered and distributed. It begins with an examination of the
employment and unemployment profiles of people with disabilities in the United
Kingdom and concludes with an assessment of the ultimate effect of these
expenditures on the employment prospects of people with disabilities.
People with Disabilities in the Labour Market
In the article on sheltered employment in this issue, and in a different manner
in Colin
Barnes' article,
also in this
issue,
the population of people
with
disabilities
is described in some detail. To briefly reiterate, however, there are almost 1.4
million people with disabilities in the United Kingdom within the economically
active age band[l], representing 3.8 per cent of the labour force[l,2].
Terminology
There is often debate about the meaning and appropriateness of terms like
disability and handicap. This is unfortunate since the marginal utility derived
from any resolution of this debate is likely to be zero. Commonly the terms
disability and handicap are used as synonyms and sometimes the discussion
is concerned with which of these is more appropriate and least
alienating.
Access
News[3]
provides a useful distinction:
There is a distinction between disability and handicap which many people still confuse. A
disability is, generally speaking, the inability to perform tasks that might normally be expected
of people who have no impairment. A handicap is the disadvantage which results from a
disability.
The phrase "people with disabilities" is, of
course,
a global term. Subsumed
within this are many categories of disability which engender a multiplicity of
handicaps. Disabilities range from physical impairment to sensory impairment
to psychiatric and mental impairment. There are some who have multiple
disabilities. Added to these are those people with disabling illnesses such as
asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, epilepsy, and so on, which also impose
handicap. It is these wide arrays of disability and handicap which render any
collective term such as "the disabled" or the "handicapped" inappropriate
and misleading. This fact must be constantly borne in mind when formulating
or
evaluating policies
and strategies which
have
as their object support for
people
who have disabilities.
Personnel Review,
Vol.
21 No. 6,
1992,
pp. 74-87. © MCB University
Press.
0048-3486
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