Disability

Abstract

Over the years, disabled people have been victims of elimination, exclusion, charity, and segregation, with a move towards a human rights approach to disability taking place only in the last half century. Notwithstanding the remarkable advancement of disability policies and services in signatory countries following the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), a significant percentage of disabled people worldwide are still living in poverty (WHO, 2011) and meeting with numerous barriers that hinder their full inclusion in society. In the European Union (EU) in 2018, 22.6% of persons with disability were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, compared to 7.1% of persons without a disability. In Malta, 21.4% of persons with disability face such a risk, compared to 4.1% of persons without a disability (European Disability Expertise, 2021). Disabled youth are similarly disadvantaged; twice the proportion of Maltese youth aged 18 to 29 were reported to leave school early, compared to 21.3% in the EU27 (European Disability Expertise, 2021). Disabled persons aged between 30 and 34 in Malta were considerably less likely than those without a disability to have completed tertiary education, with proportions of 32.2% and 49.9% respectively (European Disability Expertise, 2021). [Excerpt]