Summary

• Author: Hunt, Paula Frederica
• Pages: 7-7

Target Group Discussion Paper Children with disabilities

7

Summary

The issues related to children with disabilities have been largely absent from EU policy

development and implementation and not much is documented with regards to the lives of

children with disabilities and their families.

The FSCG Country and PA Reports describe the li fe situation of children with disabilities

and their families as dire in some countri es and unknown in others. Families with chil dren

with disabilities tend to be poorer than other families, have less access to good-quali ty

services, more difficulty in securing employment, and fewer opportunities to develop their

social networks.

While the EU Member States are signatories of the United Nations Convention on the Rights

of the Child (CRC – which is inclusive of children with disabilities), and the EU and its

Member States are signatories of the United Nati ons Convention on the Right s of Persons

with Disabilities (CRPD – which is specific to children with disabilities), the European

Disability Strategy 2020 is mostly silent on their inherent obligations under both

Conventions.

Despite normative frameworks, most children with disabilities in the EU Member States still

have very different life experiences from their peers without disabilities:

• they still do not have adequate access to nutrition that fits their needs and is of

high quality;

• they still lack opportunities to attend and participate in inclusive Early Childhood

Education and Care (ECEC);

• they largely remain separated from their peers without disabilities in education

settings, being placed in special schools or in special classes i n regular schools;

• they still have difficulty accessing quality healthcare – both primary healthcare and

specialised care; and

• they still live in environments that do not adequately respond to their needs .

Even within t he group commonl y described as children with disabilities there are ma rked

differences between children’s experiences, not only due to their own individualities.

Preconceived (often erroneous) notions of disability operate in policy and in practice, giving

the impression that some children in particular categories (for exampl e, children with

intellectual disabilities) are more disabled than others (for example, children with a physical

disability); that children with visible disabilities (for example, children who are blind) are

more disabled than children with invisible disabilities (for example, children with dyslexia);

and that levels of s everity are static and impairment-related, rather t han fluid, subject to

change, and person-specific.

As demonstrated below, the policies aimed at provid ing and/or regulati ng services are

mostly silent on children with disabilities or envision only the minimum requirements, such

as accessibility of public infrastructure or waiving of fees for services. In most countries in

the EU, there is a lack of understanding of disability as part of the human condition, of the

individuality of each child (with a disability) within the group of children with disabilities,

and a lack of understanding of the impact of disability not only on a child but on the entire

family.

As recommended below, the first steps in a future Child Guarantee should be to make

children with disabilities visibl e at all policy and action levels, and a dual approach to

children with disabilities is envisioned. On the one hand, disability must be mainstreamed

throughout policy and implementation, ensuring that all policies and services envision

children with disabilities as part of the overall population they aim to serve. On the other

hand, it is important to recognise that children with disabilities and their families (like other

children from vulnerable populations) may also require specifi c policies and services in

order to be able to realise th eir rights. Thus, making children with disabilities visible in all

EU policy, and ensuring the normative frameworks that already exist are m onitored and

enforced, should be the primary aim of a future Child Guarantee.