Social Support Services for Children with Disabilities

The definition of disability is not a yes and no process, but is in fact an discernment across a scale of abilities, capacities and possibilities. In fact, ability and disability cannot be defined from a medical diagnosis alone. Instead, there are many contributing factors to a person’s ability or inability to do something they want or need to do. For example, if a child cannot walk or go to school it may be related to any one of a number of different health conditions, or limiting environmental factors.

However, the country still uses traditional methods of assessment which include elements of labelling and contribute to stigmatization and discrimination of children and adults alike.

For disability-facing children, this approach is not only unhelpful for achieving their fundamental rights to education or to health services, for instance, but it also effectively hinders their development potential.

Anyone may experience disability at some point in their lives, whether permanent or temporary, intermittent or continuous. Labelling persons and especially children with disabilities as different, incomplete or ‘broken’ is simply not fair.

The terms “ability” and “disability” can be seen on a scale of differing levels and definitions. Everybody, no matter who they are,  fits somewhere on this scale. This is important for all people, but perhaps most vitally for children. 

That is why it is crucial not to classify people and children based on their abilities or disabilities, but to rather focus on their functionality – their potentails, possibilities and abilities –  so that they can fully enjoy their rights to education, health services and social support and care.