A human rights understanding of disability turns the focus away from a person’s impairment and identifies the social and attitudinal barriers that prevent people with disabilities from enjoying their fundamental human rights.
Our understanding of disability, and the rights of people with disabilities, has evolved significantly over the past thirty years.
In other words, the barriers to equality that people with disabilities face are a result of negative or ‘disabling’ community attitudes and ‘disabling’ social environments that, because of their impairments, they struggle to access or navigate.
Promoting and protecting the rights of people with disabilities involves identifying and removing the social and attitudinal barriers that prevent persons with disabilities enjoying their basic human rights, on the same basis as others.
The Convention puts the focus firmly on the dignity of the person, and not on her or his disability or impairment. This is the ‘human rights model’ of disability.
NO LONGER ‘OBJECTS’ OF PITY
In the past, people with disabilities were seen as ‘objects’ of pity to be managed or cared for. The ‘medical model’ of disability centred on the idea that a person’s impairment was the primary issue that required attention, not the person behind the impairment.
While the broad intention of this approach was to care for people with disabilities, it actually served to isolate them by separating them from the community.
It was also underpinned by the expectation that people with disabilities could not and should not take part in mainstream community life and activities.
The result was laws and policies that locked people with disabilities out of all aspects of community life, from education and employment to sport and social and cultural activities.
Source: https://www.asiapacificforum.net/support/human-rights/people-disabilities/new-perspective/