Children with Disabilities

A disability includes a physical impairment such as mobility, hearing, visual, and language difficulties, and developmental delays which affect a person’s behaviour, emotional expression, and learning abilities. It includes mild to severe disabilities, from cerebral palsy, paralysis and amputation, to blindness, deafness, autism, and dyslexia. Children may be born with an impairment, or develop one as a result of disease, abuse, or an injury, e.g. many children are the victims of shootings, bombings, and explosions in conflict affected areas.

The degree of disability a person experiences is frequently related to society’s adaptation to meet the needs of people with varying abilities. This is known as the social model of disability which highlights the role of the environment in reducing or increasing the ability of individuals to participate equally in everyday life. For example, a person in a wheelchair has the impairment of not being able to walk. The disability, however, may be that he cannot take up services due to a lack of building access. Protection workers must consider any additional needs or risk factors a person may have as a result of his impairment and disability. Children in developing countries are more vulnerable to disability since poverty and conflicts increase the incidence of impairments, and reduce the provision of necessary health, education, social services, and adaptive provisions to help include children of all abilities.

Children with impairments or special needs are highly vulnerable to discrimination, abandonment, abuse, exploitation, injury and death, since they are more reliant on the cooperation and support of others to meet their basic needs, and may be less able to express their wishes. In some cultures, children with special needs are actively excluded from participating in society since they may be viewed as a source of shame, or unworthy of care and protection.

Government policies should seek to reduce the incidence of injuries and diseases via adequate health care, including education, immunizations, nutrition, and sanitation. All programming and policies for children should promote the social inclusion of children with disabilities at every level. Children should benefit from the reduction of physical and social barriers, adaptation of services and/or rehabilitation assistance in order to enable them to participate as fully as possible in their communities. This includes family support, health facilities, access to education, and respite services to enable children to fulfill their potential. Children of all abilities must be empowered to express their views and to influence their own lives.

The resources in this section focus on children with disabilities in developing countries, and those affected by conflict. They highlight their vulnerability to exclusion and abuse, and provide examples of projects to address the needs of children with special needs.

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De-institutionalisation: Myth Buster

Eurochild and Hope and Homes for Children, 10 Oct 2012

This briefing paper seeks to address key misunderstandings about de-institutionalisation. It explains what it is and what it is not and addresses key questions often asked about the need for such institutions, the role they play and the impact of this transformation and what it entails.

De-institutionalisation and Quality Alternative Care for Children in Europe: Lessons Learned and the Way Forward

Eurochild and Hope and Homes for Children, 10 Oct 2012

This paper aims to raise awareness on the perverse effects of institutionalisation on children and it calls for comprehensive system reforms, starting with a transition towards family and community-based care. It highlights country level lessons learnt in the European context that demonstrate how deinstitutionalisation can be achieved in practice.

Protect My Future: The Links Between Child Protection and Equity

Andy West & Emily Delap , 01 Oct 2012

The lack of care and protection facing children is a global crisis with billions of children experiencing abuse, neglect or exploitation, and many millions growing up outside of families, on the streets or in harmful institutional care. This lack of adequate care and protection is commonly the result of inequalities. Children without adequate care and protection are stigmatized and have inequitable access to basic services which, severely diminishes life chances and creates a spiral of disadvantage. In order to break this spiral, the authors of this report recommend a three-pronged strategy.

Safeguarding the rights of children with disabilities in alternative care: Briefing Paper

Working Group on children without parental care-subgroup of NGO Group for CRC, 01 Sep 2012

This briefing note, produced by an Interagency Working Group on children without parental care, was designed to highlight the special vulnerability of children with disabilities who are in alternative care and to encourage members of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) Committee to consider the potential added value of reference to the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children.

BCN , 22 Aug 2012

Care related sections of the Government of the Russian Federation's fourth and fifth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (dated 3rd June 2011).

Better Care Network, 06 Jun 2012

The People’s Republic of China issued its third and fourth combined report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in June 2012. This extract of the report focuses on sections relevant to children's care and in particular those addressing Family Environment and Alternative Care

ENABLING REFORM: Why Supporting Children with Disabilities Must Be at the Heart of Successful Child Care Reform

Better Care Network and EveryChild , 15 Mar 2012

The paper provides a clear agenda for action for reversing the neglect of childhood disability in child care reform and points towards several key policy recommendations.

They All Have Dreams: Community Based Rehabilitation for Children with Disabilities - Good Practices and Lessons from Save the Children Norway Ethiopia Programme Intervention

Save the Children Norway, 2012

The intention of this booklet is to document and share the good practices and results that the Save the Children Norway – Ethiopia (SCN-E) project has achieved at different levels with improved outcomes on the lives of the individual child with disability, families, the community, and institutions.

Child Abandonment and Its Prevention in Europe

The University of Nottingham, 2012

This comprehensive manual provides an overview of child abandonment and its prevention in Europe, exploring the extent of child abandonment, possible reasons behind this phenomenon, the consequences of abandonment, and good practices in terms of prevention. For the purposes of the EU Daphne-funded project, child abandonment is defined in two ways, namely open and secret abandonment. Country specific in-depth reviews of child abandonment and its prevention are provided for 10 countries and results from an EU-wide survey analyzed.

National Council on Disability: Deinstitutionalization Toolkit

National Council on Disability, 2012

The Deinstitutionalization Toolkit is designed to provide all those interested in institutional closures and expanded community living opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities (ID/DD) with information, strategies, state data, and case studies that can facilitate closure and build community capacity to serve more people with ID/DD in the community. It covers topics such as building a broad-based coalition, understanding and working within the political environment, creating a community system of care, and relevant laws, policies, and court decisions.

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