Equal Rights For People Research Articles

ПОЛИЭТНИКАЛЫҚ ЖӘНЕ ПОЛИКОНФЕССИОНАЛДЫ ҚОҒАМ ҚАЛЫПТАСТЫРУДЫҢ ҚАЗАҚСТАНДЫҚ ҮЛГІСІ: СИПАТТАМАЛЫҚ ТАЛДАУ

Abstract. Interethnic relations in the multinational Kazakh country have become a decisive factor in sustainable and democratic development, an objective prerequisite for national security and the basic basis of the state's foreign policy activities. Our country is the most steadily developing State in the region. Kazakhstan is a reliable and authoritative partner state for countries with friendly intentions. The main values of the State are ensuring freedom and equal rights of people regardless of their ethnic origin and religious beliefs. The creation of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan indicates that the national policy has actually reached the institutional level. The Assembly of People of Kazakhstan as a social institution forms effective mechanisms for the harmonization of interethnic relations and lays a new qualitatively new foundation. The essence of this innovation was to establish mutual partnerships between State policy and public associations in strengthening interethnic and interreligious harmony. This is a unique phenomenon in the history of modern civilization. Thus, the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan is a synthesis of state policy and public organizations in strengthening social harmony and tolerance of civil society. The main milestones of the 20-year period of the formation and development of the APK as a socio-political institution regulating the sphere of interethnic relations, the study of the main value of national unity – tolerance of the people of Kazakhstan - is a very topical issue and determines the relevance of the work. There remain studies, conclusions and scientific opinions of foreign and domestic historians, political scientists devoted to ethnopolitical processes. The article examines historical, political events and interethnic relations from the point of view of objective reality and differentiates in accordance with the requirements of country interests. The research work uses the principles of system-structural theory, accurate analysis, methods of generalization, comparison, systematization, logical, statistical analysis from historical data and documents. In addition, the article examines historical, political events and interethnic relations from the point of view of objective reality and differentiates in accordance with the requirements of country interests. Based on the analysis of the experience of the twenty-year history of the development of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, the Institute of Social Harmony and National Policy was studied as a socio-political institute for the coordination of interethnic relations, the main core of which is the ethnopolitics of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Keywords: ethnos; multinational; demographic situation; ethnic structure; interethnic; interreligious denomination; migration; social harmony.

Stigma and Prosthetic Rehabillitation Chalange for Leprosy Survivor in Pandemic Situation

Indonesia ranks third in terms of countries with the highest number of leprosy in the world. This fact hasn't changed since 20 years ago. This shows the magnitude of leprosy management problems, both at the world level and national level. These problems range from the problem of finding new cases, continuity of the provision of various drug regimens, and control of the spread. In addition to problems related to the detection and handling of new cases, there are also problems in leprosy survivors. Survivors generally have disabilities due to the disease. The disability can continue to be aggravated over time, even though leprosy itself has healed long since. These disabilities vary from numbness, paralysis, shortened and claw-like fingers on the hands and feet, wounds resulting in amputations of the nose, ears, fingers and limbs. Such problems require a complete and continues management. Meanwhile, the management of leprosy, both in patients and survivors, has challenges both in terms of medical, policy, financing, and culture. Not to mention the challenges related to low socialistism, not many Indonesians know the problem of leprosy, especially knowing the magnitude of the problem. Pandemic conditions make things worse. This case report will explain the journey of leprosy survivor who has been amputated and has rehabilitation related to the maintenance and replacement of leg prosthetic in pandemic situation. It will describe the stigma, medical, and socioeconomic challenges that he has to go through. This case report is expected to be an inspiration in improving public, academics, policy makers, and stakeholder awareness, related to leprosy handling problems in Indonesia, both problems for patient and survivors. Thus, it is ultimately expected to reduce the level of disability, promote equal rights for people with disabilities, and support the realization of leprosy elimination nationally and internationally.

Needless barriers: Despite advances, equal rights for people with disabilities still lag far behind

Needless barriers: Despite advances, equal rights for people with disabilities still lag far behind

Reflecting on an unexpected challenge in obtaining ethical approval for research with adults with learning disabilities

Obtaining ethical approval for my PhD research with adults with learning (intellectual) disabilities presented an unexpected challenge of learning to work with two sets of guidance: the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), and the Ethical Conduct in Human Research and Related Activities Regulations (HRR). The CRPD binds States Parties to progress equal rights for people with disabilities of which Article 12, equal recognition before the law, disconnects mental capacity from legal capacity. The HRR protects participants, researchers and institutions and recognises mental capacity as a component of informed consent. In applying the CRPD and the HRR as complementary safeguards, and looking through the lens of edgewalking, I gained an appreciation for positively encountering complexity and incorporating multiple points of view. This article will describe how my challenging experience enabled skill building to develop a more strategic academic voice and will be of interest to student and other researchers.

A rights-based critique of the Turkish mental healthcare reform: deinstitutionalisation without independent living?

This article offers a critical examination of the 2006 Turkish mental healthcare reform aimed at deinstitutionalisation and introduction of a community-based approach. Combined with Turkey’s ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the rhetoric of the reform signified a step towards a rights-based approach. Despite some evidence of progress towards deinstitutionalisation, this article suggests that the reform has largely failed in its goal of implementing a rights-based approach, for three reasons: its inability to address unmet needs for mental healthcare, its failure to complement community-based mental healthcare provision with social policy programmes, and its deficiency in legislating civil rights protections. These failures have engendered an ineffective trend towards deinstitutionalisation rather than facilitating the transition to independent living. Finally, this article calls for a nuanced understanding of deinstitutionalisation, with consideration of the broader social policy and civil rights environment within which the mental healthcare system is embedded. Points of interest While Turkey introduced a reform in mental health in 2006 and ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, the broader implications of these changes for people with mental health problems remain unknown. The 2006 reform facilitated independent living of people with mental health problems by launching community-based provision of mental health services. Despite this positive outcome, the reform has largely failed to promote independent living as mental health service provision is still limited; employment, housing, personal assistance and income support programmes are lacking; and the rights of people with mental health problems are not brought under legal protection. The article argues that to promote independent living, decreasing the capacity of institutional care is necessary but not sufficient. It must be complemented with social and economic support programmes and legal guarantees for the equal rights of people with mental health problems.

Exploring the participation of people with developmental disabilities in self-advocacy groups in Korea: “I like it because I can share my story in front of others with my friends!”

This study investigated the experiences of people with developmental disabilities in self-advocacy groups to better understand the self-advocacy movement, which is currently in its developing stage in Korea. Face-to-face interviews with 18 people with disabilities were conducted. Study participants got involved in self-advocacy groups with the expectation of ‘voicing our stories’, ‘meeting new peers’, and ‘expanding the scope of activity in their local communities’. They participated in various activities from leisure to group advocacy against discrimination based on disability. After participating in self-advocacy groups, they expressed self-confidence, improved their communication skills, and developed new goals for their own lives. Participation in self-advocacy groups helped them replace feelings of loneliness with belonging and expanded their involvement in independent activities and leadership roles. Points of interests This article examines the experiences of people with developmental disabilities in self-advocacy groups in Korea. People joined self-advocacy groups to tell their stories, meet new people, and participate in more activities in the community. People developed communication, leadership, and self-determination skills and reported less loneliness, more confidence, and a greater sense of belonging. People wanted to increase their self-advocacy group’s activities and membership, have leadership roles, and further advocate for non-discrimination and equal rights for people with developmental disabilities. Funding and supporters outside of service providers is suggested to give people with developmental disabilities equal power to lead the self-advocacy movement.

Improvement of Disability Rights via Geographic Information Science

Rights, legal regulations, and practices often arise from societal and scientific developments, and societal transformations may originate from new legal regulations as well. Basic rights can be re-defined with advancements in science and technology. In such an evolutional loop, where mutual supply is obvious, combined legal and technological frameworks should be exercised and developed for practicing human rights. The main aim of this article is to propose a conceptual and methodological framework for the improvement of disability rights in the light of recent advancements in geographic information science (GIScience), in particular for those with motor disabilities, for whom questions related to “where” are essential. The concept of disability is discussed, considering different aspects, and a new methodological framework is proposed in which Geographic Information Systems (GIS), volunteered geographic information (VGI) and citizen science are at the core. In order to implement the framework at the national and international levels, a spatial data model should be developed first. The new data collection and interpretation approaches based on VGI, citizen science, and machine learning methods may help to realize equal rights for people with motor disabilities, by enabling improved access to education, health, and travel.

Implementation of Law Protection of the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities in Aerial Transportation

Rights in human rights have a position or prime and first degree in community life Article 28I Paragraph 2 of the 1945 Constitution provides that everyone is free from discriminatory treatment. However, discriminatory treatment still occurs misses in the case of Dwi Aryani Vs Etihad Airways which is derived by the airline on the grounds that he is a person with disabilities who are in wheelchairs and no counselors. How the implementation of legal protection by airlines on equal rights for groups of People with disabilities in aviation transport The author examines this issue using legal research methods for academic purposes. The research data shows that the airport does not yet have complete facilities for groups of People with disabilities, the absence of technical regulations / implementers that further regulate the Law No. 8 of 2016, lack of socialization and education to the public, airport service providers, airlines, and field officers. This is why the protection of groups with disabilities is less effective. Governments should issue technical / implementing regulations related to the Disability Law, and conduct socialization and education to the public, airport facility providers, airlines and field workers. Groups Of People With Disabilities, Discrimination, Human Rights

Supported decision making for people with mental health disorders in clinical practice: a systematic review

Objectives: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) was adopted at the United Nations Assembly in 2006. The main aim of the convention is to ensure equal rights for people with disabilities including the expression of people’s own “will and preferences” concerning health treatment. Article 12 demands the respect of a person’s “rights, will and preferences” (CRPD) and suggests supported decision making (SDM) when possible. The aim of this review was to gather information regarding the SDM implementation from a clinical perspective for people with mental health disorders.Methods: A systematic literature search was performed on electronic databases MEDLINE, PsycARTICLES, and PsycINFO using the keywords “supported decision making” and “UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities” in March 2018.Results: Eleven articles were included in the final review, which focussed on three themes: (1) different models of SDM, (2) stakeholder views, and (3) challenges for implementation. A limited number of papers described clinical models that had good theoretical consistency with SDM. The main challenges of implementation related to critical situations when “will and preferences” are poorly understood or appear contradictory. Future studies should assess specific models of SDM implementation, including related outcomes and process measures.

Self-Evident Truths: Contesting Equal Rights from the Revolution to the Civil War by Richard D. Brown

Reviewed by: Self-Evident Truths: Contesting Equal Rights from the Revolution to the Civil War by Richard D. Brown Melinda Lawson (bio) Self-Evident Truths: Contesting Equal Rights from the Revolution to the Civil War By Richard D. Brown. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2017. 400 pages, 22 halftones, 6⅛” x 9¼.” $40.00 cloth. The founders’ call for equal rights has long drawn scrutiny for the many ways it stood at odds with the realities of their world. Even at the time there were critics—particularly British critics— who noted what appeared clearly to them to be flagrant hypocrisy. Samuel Johnson, whose 1775 pamphlet featured a scathing observation about the slaveholders’ “yelps for liberty,” is merely the most well-known of these. Richard Brown’s Self-Evident Truths sets out to “investigate the proposition that the self-evident truths proclaimed in the Declaration were not simply rhetorical window-dressing but inspired serious aspirations from the moment they were proclaimed” (viii). Since many of these aspirations met vigorous opposition, the decades following the Revolution were marked by a series of contests over the meaning of equal rights. Brown’s book explores the struggle over that meaning as it took place concerning race, gender, religion, nationality, age, and class. Focusing on constitutions, bills of rights, and courtroom practices, Brown examines the ways in which various states either realized or disavowed equal rights in theory, policy, and practice. When the Revolutionaries declared all men equal and endowed with inalienable rights, “they spoke abstractly, without closely considering the ultimate consequences of their expansive rhetoric” (292). It is not, Brown explains, that the founders were hypocritical. They did not intend to include Indians or slaves because neither were considered to be members of society, and they failed to anticipate the rise of a free black population. They never considered that women or children might have equal rights, and though they repealed primogeniture and entail, they never believed that equal rights meant equal distribution of property. The privileges the founders were most concerned with removing were those that separated them from other elite white men in England: the kind that monarchs and aristocrats distributed—privileges that as American colonists they could never enjoy. But the language the founders employed laid the rhetorical groundwork for much broader claims, and over the years numerous groups took up the call for equal rights. Even when they did not succeed, these early actions laid the groundwork for subsequent movements and ultimately for a much more expansive understanding of equal rights. Given the founders’ limited conception of membership in society, it is not surprising that the earliest successes among these quests lay in the realms of religion and nationality or ethnicity, [End Page 295] where the people in search of equality were also white males. An emphatic belief in the right to property meant that campaigns for equal rights for people of color, for women and children, and for class equality met more resistance. Though the level of resistance varied, the outcomes for equal rights in all these arenas were marked by complexity. Progress varied between and even within states; moreover, as Brown’s focus on practice reveals, a state’s constitution and its policies might mandate one thing, while its practices revealed something very different. Regarding religious equality, for example, in North Carolina state laws forbade establishment, mandatory church attendance, and directed or nondirected taxation for churches. The state also prohibited active clergymen from serving in a legislative state body. Still, these laws did not add up to religious equality: the state also required all state officeholders to swear to a belief in the “‘the divine authority of the Old and New Testaments’” and “‘avow the ‘truth of the Protestant religion’”(43), thus barring free thinkers, Catholics, and Jews. Yet Brown points to practicing Catholics as well as one Jew serving in state office while these laws were in effect. If those practices diverged from policy in a manner that defied prescribed limits on equal rights, the opposite was true for people of color. In nineteenth-century New England, though no policy suggested that African Americans were to be punished differently, blacks were nine times more likely...

AIDS, Human Rights, and Public Security in China

This paper offers a detailed analysis of the epidemiological and legal paradigm for HIV risk in China, paying a particular attention to China’s public security involvement in addressing HIV/AIDS epidemic. In the past two decades, instead of developing a supportive environment of HIV/AIDS prevention and care, China has developed a punitive approach in its responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including cracking down on prostitution, drug use and drug trafficking, illegal blood collection, and intentional HIV transmission. The paper reviews how the Chinese government painted HIV/AIDS as a foreigner's disease and moral problem in 1987-2006, and China's discrimination and isolation policy against people with HIV/AIDS. In 2006, the Chinese government began to implement China’s Regulations on HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment which commits to guarantee equal rights of people with HIV/AIDS in medical care, marriage, employment and education, but in reality people with HIV/AIDS are facing severe discrimination on medical care, marriage, employment and education. Finally, the paper introduces China’s public security surveillance against people with HIV/AIDS or people at risk of HIV infection nationally, which causes stigmatization, privacy disclosure, and rights violations against people with HIV/AIDS.

Wybrane aspekty funkcjonowania osób z niepełnosprawnością w rolach rodzicielskich

Parenting is sometimes seen as a gift or as a duty. In any case, it is the responsibility of the parent (adult) for a child, who should be given the opportunity for the fullest development and gaining happiness in his/her life. At the same time, parenthood gives man the opportunity to complete his/her happy fate. Can anyone be well prepared for parenthood and fulfill it well? Today, it is quite often posed the question of the right of disabled people to parenthood. Societies declaring the inalienable and equal rights of people with different types of disability in the face of having children by disabled people (especially with intellectual disabilities) are no longer so clearly unanimous. The abovementioned dilemmas are taken into consideration and presented in this article. The author presents stories of disabled parents – their dilemmas and problems faced every day. She draws attention to the “shadows” but also the “pros” of parenthood of disabled people.

The Inaccessible Road to Motherhood — The Tragic Consequence of not having Reproductive Policies for Israelis with Disabilities

INTRODUCTION The desire of an individual to become a parent can be very strong, especially in child-centric societies, where the idea of having children and raising a family is highly valued. In those societies, the prominent pro-natal nature translates into policies and laws regulating reproduction. The Jewish-Israeli society is a prime example of such a society where the use of state-funded Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ARTs) is the highest in the world--eight times higher than the international average. (1) However, the road to becoming a parent is not as smooth for all members of Israeli society. A recent case that went all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court proved how the current Israeli reproductive policies, particularly surrounding third-party reproduction methods such as adoption or surrogacy, are inaccessible to people with disabilities (among other minority groups) who share the same great desire to become parents. (2) The Ora Mor Yosef case revolves around a Jewish-Israeli woman with muscular dystrophy who could not bear a child because of her impairment. Her dream of becoming a mother was so powerful that after exhausting all of her other options, she used a surrogate, sperm donation, and egg donation to bring a baby into the world. However, the lack of genetic-biological connection to the baby led the courts to decide not to recognize Ora as the mother, meaning that she never had the chance to even see the baby. This Article will examine the exceptional case of Ora Mor Yosef in a broad context and from a Legal perspective. It will compare Israeli socio-legal treatment of what I refer to as the right to become a parent with the United States legal system and will show how Israeli law makes it more difficult for women with disabilities to have children. It will continue with a discussion on the concept of disabled motherhood from a comparative Israeli-American perspective. This discussion will illuminate that there are still universal struggles and hardships for people with disabilities, specifically women, as they endeavor to become mothers and in raising their children. By using a Disability Legal Studies framework and a socio-legal analysis, this interdisciplinary Article will bring to the foreground issues and ramifications that were not found in the original reasoning of the Israeli courts' rulings on the Ora Mor Yosef case and will demonstrate the crucial role legal institutions play in the social construction of disability and its treatment by society. It is my hope that this paper will therefore help bring more attention to the issue of disabled parents and prevent tragic instances like the one standing in the heart of this paper from recurring. It is important to conduct a comparative analysis of the American and Israeli legal systems on this issue since the Israeli legal treatment of people with disabilities has been influenced by American disability rights academia, legislation, and activism. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was used as the model for the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law, which is the main Israeli legislation governing this population, and American legal scholars were even involved in its enactment. (3) Furthermore, the work of Bizchut--the Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, the leading organization on promoting the rights of Israelis with disabilities--was influenced by the work of American civil rights organizations. (4) The two systems differ, however, as Israel has signed and ratified (5) the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), (6) while the United States has declined to do so. (7) This is the first time that such a comparative analysis has been conducted on the issue of parents living with disabilities, and it helps shed light on the broader relationship between disability and law. Part I introduces the socio-legal landscape regarding access to reproduction in Israel and the United States. …

Development of physiotherapy inherent requirement statements – an Australian experience

BackgroundThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities promotes equal rights of people with a disability in all aspects of their life including their education. In Australia, Disability Discrimination legislation underpins this Convention. It mandates that higher education providers must demonstrate that no discrimination has occurred and all reasonable accommodations have been considered and implemented, to facilitate access and inclusion for a student with a disability. The first step to meeting legislative requirements is to provide students with information on the inherent requirements of a course. This paper describes the steps which were taken to develop inherent requirement statements for a 4-year entry-level physiotherapy program at one Australian university.Case presentationInherent requirement statements were developed using an existing framework, which was endorsed and mandated by the University. Items which described inherencies were extracted from Australian physiotherapy professional standards and statutory regulatory requirements, and units contained in the physiotherapy program. Data were integrated into the 8 prescribed domains: ethical behaviour, behavioural stability, legal, communication, cognition, sensory abilities, strength and mobility, and sustainable performance. Statements for each domain were developed using a 5-level framework (introductory statement, description of the inherent requirement, justification for inherency, characteristics of reasonable adjustments and exemplars) and reviewed by a University Review Panel. Refinement of statements continued until no further changes were required. Fifteen physiotherapy inherent requirement statements were developed. The eight domains identified in the existing framework, developed for Nursing, were relevant to the study of physiotherapy.ConclusionsThe inherent requirement statements developed in this study provide a transparent, defensible position on the current requirements of physiotherapy study at one Australian university. These statements are transferable to other physiotherapy programs in Australia due to standardised physiotherapy accreditation requirements. The model and framework could be applied to other health professional courses and used to explore the physiotherapy inherent requirements from an international perspective.

Invisible Access Needs of People With Intellectual Disabilities: A Conceptual Model of Practice

One of the important purposes of equal rights legislation is to codify the right to equal and active participation in society for people with disabilities. Accommodating the needs of a person with a disability enables her/him to live with maximum independence, privacy, and dignity. Thus, most such laws include sections that emphasize accessibility as a significant enabler of participation. Accessibility describes the degree to which a system, facility, or service is usable without modification by as many people as possible (Australian Government Information Management Office [AGIMO], 2008). It refers to one’s ability to reach a place, move and navigate in it, use and enjoy a service, receive information, and take part in programs and activities, all in an equal, respectable, independent, and safe manner (Americans With Disabilities Act [ADA], 1990; Israeli Equal Rights for Persons With Disabilities Law — Accessibility Amendment, 2005). Access ramps or Braille-encoded elevator panels are ubiquitous examples of common accessibility accommodations. Yet, accessibility accommodations for people with intellectual disabilities are nearly absent, as their accessibility needs are often invisible to legislators, professionals, and laypeople alike. For example, although access needs to public transportation of a person using a wheelchair are easily apparent and protected by legislation, they are virtually nonexistent for ablebodied people with an intellectual disability (Improving Mobility and Accessibility for People with Learning Disabilities in Europe [MAPLE], 2003). Yet, transportation access is reported by people with intellectual disabilities as a significant barrier to community inclusion and social participation (Fager, Perker, & Kelly, 2005). Accessibility needs and accommodations for people with physical and sensory disabilities are covered extensively in the accessibility literature. However, while advising the Israeli National Commission on Equal Rights for People With Disabilities, I was surprised to discover that the development of similar models, guidelines, and reasonable accommodations for people with intellectual disabilities is preliminary at best (Salmi, 2007). Legislation and regulation of these issues are sparse, and most research is anecdotal and lacks a comprehensive underlying model of practice. Although some accessibility barriers and accommodations were intuitively apparent to me based on my clinical experience, as an occupational therapist, with adults with intellectual disabilities, others were later on identified through interviews I conducted with people with intellectual disabilities, family members, and service providers (YalonChamovitz, 2007). Below, I juxtapose the information garnered from the published literature with these factors to suggest a conceptual model of accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Work gives focus and purpose to human lives. Whether a person should be hired or fired should be based on the merits, on whether you can do the job. If you are discriminated against because you have a medical condition, and you are able to do the job despite the disability, your civil rights to employment should be protected. Every American should share in the prosperity and justice on which our nation has been built. The asylums that isolated some people from a normal life gave way to a promise of equal participation with passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. But court decisions in disability cases negating the intent of the law and recent conservative appointments to the US Supreme Court have become a serious threat to the achievement of equal rights for the people this legislation was intended to protect. Efforts to achieve equal rights for people with disabilities began in the 1940s with the establishment of advocacy groups for persons who were blind, had physical disabilities, or were paralyzed war veterans. The deinstitutionalization movement, sparked by journalistic reports of appalling conditions in psychiatric facilities, was propelled by advances in medicine. The Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 provided funds for community-based services and fostered the independence of persons with disabilities. Legislation for neurologic conditions followed but mainly focused on education and did not emphasize the integration of people with disabilities into the workforce. In 1970, the federal Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Act provided states with funds to serve those with “neurologic handicaps originating in childhood,” including cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental retardation. Congress later passed the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, guaranteeing children with disabilities the right to a free, inclusive public education in the least restrictive …

ACCESS TO HISTORIC ENVIRONMENTS FOR TOURISTS WITH DISABILITIES: A COMPROMISE?

Historic environments, the basis for heritage tourism, are difficult to access for people with disabilities. Many countries have introduced legislation to promote equal rights for people with disabilities. Historic environments, however, enjoy protection under national planning systems which limit the physical access improvements that can be made. The significance of historic environments for tourism in the UK is outlined. Barriers restricting tourists with disabilities accessing historic sites are reviewed from the heritage tourism service provider's viewpoint. Interests of the major stakeholders are considered in terms of the apparent conflict between conservation and access issues as heritage tourism service providers seek to comply with disability discrimination legislation. From a study of access improvements made by major heritage tourism service providers, good practice is identified. However, physical access improvements to enable tourists with disabilities to visit historic environments are a compromise because of the strength of conservation interests. Questions remain as to whether this compromise is acceptable to the tourist with disabilities and whether intellectual access is an acceptable substitute for physical presence.

Attitudes Toward Israel's Equal Rights for People With Disabilities Law: A Multiperspective Approach.

Objective: To examine attitudes toward the new Equal Rights for People With Disabilities Law in Israel among members of specific professional groups. Study Design: An exploratory, descriptive, crosssectional survey, using convenience samples. Measure: The Disability Rights Attitude Scale—Israel (DRASI) was designed. Results: Factor analysis yielded 4 defined factors. The most positive attitudes were found for the factor of punishment, followed by accessibility, governmental support, and, finally, employment. The most positive attitudes were expressed by the social workers and the teachers, followed by the employers, the architects, and the lawyers. Conclusions: Findings shed light on the important role of professional identity in shaping the attitudes toward disability rights. Results may contribute to the development of appropriate rehabilitation and support services. In 1998, the Equal Rights for People With Disabilities Law (1998) was accepted by the Israeli parliament. Following the passage of legislation advancing the rights of persons with disabilities in the United States and other countries, this law is a major milestone, marking the beginning of a process of real legal and social change in Israeli society. The law that has been legislated includes only chapters regarding employment, public transport services, and the establishment of the commission office for the implementation of the Equal Rights for People With Disabilities Law. Issues of accessibility, education, health, leisure time, and more are included in the complete law proposal planned to be legislated in the future. In intention, this law is similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA; 1991). It, too, is a declaration that persons with disabilities should be enabled to be equal members of society (West, 1993). Thus, it also shares the ADA’s aim of achieving full inclusion for individuals with disabilities. In this sense, legislation such as Israel’s Equal Rights for Persons With Disabilities Law and the United States’ ADA constitute a clear message that society’s attitude toward persons with disabilities should be one of respect, inclusion, and support (Hernandez, Keys, Balcazar, & Drum, 1998; West, 1993).

Editorial

In this issue, we have an interesting collection of papers, and we have used the opportunity to include some of our backlog of reviews and reports. Our ‘In conversation’ piece is with Jo Williams, Chief Executive, Mencap, England's leading learning disability charity. Her views on valuing people, partnership boards, and Mencap's dilemma between tugging at people's heart strings to prompt giving and recognising the equal rights of people with learning disabilities are well worth reading. Patricia Noonan Walsh's Keynote Review, ‘Human Rights, Development and Disability’ complements this well. She argues for a focus on human rights as a springboard for advancing people's rights, ending with a plea to recognise that realising people's capabilities represents a gain for all. Our papers bring us back to the realities of life for people with learning disabilities. Philip Vaughan's paper, Secure care and treatment needs of individuals with learning disability and severe challenging behaviour focuses on a particularly challenging population for which services need to cater. He argues for secure local services for these people that will provide domestic style accommodation near their families. Dora Bennett's paper Death and people with learning disabilities; empowering carers brings back a theme that appears increasingly frequently in the Journal, that of helping people cope with bereavement. This time working with carers working in residential care, she illustrates how educational sessions can help workers deal better with death and bereavement, with positive consequences both for the people they work with, and for themselves. Dorothy Bell's article The assessment of the sexual knowledge of a person with a severe learning disability and a severe communication disorder also returns to a recent journal theme, Talking Mats, published in 2001. She and a colleague used this approach to extend therapeutic interventions with a woman who might have experienced sexual abuse, but who lacked the vocabulary to describe what had happened. Remarkably, the careful use of talking mats enabled the therapists to ascertain what she understood about relationships and body parts, laying a stronger foundation for possible legal proceedings than might otherwise have been possible. Alison Lillywhite's paper Occupational therapists' perceptions of community learning disability teams addresses a current policy imperative, multiprofessional working. The results are somewhat dispiriting. However, she makes some useful suggestions for improvement.

Disabling the ADA: Essences, Better Angels, and Unprincipled Neutrality Claims

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was to be clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability. Yet the Supreme Court continues to deconstruct the ADA, disabling its protections and rendering the statute incoherent. This Article focuses on a major failure of craftsmanship in the Court's constitutional law analysis in its Garrett (2001) decision, and on the Court's only slightly less dubious reasoning in four statutory ADA decisions in 2002. It also analyzes PGA Tour, Inc v. Martin (2001) and related lower court opinions. If Martin successfully plays through a strong headwind, that peculiar decision's contrasting approach underscores the Court's crabbed views of accommodation, in both the public and reasonable meanings of the term. In the course of proclaiming essences of federalism, disability definitions, and market norms, the Justices seem to relish the role of contemporary Platonic Guardians. They also construe the ADA in ways almost the antithesis of the Court's initial interpretations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Article concludes with a proposed alternative approach, much more in keeping with the ADA's guarantee of full and equal rights for people discriminated against because of disabilities.