Overview

The Traditional Perspective on Disability Policy

Disability policy in Canada has traditionally focused on programs and policies to help people with disabilities live in ways that they find satisfying and that are useful to society as a whole. This means ensuring that people with disabilities access funding, services and training to enable them to go to school, work in jobs that will provide them with an adequate standard of living and participate in their communities. This perspective has viewed disability as a category or social need, a threat to health and well-being and a strain upon resources. Rather than a coordinated policy strategy, the current disability policy structure consists of a loose set of program activities. The result of the traditional perspective is that disability policy is contained within only those policies and programs whichprograms that appear directly relevant to people with disabilities.