Inclusion: theory and practice : Children, Disability and Development - Achievement and Challenge. Contents

Children, Disability and Development: Achievement and Challenge

A Save the Children Fund global seminar to learn from experience and maximise impact - Extract from Conference Report - April 13th - 22nd 1994

Session 7 - Disability as a Development Issue

Facilitator: Mohammed A Osman

Aim of session:
To see how disability work is part of the development process as a whole, and to understand disability in a developmental context.

Objectives:
1. Through discussion, to reach an understanding of what 'development' is.
2. To examine the connections between disability and development.
3. To examine the prevailing attitudes to disabled people and why they exist.

Summary:
Sue Philpott from South Africa and Beverly Ashton of ADD gave two short presentations. Sue Philpott described how the Amawoti community near Durban (South Africa) has evolved its own philosophy of development based on the concepts of identification with the community, identifying real Needs before solutions, setting up Structures to take responsibility, being Values-based, and including everyone in a Vision for the future. Beverly gave an insightful account of the growth and development of a disabled child and how a spiral of stigma and marginalisation is set up, in particular with disabled girls.

The groups discussed the following issues:

• the concept of development, stressing that development can be both positive and negative, and is a process;
• attitudes towards disabled children in different communities, and how some attitudes such as seeing disabled children as 'special' can have both positive and negative effects.

The groups began to look at where development fits into their work, and how it relates to CBR, PHC, and education. One group devised two contrasting models which could form the basis of further discussion. No consensus was reached as to whether disability was a development issue.

Inclusion: theory and practice : Children, Disability and Development - Achievement and Challenge. Contents

19/11/1997