Disability and poverty

[5] Additionally, some research investigations with proved social impact are opening venues that lead to establish enabling factors to break the cycle of deprivation faced by poor people with disabilities.

[6] According to the United Kingdom Department for International Development, 10,000 individuals with disabilities die each day as a result of extreme poverty, showing that the connection between these two constructs is especially problematic and deep-seated.

Barriers presented for those with disabilities can lead individuals to be deprived of access to essential resources, such as opportunities for education and employment, thus causing them to fall into poverty.

Likewise, poverty places individuals at a much greater risk of acquiring a disability due to the general lack of health care, nutrition, sanitation,[11] and safe working conditions that the poor are subject to.

In a study by Oxfam, the organization found that well over half of the instances of childhood blindness and hearing impairment in Africa and Asia were considered preventable or treatable.

Her chances of marriage are very slight, and she is most likely to be condemned to a twilight existence as a non-productive adjunct to the household of her birth... it is small wonder that many disabled female babies do not survive.

[20] This figure does not take into account the unpaid work of caregivers who must provide assistance after these procedures and the opportunity costs leading to a loss of income during injury, surgery, and rehabilitation.

[12] Individuals living in poverty face higher health risks and are often unable to obtain proper treatment, leading them to be significantly more likely to acquire a disability within their lifetime.

Research shows that matters of geographic inaccessibility, availability, and cultural limitations all provide substantial impediments to the acquisition of proper care for the populations of developing countries.

[25] This "apartheid" has been seen by some, such as the United Kingdom Disabled Persons Council, as especially concerning with regard to public transportation, education and health facilities, and perhaps most relevantly places of employment.

[14] Beyond physical accessibility, other potential excluding agents include a lack of braille, sign language and shortage of audio tape availability for those who are blind and deaf.

[26] This statistic is even more jarring for women with disabilities, with the United Nations Development Program reporting that the global literacy rate for this population is a mere 1 percent.

[24] Beyond simply the skills obtained, experts such as former World Bank advisor Judith Heumann speculate that the societal value of education and the inability of schools to accommodate special needs children substantially contributes to the discrimination of these individuals.

Trends suggest that employment rate for persons with disability would continue to fall unless addressed with policies that consider such factors as technological progress and climate change.

[30] Sociologists Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer demonstrated that this exclusion of persons with disabilities from the paid labor market is a primary reason why the majority of this population experiences far greater levels of poverty and are more reliant on the financial support of others.

One anthropologist who chronicled the lives of persons with disabilities in Botswana noted that individuals who were able to find formal employment "will usually obtain a position in society equal to that of non-disabled citizens.

[29] Equity in employment has been strategized by some, such as sociologists Esther Wilder and William Walters, to depend on heightened awareness of current barriers, wider use of assistive technologies that can make workplaces and tasks more accessible, more accommodating job development, and most importantly deconstructing discrimination.

The International Labour Organization estimates that the current exclusion of employable individuals with disabilities is costing countries possible gains of 1 to 7 percent of their GDP.

Researchers from the United Nations and the Yale School of Public Health refer to the link between disability and poverty as a manifestation of a self-fulfilling prophecy where the assumption that this population is a drain of resources leads society to deny them access to avenues of success.

[35] Oxfam asserts that this negative cycle is largely due to a gross underestimation of the potential held by individuals with disabilities and a lack of awareness of the possibilities that each person may hold if the proper resources were present.

Researchers show that families who lack adequate economic agency are unable to care for children with special medical needs, resulting in preventable deaths.

[39] Located in South Africa, the project aims to eliminate the segregationist models prevalent in the country through coordinated efforts between districts, NGOs, and community organizations.

[39] The United Nations has been at the forefront of initiating legislation that aims to deter the current toll disabilities take on individuals in society, especially those in poverty.

[41] The Standard Rules encourages states to remove social, cultural, economic, educational, and political barriers that bar individuals with disabilities from participating equally in society.

Cultural differences in the definition of disability, bias leading to more generous estimates on behalf of researchers, and the variability in incidences that are not accounted for between countries are all speculated to be part of this mischaracterization.

[15] Second, the case that health care costs for disabled people are simply too great to be shouldered by the government or NGOs has been made, especially with regard to emerging economies.

It is argued that most countries in need of extensive development must focus on health ails such as infant mortality, diarrhea, and malaria that are widespread killers not limited to a specific population.

This is because many issues surrounding disability, namely employment discrimination, are generally reconciled through the legal system necessitating that individuals engage in the often expensive process of litigation.