12 People with Disabilities

1 In understanding claims about the rights of people with disabilities, it is important to distinguish between civil rights and entitlements to benefits. The relationship(s) between these two sorts of claims is a matter of important philosophical disagreement. Among nations with an English law system, US law most clearly distinguishes civil rights from welfare system benefits. For this reason, developments in US law, culminating in the adoption of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, are emphasized here. Of course, the USA is not the only nation where disability rights are of concern. Influenced to some extent by the ADA, Australia adopted a Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1992, and the UK adopted a Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) in 1995. The Canadian Charter of Human Rights brings disabled people under its broad guarantee of equality for all, but leaves it to courts to interpret the provision's scope. Disability discrimination law in Australia, Canada, and the UK relies more on arbitration and conciliation than US law does. Like Canada, Poland, the Netherlands, and Uganda have constitutional guarantees of equality for disabled people. France and Germany make special arrangements placing the disabled in the workforce. Japan and China base nonenforceable antidiscrimination provisions on the United Nations’ Standard Rules for Equalization of Opportunities for People with Disabilities, which also are not legally binding. The delineation of civil rights from welfare entitlements is useful in sorting out claims about disability rights in all these systems, regardless of their differences in regard to the legal status of disabled people.