Cross-national comparison of policies and attitudes toward the disabled: the effects of deinstitutionalization

Policy changes influence public opinion and the lives of those impacted by new programs and requirements they create. Deinstitutionalization has been an important part of American disability policy and the subject of much debate and discussion. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) stands as one of the most significant benchmarks in the evolution of the disability rights movement. This paper seeks to understand how policies like the ADA have influenced public attitudes locally and internationally. There has been a worldwide shift in the theory driving disability policy. The shift has gone from a medical model with a focus on cures, treatments and rehabilitation to a civil rights model with a focus on "disabling environments," discrimination and social stigma. Attitude surveys from the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) are used to establish the differences in attitudes across the nations of interest and a policy analysis follows seeking to understand how policies are effecting attitudes. The study also considers how the implementation of a civil rights model of disability policy affects public attitudes. There are significant differences in public opinion across the nations included in the study. Attitudes toward people with disabilities also vary by gender, age and contact with people with disabilities. The key difference between the US policy and the EU policy is the rate of change. The US policy changes were rapid and can be classified as reactionary while the EU policy changes were implemented in pieces with benchmarks and transition requirements.