A.Employment

In the developing world, disabled people's participation in regular employment is virtually nonexistent. Instead, disabled people are relegated to the role of beggar, a role that is accepted because they serve as a credit for the afterlife. This is true particularly in religions such as Hinduism and Shintoism, as one person from Asia writes:

Dropping coins into the blind beggars' bowl may lead to avoidance of punishment in the afterlife... the disabled beggar asks for "justice." Since fate, Karma, or deity has deprived him, begging becomes his rightful duty and occupation: justice demands that his bowl be filled. If the unseen forces present a poor family with a deformed baby it is the family's duty to exploit the deformity for financial gain.¹⁶

This tradition takes on dangerous proportions in situations where families maim their children just so they can beg and help support the family. Among disabled people in the developing world opinions are changing, denying begging as a dignified way of making a living. Begging reinforces stereotypes labeling disabled people as helpless, pitiable and in need of handouts and care. Disabled people now want to work in the mainstream of society taking on the "adult roles" that have so long been denied.

B.Transportation

Transportation is an essential component for employment for all people. If there is no means to reach a job a person cannot retain employment, or even attend a job interview. Many people with mobility impairments cannot negotiate bus stairs with their wheelchairs, crutches, braces or walkers and therefore are unable to use the regular public transit systems. Many disabled people have been and still are home-bound. While North American disabled groups have been successful in gaining accessible public buses, this is not so for those in the developing regions.

In many developing countries there is no public transportation for people with disabilities and even transportation for people without disabilities is minimal. Even more extreme is the lack of primary mobility aids such as wheelchairs, crutches and braces. Many persons living without these aids make do by scooting around on the ground on leather mats or small carts; others simply remain bedridden. Without decent personal and public transportation, disabled people feel they will not be able to fully participate in society.

C.Physical accessibility

In the last 10 years, ramps, curb cuts and elevators have become familiar sights for citizens of North America. Organizations of disabled people have been pushing for accessibility in public buildings all over Canada and the United States. The results of accessibility efforts in North America have been the development of national building codes that include stipulations for accessibility in new public buildings.

In contrast, there are few accessible public buildings in the cities of developing countries. The barriers to accessibility are also more far reaching in nations where 80 percent of the population live in rural areas. The rough, unpaved roads pose a grave barrier if one must negotiate them on crude wood crutches, a leather mat or simply on one's knees. The combination of lack of mobility aids and inaccessibility means that the majority of rural disabled people remain bedridden.

D.Education

Education is important for disabled people to participate equally in society. Often education is needed to compete in the labor market and to gain a fuller understanding of the world and the society in which we live. Generally disabled persons, hidden away by their parents and lacking proper mobility, will not receive much education. There are exceptions when disabled persons are educated in separate schools, by church groups or rehabilitation centers, but even these resources separate disabled persons from the rest of their society. Disabled persons wish to be educated as the rest of the population is, in local schools with non-disabled children. Integrated schooling provides socialization for disabled students encouraging greater independence. Furthermore, non-disabled children will learn at an early age that people with disabilities have the same feelings, aspirations and abilities as they do.

E.Attitudinal barriers

In both North America and the developing world, society views disabled people as sick, weak, helpless cripples. They are people to be pitied and in some ways feared. There are still too many who feel that if persons cannot walk, see, talk or hear, then they cannot think and do not have the same feelings as an able-bodied person. These attitudes are some of the main handicapping influences for the disabled individual.

Because of these attitudes there is a tendency for others to make decisions for disabled persons instead of assuming they can make their own decisions. In North America the control is divided between parents and disability professionals such as doctors, nurses and social workers, whereas in the developing countries it is mainly the parents who decide for the disabled person. In some cultures the control is so complete that disabled persons are hidden from view entirely.¹⁷ In some religions in Africa as well as Buddhism and Shintoism in Asia, there is the belief that a disabled child was born because someone in the family had sinned.

Women with disabilities face a situation of double discrimination because of barriers due to disability, as well as barriers due to being a woman. Often society's attitudes towards disabled people as passive children are amplified when a person is also a woman. In the developing world to be a disabled woman is to be a person without any status at all. As Fatima Shah, a blind woman from Pakistan, explains:

Women in general have power as wives and mothers within the home, and their status in society comes from this role. A disabled woman cannot share in this status. She is not seen as marriageable -- no one wants to arrange a marriage with "damaged goods." Also, in the developing world women perform most of the labour in the home and in the fields. A disabled woman often cannot perform this work as efficiently as a non-disabled woman. Consequently a disabled woman has no status because she cannot accomplish those tasks which bring women status in her society.¹⁸

Often a disabled woman will destroy the marriage opportunities for a whole family. No one wants to arrange marriages with siblings of a disabled woman -- there is a fear of catching the disability and also of the sins for which God is punishing the family.