Disability and Community Living Policies

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the roots of institutionalization, deinstitutionalization legislation and policies of the twentieth century, and twenty-first-century efforts to promote community living policies domestically and internationally, particularly through the role of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), a landmark treaty adopted on 13 December 2006. Rimmerman shows that deinstitutionalization and community living cannot be examined only in terms of the number of institutions closed but also through the substantial change in values, legislation, and policies supporting personalization, as well as the social participation of people with disabilities. The book includes a significant exploration of United States legislation and important Supreme Court decisions compared with European policies toward community living. Finally it discusses the importance of Articles 12 and 19 of the convention and demonstrates the case of Israel that has used the convention as a road map for proposing a new community living policy.

1. Introduction; 2. Theology, eugenics, and the roots of change; 3. The paradigm shift of Articles 12 and 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD); 4. Unites States policy towards community living as aspects of non-discrimination; 5. European perspectives on the right to community living; 6. Comparing community living policies: United States vs Europe; 7. Promoting change in community living of people with intellectual disabilities: the case of Israel; 8. Closing remarks.

Arie Rimmerman is Richard Crossman Professor of Social Welfare and Social Planning, and former Dean of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, and Head of School of Social Work at the University of Haifa, Israel. He is the author of two recent books, Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities (Cambridge, 2013) and Family Policy and Disability (Cambridge, 2015). He is the recipient of the Lehman Award (1987), the William Trump Award (1998), the 1999 International Award of the American Association on Mental Retardation (AAMR), and the Burton Blatt Leadership Award (2006).