Bryan S. Turner
bringing bodies and citizenship into the discussion of disability
pp. 599-614
in: Fran Collyer (ed), The Palgrave handbook of social theory in health, illness and medicine, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
Disability is increasingly being recognised as a universal human condition with enormous social and economic consequences. The World Health Organization and The World Bank (2011) estimate that 15 per cent of the global population, or over one billion people, live with some form of disability. Nations have responded to this problem with disability legislation, providing health and welfare services to people with disabilities and ensuring their rights. Emblematic of these efforts on an international level are the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities declared in 2007, with 155 nations as signatories as of 2013, and the European Union's Disability Rights Convention of 2008. Taken together, these treaties pledge to reduce discrimination and provide people with disabilities with protections and services designed to facilitate their full participation in society.