On the occasion of the International Day of Disabled Persons, 3 December, the World Health Organization (WHO) will publish a report on the health of disabled persons. Its main purpose is to identify the various government policies on disability and problems with implementation of strategies in order to meet the needs of people with disabilities and ultimately to give them equality of opportunity.

WHO estimates that between 7% and 10% of the world’s population lives with disabilities which means almost 500 million people. The vast majority of them, about 80%, live in developing countries, where only 1% to 2% have access to the necessary rehabilitation services.

"In matters of health, everyone should be treated equally. Yet, people with disabilities have been discriminated against throughout history. Their participation in life and social activities has been restricted. This has to change." Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO, stated.

One third of countries who responded do not provide adequate training for staff who work with disabled people. Many countries do not cover disability in training curricula for health professionals. General practitioners in 20 countries, nurses in 21 countries, paediatricians in 26 countries and social workers in 12 countries receive no such training. WHO recommends that this be rapidly remedied, at least for nurses, since they are the ones who provide most of the medical care and rehabilitation services for disabled persons.

There are major disparities between countries (industralized and developing) and within countries (urban and rural areas) as regards access to medical care including the presence of qualified staff. Apart from general practitioners, nurses predominate, while specialists such as orthopaedists, speech therapists, psychologists and paediatricians are few and tend to be found in the cities. Disabled people, therefore, have to travel often far to centres with the appropriate human and material resources.

Participation of disabled people’s organizations (DPOs) in the planning and evaluation of health services is inadequate: only 3 out of 103 countries involve them fully, and 12 countries report that they never consult them. The report also stresses the personal involvement of disabled people and their families in managing disability, while most of those families are poor.

The report reveals that governments, by and large, make adequate provision for items such as crutches, hearing aids and orthopaedic devices.

This report is intended to be used by political decision-makers, health programme administrators and specialists in the rehabilitation of disabled people, since it analyzes the policy of each of the 104 countries with regard to the four rules. Through this report, WHO hopes to help States that wish to do so to make, when necessary, improvements to services for disabled people. In this way WHO contributes to the establishment of the Standard Rules in the field of health.

WHO maintains that disability should not be seen as a matter of concern to the disabled persons and their entourage alone. Disability concerns the whole of society, in terms of the legislation, education and services which should be promoted if the disabled persons are to be fully integrated; the environment should be adapted to their needs whenever necessary. The report advocates that countries increase their efforts to ensure that children and adults with disabilities gain access to better medical care, which will help them to participate in the life of their community.