What is good personal assistance made of? Results of a European survey

an article by Teodor Mladenov (European Network on Independent Living, Brussels, Belgium) published in Disability and Society Volume 13 Issue 1 (2020)

Abstract

This article presents the results of a survey on personal assistance (PA) for disabled people, conducted among PA users and members of the independent living movement in Europe. The survey was developed and implemented in the spirit of emancipatory disability research, and was informed by the social model of disability and the independent living philosophy.

Participants were asked to assess a series of characteristics of PA in terms of their impact on users’ choice and control. Their responses help identify which characteristics of PA are considered to be enablers of choice and control, which characteristics are perceived as barriers and which characteristics elicit disagreement or lack of consensus among PA users and members of the independent living movement in Europe.

Plans for using the results of the survey to develop a tool for evaluating PA schemes are also discussed.

Points of interest

• This article looks at the results of a survey on personal assistance for disabled people in Europe.
• The survey was completed by disabled people who use personal assistance and by people who support the ideas of independent living.
• Participants were asked which characteristics of personal assistance help people to have choice and control in their lives, and which characteristics make choice and control difficult.
• The results from the survey are useful because they can help to make personal assistance better.

Full text (PDF 25pp)

Labels:
disability_policy, emancipatory_disability_research, independent_living, personal_assistance, social_model_of_disability,

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