Before the International Year of Persons with Disabilities (1981), both "The International Year of Persons with Disabilities Action Plan" (1979) and "The World Action Plan on Persons with Disabilities Through the International Year of Persons with Disabilities", quote from a concept paper on disabilities by the World Health Organization (WHO) and propose a new view of disability. This view now penetrates throughout the world.
The "World Action Plan" includes the following definitions: Impairment is an organic and functional deficiency; the result of an impairment is a disability; the social result of an impairment is a handicap.
The division into impairments, disabilities, and handicaps is not made only in order to make the concepts clear. So far, this conceptualization has focused mainly on individuals, but this concept also pays attention to obstacles in the social structure that limit participation in the social economy.
What is especially stressed by WHO is that "handicap" refers to the social disadvantage caused by impairments and disabilities. In other words, a handicap is a situation in which the opportunity to participate equally with other people in ordinary life in the community is lost or restricted.
Impairments relating to mental retardation include organic or functional deficiencies; these are absolute personal characteristics. "Disability" refers to lesser intellectual ability or adaptive skills compared to others, that is, disability is a relative personal characteristic.
"Handicap" refers to the relationship of each individual to the surrounding environment. Handicaps arise when some obstacle prevents an individual from leading an ordinary social life. It follows that if the environmental situation is changed or necessary support is provided so that the obstacle is removed, the handicap will decrease or be eliminated. When handicaps are lessened or eliminated, then people with disabilities can participate in ordinary social life, make their own circumstances, environment, and society,and act independently and on their own.
This new view of disability considers a "handicap" to be the consequence of the interaction between an individual and the individual's environment. When attempting to eliminate a handicap or to increase an individual's ability, and when modifying the environment so as to create favorable circumstances for an individual's capacity and personality, although priority is placed increasing the individual's ability,modifying the environment and assisting the individual should be done at the same time.
Even in bringing up and educating a child who is in the developmental period, the approach of creating circumstances in which the child can act independently and on their own, and in which the child's capacityn and personality can be expressed, is more important than treating the child's disability with the intention of reducing it and having the child recover from the disability. At every stage of life, regardless of whether the individual is in a developmental period or a post-developmental period, the approach to disabilities that will develop and improve abilities most effectively is one that stresses creating circumstances in which the person can act independently and on their own. The result will be a fostering and increasing of the person's capacity and personality.
This view of ability that considers a handicap to be the result of the interaction between an individual and the individual's environment has resulted in a view of people with disabilities as citizens who are independent and have equal rights in society with others.
The two above-mentioned action plans entail a change in the view of people with disabilities. A society that shuts out some of its members is weak and fragile. Right now, society satisfies only the needs of people who have no impairments in their physical and mental abilities. Society must make an effort to respond to everyone's needs properly and in the best way. It has the responsibility to prepare all aspects of social life so that people with disabilities can act effectively.
People with disabilities should not be thought of as a special group that has different needs from those without disabilities, but rather as ordinary citizens who have some kind of special difficulty in fulfilling their normal human needs. The most important thing about people with disabilities is that they are citizens
