Disability in Cross-National Perspective

Christopher, K; Shon,

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2002;7(1): 234-255.

K Christopher^` , and Shon^`

Christopher K| Shon

ABSTRACT

Depending upon different views in defining human disability — historical, medical, cultur - al, and socio- political views — there have been various definitions and classifications on disability. In addition, public policies and educational practices for individuals with disabilities are not identical among different countries. Government decisions are part of public manifestation of the intentions of the people in a country. In many cases, the written public policies , such as laws and regulations , represent the values and opinions of the majority in a society. In this review of literature, the author compared the policies and practices of special education services to students with disabilities in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The reason that the author chose these two countries are: (a) their relatively long histories of interventions for the disabled; (b) the influence of Judeo- Christian ideology in disability policy ; (c) each country s relatively longer history of democratic government which has enabled the decision-making processes based on the opinions of the majority; and (d) their pragmatic educational approaches in the use of limited human and material resources. Yet, there seemed to have some differences in public policies and educational practices between the two countries. The historical developments of public policies on special education, educational practices, and a comparative analysis of the education for the disabled between the two countries were also discussed in detail.

Keywords: disability policy | special education law | comparative analysis