Principle 13 Work opportunities outside of remunerative employment should be developed and legitimized for handicapped persons, as for other members of the community. This is particularly important, given the likelihood that most economies will operate under conditions of substantial unemployment in the foreseeable future. Principle 14 The economic and social needs of the handicapped person's family unit should be considered in offering employment assistance. COMMUNITY SUPPORT SERVICES Principle 15 Supportive services must be available to allow handicapped persons to live in the community as full members of society. Such services should be responsive to the changing needs of the handicapped person and should also address the needs of (family) caregivers. Prinicple 16 Support services for community living should be designed to maximize opportunities for choice and self-direction by handicapped persons. Principle 17 Consumer participation is essential in planning, directing, and evaluating the provision of support services for community living. THE ENVIRONMENT: PRINCIPLES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGE Principle 18 Principles of design are essential that foster the inclusion of all persons as users of the physical environment. Principle 19 Education is needed in various design disciplines to foster the development and utilization of expertise in working with handicapped persons. Principle 20 Effective compulsory requirements are needed to assure that the physical environment is usable by all persons. Principle 21 New methods and principles are needed for analyzing costs and benefits of designing for inclusion. PUBLIC ATTITUDES Principle 22 Attitudes of the general public are often a major barrier to the inclusion of handicapped persons as full members of the community. A wide range of media and other methods should be used to foster broad public awareness of the principles of inclusion. Principle 23 Attitudes toward handicapped persons among certain key segments of society may have a greater impact on inclusion than attitudes of the general public. COMMUNITY RESOURCES Principle 24 Community resources and public services should be designed for persons with the greatest possible range of human characteristics. Principle 25 Legislation and regulations that exclude handicapped persons as such are not acceptable since these persons are part of the general population. Principle 26 Measures are needed to assure that handicapped persons are not excluded from use of community resources provided by the private sector. SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES Principle 27 Handicapped persons share a universal human need and right to participate in the range of social, cultural, and educational activities of their communities. Opportunities for interaction between the handicapped persons and non-handicapped persons carry their own rewards, improving the understanding of both groups of the true values of human life. Mr. YATRON. Thank you very much, Dr. Spenser, for a very informative and constructive statement. The third panel member is Mr. Alan Reich, president of the National Organization on Disability, and one who has had a distinguished career in the forefront of both domestic and international efforts in behalf of disabled persons. Mr. Reich. STATEMENT OF ALAN A. REICH, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION ON DISABILITY Mr. REICH. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, please allow me to commend you, Congressman Winn, Congressman Coelho, and your colleagues on this initiative, which I believe will yield important results over the coming decade. We frequently are asked what our hopes are for the Decade of Disabled Persons. I would say there are three. We hope it will lead to improvement in the lives of America's 35 million persons with physical or mental disabilities, we hope it will benefit our nation, and we hope it will benefit mankind. Although America leads the world in providing opportunities for the disabled members of society, we still have a long way to go. Despite the progress of recent decades in such areas as increasing acceptance of disabled people, expanding access, passing legislation, and opening opportunity, much remains to be done. The 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons led to purposeful activity throughout the United States. The community partnership program of the U.S. Council for IYDP, which reached 2,000 localities, and many other programs opened the way for disabled people to participate more fully in community life. The real challenge of the U.N. International Year of Disabled Persons in this country was to transfer the U.N. call for action to the communities of America. This challenge was met. The IYDP helped increase awareness of the problems and potential of disabled persons. It led to commitments for the future. The Decade of Disabled Persons, on which we are embarking today, can help to stimulate people in communities across the country to further the five specific goals set forth in the resolution, which lend themselves to community action and commitment. They are: expanded educational opportunity; improved access to housing, buildings and transportation; greater opportunity for employment; greater participation in recreational, social, and cultural activities; and expanded and strengthened rehabilitation programs and facilities. Part of the genius of America is that people in neighborhoods, in towns, cities, and counties, will respond when challenged. They will lend a hand to those in need. In pursuing these five goals, the Decade of Disabled Persons truly offers an opportunity to be seized by people throughout the United States. National organizations, including the 330 national partners of the National Organization on Disability, through their own networks and chapters, can elicit a truly meaningful response which will make a difference in the lives of disabled Americans. In the area of the other four goals contained in the congressional resolution, progress also can be furthered by the Decade. These goals are: Purposeful application of biomedical research aimed at conquering major disabling conditions; Reduction in the incidence of disability through accident and disease prevention; Increased application of technology to ameliorate the effects of disability; and Expanded international exchange of information and experience to benefit disabled persons everywhere. The economic and humanitarian costs of disability are staggering. We must in this decade expand prevention efforts. Biomedical research can lead to the elimination of certain disabilities entirely; I certainly would include among them the hope that spinal cord regeneration will be achieved in this decade. Explosion of knowledge in the biomedical sciences suggests many possibilities, and new discoveries are being made almost daily. Bringing the benefit of technology to disabled persons through both individual applications, such as better devices, as well as through large-scale technological improvements, such as barrierfree buildings, can make an enormous difference in the lives of disabled citizens. The international exchange of information in the area of disability can benefit disabled Americans as well as their counterparts in other nations. We have both much to learn and much to teach. From this we all can benefit. So, Mr. Chairman, the Decade of Disabled Persons is both a framework and a stimulus for realizing progress toward significant human goals. It provides an opportunity to be seized by all those sharing our eagerness to get on with this important job, both in the interest of disabled persons and of our nation. We must draw upon the capacity for commitment of the American people and mobilize our resources. We must do so in all sectors of our society represented here today. They all have a big role to play in furthering the goals of the resolution. They include the business, government, and labor communities, the academic and religious communities, the handicapped and youth communities, as well as service and professional groups. This is a challenge, but it can be met. We see in the Decade of Disabled Persons an opportunity for America. The economic benefits to our nation from active pursuit of these goals can be tremendous. Adding disabled persons to our work force can increase our national productive capacity and in so doing contribute to national and community life. It can help reduce our welfare costs and open a vast new reservoir of talent. This is good business. Furthering the goals of this resolution, Mr. Chairman, thus is in the interest not only of disabled Americans, but of all Americans. We also hope and expect that the Decade of Disabled Persons will make the world a better place. Mankind will benefit. The Decade provides the stimulus for international and national action to help alleviate the strain on limited world resources. Many societies recognized the problem of disability for the first time during the International Year of Disabled Persons. Now they will be motivated to continue their action. Mankind as a whole will benefit from the Decade of Disabled Persons through the opening of new cross-cultural communication on the very human problems of disability. By focusing worldwide attention on disabled people, the United Nations has indeed opened an important area of transnational communication across political boundaries on common problems affecting all people. This communication will continue. It will further international cooperation and improve the climate for resolving other differences peaceably. Interactions among nations in the area of disability and the worldwide exchanges of information and people will contribute to a climate of peace and cooperation. I am reminded of the words inscribed at the entrance to the United Nations in New York: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed." The Decade of Disabled Persons is an idea born in the minds of men, which is helping to build the human foundations for the structure of peace. Meeting the serious problems of human disability helps relieve the pressures on governments to provide for needy individuals and thus contributes in its way to a more peaceful, stable world order. I would like to depart, if I may, Mr. Chairman, from my text to make an observation which I think is especially germane for this subcommittee. In my own experience over the last 3 years in working on the International Year of Disabled Persons, both in this country and at the international level, I have come to gain a great appreciation for an important role of the United Nations. We tend to view that world body as a forum for political debate, often acrimonious, often not yielding much result or promise. What is not often seen is the important ongoing work of the United Nations through its agencies in the social and humanitarian area, reaching down to communities, to the towns, cities, tribes, and people throughout the world. A half a billion people throughout the world, it is my belief, can look forward to a more promising future because the United Nations has taken this in the area of disability initiative. These initiatives by the United Nations in this area are an important expression of the moral force of the world body. I believe they are a source of great hope for mankind, and I would say especially to this subcommittee that supporting this kind of ongoing commitment and work that is affecting the lives of people and improving the human condition is a tremendous contribution of the world body to life our planet. We often overlook it, and I am not making a pitch, Mr. Chairman, for an increased budget for the Bureau of International Organizations in the Department of State. But I am making a pitch for a real continuing commitment, in these times which are politically difficult in the United Nations, for encouraging this kind of ongoing work affecting the lives of people. So let us set forth with determination, so that 10 years from now we will be able to look back on real accomplishments in improving the human condition. |