From Rhetoric to Action

Introduction

This chapter will undertake a detailed comparative study examining the disability strategies and action plans of Australia (focusing on the State of Victoria), Bolivia, Canada (focusing on the province of British Columbia), England and Wales, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovenia, South Africa, and Sweden. The aim of this comparative study is to highlight countries that are successfully implementing strategies, have the ability to gather information to determine the impact of various aspects of the strategy, and have the capacity to learn from experience and improve future outcomes for people with disabilities.

Comparative problems in implementation will be noted, in addition to the viability of solutions put forward. Also, countries that are in the process of formulating an action plan but are not yet in a position to implement this will be examined, particularly where the strategy has closely followed the principles of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and may have innovative features that could be considered generally as well as in the Irish context. The countries chosen for the purpose of this study were selected on the basis that each had a national disability strategy that exemplified a particular approach to disability equality in the global context. All of the countries discussed are also states parties to the CRPD (or have at a minimum signed the Convention and are preparing to ratify). However, these eleven jurisdictions are simply illustrative examples of various approaches and do not represent an exhaustive list of national disability strategies or approaches to implementation and monitoring.