Disability, Environment, Social Participation and Human Rights: From the Concept of Access to its Measurement
The United Nations’ Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires rigorous tools to analyze the implementation of its principles in national legislations, policies, and programs. This research paper addresses the actual absence of explicit environmental assessment mechanisms required by the monitoring cycle of this international convention. It offers a methodological contribution for filling this gap with a proposal of a set of definitions and indicators of access regarding the physical and social environments. The development of tool aimed at measuring the quality of environmental access would contribute to the CRPD implementation and monitoring cycle by providing sensitive data regarding how environmental factors play a fundamental role in disabling situations construction process and effective improvement of opportunities of social participation and exercise of human rights of people with disabilities.