NEEDS AND ISSUES OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITY Rosaleen Ow1 David W. Rothwell2 This is the preprint version of the work. The definitive version was published in Social Work in the Singapore Context as: Ow, R. & Rothwell, D. W. (2011). Needs and issues of persons with disability. In K. Mehta & A. Wee (Eds.), Social Work in the Singapore Context (2nd ed.; pp. 241-270). Singapore: Pearson. 1 Department head, National University of Singapore Department of Social Work, Blk AS3 Level 4, 3 Arts Link, Singapore 117570;
[email protected] 2 Assistant Professor, McGill University School of Social Work 3506 University Street, Suite 300, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2A7;
[email protected], http://www.mcgill.ca/socialwork/faculty/rothwell Social Work in the Singapore Context 8 Needs and Issues of Persons with Disability Rosaleen Ow and David Rothwell Introduction The collection of comprehensive statistical data on disabled persons is a worldwide problem due to various reasons, including: a) the lack of a universal definition of disability; b) a coherent system for data collection as disability can be social, physical or mental; and c) the tendency to under- report due to stigma and lack of knowledge. Despite these limitations, estimates suggest that 10% of the world’s population lives with a disability, the largest minority (United Nations Programme on Disabilities, 2010). However, measuring disability is not consistent across contexts For example, the incidence of disability in the latest US Census was estimated at 19.3% of the civilian non-institutionalised population, much higher than the UN standard (Waldrop & Stern, 2003). In Singapore, a 10% incidence of disability as proposed by the UN translates into about 490,000 persons based on a population of 4.9 million in 2009 Statistics Singapore, 2010).