Social Work and Human Services Disabilities

Disabled persons are an especially vulnerable population, both in crisis situations and in everyday life. Although the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has greatly enhanced visibility and understanding of this special population, human services workers continue to play a tremendous role in ensuring the protection of ethical and legal rights of persons with disabilities. The diversity within the population and other barriers like inaccessible infrastructure or services occasionally impede effective service delivery in some situations.
In a crisis situation, persons with disabilities are vulnerable for several reasons. Human Rights Watch (2016) points out, “People with disabilities face added risks of abandonment, neglect, and do not enjoy equal access to food, health care, and other assistance during conflict, displacement, and reconstruction,” p. 1). A natural disaster can strand persons with disabilities, leaving the most vulnerable without access to food and water, or emergency relief services. Some persons with disabilities might be physically impaired, unable to use communications systems.
At both state and federal levels, there are laws in place to punish those involved in victimizing persons with disabilities. Many of those laws extend from the ADA. However, Backstrom (2015) points out “we have a long way to go to fully understand it and develop tools and ideas to effectively address” the needs of people with disabilities within the criminal justice system (p. 1). Therefore, the human services worker serves as an advocate of persons with disabilities. Alerting persons to legal assistance and to institutional support will be one of the main roles that a social worker or human services provider plays. To raise awareness about the needs of vulnerable populations like persons with disabilities, I would use the media. The media, including social media, can help disseminate information to individuals with disabilities, their caregivers and loved ones, and also educators and other community stakeholders.