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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

Sweden

Policies and initiatives

Disability policy focus has shifted from a health/social care perspective to a democracy/human rights perspective. A national action plan on disability policy, ‘From Patient to Citizen’, adopted in 2000, has shifted the emphasis in Swedish policies targeting disabled people. Swedish disability policy has been given a clearcut citizen’s perspective. The policymakers have also shown a determination to introduce broad-based solutions in the quest for a society that is accessible from as many aspects as possible and to as many citizens as possible. This is seen as a way of avoiding the need for special solutions for certain groups, an approach that tends to be costly.

Swedish disability policy, therefore, is now concentrating on:

• identifying and removing obstacles to full participation and full equality in society
• preventing and fighting discrimination
• promoting equality between disabled girls and boys, women and men.

The disability perspective is to become a natural part of all policymaking and all public activities. Government agencies have begun to make their premises, activities and information generally accessible. Public officials are to be trained in disability issues so that disabled people are not prevented from exercising their rights as citizens as a result of ignorance or degrading treatment or both.

General social welfare in Sweden extends to all citizens, but in addition special programmes have addressed the needs of people with disabilities. One of the most important reforms concerning supplementary support and related measures was introduced in the 1990s. An important feature of this wide-ranging reform programme was that it gave disabled people the right to personal assistance. For people with extensive disabilities, this represented something of a revolution. The assistance they received opened up opportunities that had not previously been available to them, such as deciding matters in their own everyday lives and managing their studies, a job and a home.

In 1993, the UN introduced the document “The Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities”. Ever since, these have been a cornerstone of Swedish disability policy. In 1994, a Disability Ombudsman was appointed to supervise compliance with the rules.

When in 2000 the Riksdag adopted the national action plan for isability policy, Sweden moved a step closer to a universally accessible society. The plan extends to 2010.

The Swedish Government is also taking part in the UN’s efforts to develop a convention that strengthens respect for the human rights f people with disabilities. Unlike standard rules, conventions are legally binding.

A completely new agency for disability policy coordination called Handisam is to be set up in 2006. Its task will be to direct and speed up the work of making Sweden accessible in accordance with the guidelines laid down in the national action plan for disability policy. Some of the duties of other government agencies will be transferred to the new agency in order to make work in this area as efficient as possible