Disability Welfare Policy in Europe : Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Disability Welfare Policy in Europe:Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic analyses the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on persons with cognitive disabilities and their families. Written from a Disability Studies perspective, this edited collection investigates education, employment, social and health care services in European case studies.

Recognising how Covid-19 health surveillance has limited the rights of all persons, the chapters demonstrate how its impact has been even more severe on persons with cognitive disabilities and their families. Outlining the changes in welfare services during the Covid-19 pandemic that have led to new forms of segregation and hindered full participation of persons with disabilities in society on an equal basis with others, the collection chronicles a setback in the process of implementing the UN Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).

Within the framework of public sociology, Disability Welfare Policy in Europe:Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic shows the failure of the attempts aimed at shifting disability policy into the mainstream. The authors highlight how persons with disabilities, their families, as well as personnel working in disability welfare policy have fought to keep the perspectives and rights of persons with disabilities on the policy agenda. If the Covid-19 health surveillance has rendered persons with disabilities invisible, how can they be made visible once again?

Angela Genova is Researcher at the Department of Economics, Society, Politics at the University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy.

Alice Scavarda is Research Fellow at the Department of Culture, Politics and Society at the University of Torino, Italy.

Maria Świątkiewicz-Mośny is Professor of Sociology at the Institute of Sociology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.