Re-thinking children’s disabilities through the capability lens: a framework for analysis and policy implications

Development Studies series In the this chapter the authors present an analytical and policy framework and the policy implications based on the capability approach which includes several concrete recommendations for research design and data collection and a case study which regards children with disabilities. In the first part of the chapter they review the main approaches to disability. In particular, they consider the individual model, the social model and the ICF framework through the lens of the Capability Approach before developing a framework to guide for policy, data design and data collection. In order to understand the potential of the research framework, the authors report on an example based on data from an ad hoc survey carried out in Afghanistan by Handicap International. This survey is one of the first to attempts to apply the capability approach to disabled children.