Overcoming disabling barriers: disability and attitudes to disability within the Maltese context: an insider’s perspective

Abstract

This article explores the way a number of disabled people and a parent of a disabled child living in Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean, look at their daily experiences of disability and talk about what changes they would like to see in Maltese society for them to feel more equal and included. While participants acknowledge that much progress has been made in terms of inclusion, they still feel that there are still disabling attitudes that are posing limits to their choices. Lacking a true disabled people’s movement, disabled people express the need for more unity within the disabled community. Even if the article offers hope for the development of a grassroots disabled people’s movement, this possibility remains inconclusive – but the report does offer hope for future action.

Keywords:

• Malta
• disabled people
• attitudes
• society
• Church
• barriers