| As a special vulnerable group,the number of persons with disabilities in mainland China is large.They are facing all kinds of problems and challenges in their lives and have always been the target clients of the People's Livelihood Projects.Two important goals of developing the cause for the disabled are to improve the social security and service systems as well as to accelerate the process of promoting the well-off society.In this context,research on the needs of disabled persons and relevant social welfare arrangements from a capacity-building perspective is of theoretical and practical significances.Based on Amartya Sen's capability theory,the author developed a capability-based framework to explore the needs of the disabled.To be specific,using qualitative methods,the research investigated the disabled persons and the social service systems in Xiamen city,Fujian province.It mainly focused on five core dimensions,including political participation,social participation,economic participation,mental health,and social security.In terms of data collection,observation,in-depth interview and documentary method were employed.Content analysis was used to analyze and synthesize the empirical data.In general,the research described the characteristics of the needs of the disabled persons from the perspectives of functional space and of capability building.Then it reviewed and evaluated the current status of the social welfare system for the disabled.According to the analysis of the contradictions and tensions between the system arrangements and the needs of the disabled,the author further discussed the factors that limited the need satisfaction and that caused institutional constraints.Following the discussion,recommendations on how to reform the social welfare systems to better meet the needs of the disabled were put forth.Finally,the author specifically explored the application of the capability theory in the context of mainland China.The main findings of this research are showed as follows.1.The disabled persons had complicated and diverse welfare needs..In terms of political participation,they seldom cared about election rights which they thought was not indispensable.However,they showed strong desire for appealing rights.One major limitation is that they were not able to get effective guidance on how to appeal to their interests..In terms of social participation,the disabled persons were eager to engage in in social activities,but they could not clearly express their engagement needs.They knew there were structural constraints that limited their access to social participation,thus they often hesitated to get involved.In terms of economic participation,the disabled mainly focused on two areas,that is,improvement of the employment environment and development of necessary skills and competencies.Due to their previous experiences,they called for a fairer,more inclusive employment environment.In addition,they hoped that the government and society could provide them with training platforms and opportunities that fit their needs,interests,and abilities..In terms of mental health services,the disabled persons seldom expressed the needs for such services.Moreover,they also thought it was necessary to develop a better aid system that included mental health services.In terms of social security,the disabled persons wanted to gain more access to social welfare benefits to support their lives.They also advocated for the development of new social welfare policies to overcome the limitations of current social welfare systems.2.According to the analysis of the current status of social welfare services for the disabled using the capability-based framework,some differences were identified between the ideal construction and the actual situation.Regarding the ideal social welfare provision for the disabled,fairness and respect for human rights are emphasized for the policy development and implementation.In other words,civic rights should be taken into account when social welfare policies at all levels are created.But in some dimensions,there are still gaps in the system.Although the setting of disabled social policy do not set specific improvement and expansion system of disabled capabilities,some expression of policy text has strong energy increasing intention.The country hopes that through promoting policy,we can strive to achieve the aim of "equality.participation and sharing "for disabled person.In terms of the reality of the disabled social welfare provision,based on the reality of society,economy and culture,the main service promoting for disabled person has their own features in five dimensions including political participation,social participation and participation in the economic and psychological construction and welfare security.We should guarantee disabled persons ' participation politics,promoting the disabled persons' social participation and focusing on promoting the disabled to participate in the economy.We should also introduce some professions to promote the mental construction of the disabled person and combine the ordinary conditions with special conditions to expand the welfare security for the disabled persons.3.Based on the view of capability,the following conclusions can be drawn from the data analysis:the social welfare provision for the disabled has some limitations in terms of the distribution of social welfare,the forms of welfare benefits,the delivery of welfare organization and the goal orientation of welfare,which have become the basis for the transformation of the social welfare system for the disabled.We should regard the improvement of the capabilities as guidance,combining with the investigation of the data extraction.The possibility of social welfare transformation for the disabled is personalized orientation,dominance oriented,holistic governance and ecological thinking.Then we should reform and adjust the social welfare service system for disabled persons through introduction of targeted services,capacity building,system integration and family perspective.In the frame of capabilities,the social welfare needs of disabled persons,the supply situation,the tension of supply and demand and the possibility of transition have strong family elements,and the needs and the supply show the trend of family.Based on these findings of this study,we should place the capabilities in the context of Chinese culture to extend the discussion and try to extend the practical ability from individuals to families.Then we should analyze and practice the concept of families'capabilities in five dimensions including family political participation ability,family social communication,family economic ability,family cohesion and family risk coping ability.According to these,We put forward the policy direction to meet the needs of disabled persons social welfare. |
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