Personal assistance for disabled people: Results from a European study

Personal Assistance (PA) is essential for realising disabled people’s right to independent living, as stated in Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In response to decades of disabled people’s advocacy, PA schemes have spread throughout Europe. However, in recent years, many of these schemes have been subjected to direct cuts, tightening of eligibility criteria or other forms of restructuring. Given these trends, what is the current state of PA in Europe and what are PA’s prospects for the future?

These questions were addressed in a research on PA that I conducted in the period 2017-2019 as part of a Marie Curie Research Fellowship hosted by the European Network on Independent Living – a pan-European advocacy organisation led and controlled by disabled people. In this talk, I will present the results of this research that concluded with assessing and comparing PA schemes from eight different European countries. The schemes were ranked according to independent living principles by using a tool co-produced with PA users and independent living experts.