Abstract:
To inform a larger piece of research investigating the costs associated with impairment and disability in New Zealand (The Cost of Disability Project), the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) commissioned the Centre for Health Services Research and Policy (CHSRP) at the University of Auckland to review the available literature on disability discrimination and to explore the implications for investigating the costs associated with discrimination faced by disabled people. This review will address the following key questions: (1)How is discrimination in the disabled community defined? (2)How can we identify when discrimination has occurred? (3) What types of consequences does discrimination result in? (4)How can we measure the impact of discrimination?(5) What are the economic consequences of discrimination? and (6)How feasible is it to estimate the cost of discrimination within the Cost of Disability research project? The literature on discrimination is vast, with decades of work by social scientists from many disciplines on discrimination and prejudice. The purpose of this review is not to compile a comprehensive inventory of perspectives and research from all disciplines on the subject. Instead, the intention is to highlight a number of key issues from previous research to inform the current project investigating the additional costs of disability.
