ACCESS TO SOCIAL RIGHTS AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

The issue of access to social rights of persons withdisabilities is part of the wider area of regulation of socialrights in the contemporary world. The past fifty years weremarked by significant progress in the establishment ofsocial rights not only as possibilities and intentions,rather as a real contribution to raising the quality oflife. This article has the following goals: to analyze theexisting legislation concerning recognition of socialrights of persons with disabilities in Croatia, includingsome elements of the functioning of the systemsresponsible for access to social rights for persons withdisabilities; to outline some characteristics of the reformscarried out in the most important "social systems"in Croatia (social welfare, education, health care, pensionand employment system); to establish the level ofperceived accessibility of some social rights for theirbeneficiaries and the level of the expressed need forindividual forms of social rights. The results of the studyillustrate some trends and possible problems that peoplewith disabilities face in accessing or attempting to accesscertain social rights.