Osoba niepełnosprawna w Polsce i w Niemczech – wybrane aspekty prawne

Germany is the example of a country, in which preventing social exclusion of a disabled person is treated as a basic aim of the social politics. Right now Poland is on a stage of changes both in the social attitudes towards the disabled and the legal aspects. In the year 2003 in Germany there were almost twice as many disabled people as in Poland in the absolute numbers (8,4 million and 4,5 million). In Poland there are a lot of people who do not feel disabled, but who maintain the status of disabled people. The definition of a disabled person used in Germany and in Poland differ in the way they describe the disabled person, differentiate the levels of disability and the symbols of the disabled. The Polish definition of a disabled person describes the disability as an inability to play a social role – the ability to work in particular. The German definition characterizes the disability as a restricted ability to play a role in the social life, which is understood as a possibility to work, but also other aspects of social existence. In Poland the right to obtain most benefits depends on the income – the help given to the disabled people has got the features of the social benefits. In Germany all the help depends on the needs of a particular person.