The Disability Tax: A Novel Tool for Supporting the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The Disability Tax is a model that addresses impairment-related and socially-driven burdens for persons with disabilities, which in turn can create barriers to full participation in society. People with disabilities (PWD) face hidden burdens, existing in addition to the challenges faced by their non-disabled peers, which can tax their interlinked material, social, internal and health resources. As a theoretical and operational model, the Disability Tax situates disability in social structures and can be employed to make comparisons across societies and disabilities, or within a subset of disabilities. It allows for broad and specific examinations of how societies and individuals deal with disability, and ways it may affect health trajectories. The Resource Wheel is at the center of the Disability Tax. Depending on how a social structure creates barriers to an individual’s ability to fully access and use linked resources, the wheel can function proactively or cease to function. This paper highlights the ways that the Disability Tax relates to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, how it can be used as a tool to support the realization of the human rights outlined in the treaty. It also discusses ways that the model can be used in cross-sectional or longitudinal, qualitative and quantitative studies by researchers, NGOs, Disabled People’s Organizations (DPOs), and governments to highlight barriers, health disparities, and areas for improvement. The Disability Tax model can also be used as an educational and self-assessment tool for PWD and their families to identify taxed resources to then be addressed through individual effort, support services, and/or advocacy. Pilot research demonstrated that each one unit increase in the Disability Tax burden decreased subjective life expectancy by nearly six years, indicating both a profound hidden burned faced by PWD, and the utility of the model as a comprehensive tool.