According to the provisions of Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, States Parties are obliged to provide people with disabilities with all services necessary for their full participation in society and to counteract social exclusion and isolation. Article 19(c) of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that States Parties must take all measures to ensure that “services and facilities for collective use intended for the general public are equally accessible to persons with disabilities and responsive to their needs.

A key factor in combating social exclusion is ensuring the accessibility of public services (education, healthcare, vocational training, assistance in finding and maintaining employment, transportation services, etc.). The higher the level of accessibility of these services, the less services are required to provide personal assistance to people with disabilities, and the better the needs of all members of society as a whole are met. In order to improve the accessibility of the system of services and their relevance to the needs of people with disabilities and other members of society, it is necessary to carefully analyze the range of available services and the degree of their effectiveness.

For example, training the staff of general medical institutions in the rules of interaction with various categories of people with disabilities (for example, training all general practitioners in the art of communicating with people with intellectual disabilities) would reduce the need for specialized services for people with disabilities. Such measures would save money and minimize the risk of isolating such people and providing them with poor quality services. When it comes to the employment of people with disabilities, instead of creating special workshops, options could be considered to provide them with regular work together with healthy people who could provide the necessary informal support to colleagues with disabilities. The creation of this kind of support also facilitates the labor integration of representatives of other vulnerable social groups.