Conclusion "Disability Welfare Policy in Europe: Cognitive Disability and the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic"

The chapter presents the similarities and the differences between the different case studies reported in the book and suggests some conclusion on the impact of Covid-19 on policies and practices devoted to persons with cognitive disabilities from a macro, meso and micro point of view. The Covid-19 surveillance regime has made people with disabilities, and particularly with intellectual ones, even more invisible, since their rights have been consistently under-represented in the different national contexts. Persons with intellectual disabilities have been considered objects of protection and this overprotective stance turns into an increasing process of institutionalisation, segregation and familiarisation of care. The Covid-19 surveillance regime has brought into light the limits of the implementation of the UN Convention and of the EU Strategy, but the book and the emerging epistemic community, in the framework of public sociology, contribute to support the rights of all persons, with or without disabilities, in public welfare policies in Europe.