| In May 2008, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) entered into force. As international law, this legislation requires monitoring of legislative and programmatic progress, creating a need for international research on the rights of persons with disabilities. To date, little research has focused on international differences in the current rights of persons with disabilities and the relationship of those rights to self-determination and quality of life. 58 persons with disabilities in three countries: Nepal, Zambia, and the United States were surveyed. Participants were members of disability umbrella organizations who completed surveys regarding various demographic characteristics, quality of life, self-determination, and human rights. Using chi-square analyses, the three country samples were found to have demographic differences on several variables: age, disability, education, community size, housing, civil status, and previous advocacy experience.;Countries were found to differ significantly in their ratings of quality of life, self-determination, and personal human rights, but not on country support of human rights. In respect to quality of life, the US scored significantly higher than both Nepal and Zambia and in respect to ratings of self-determination and personal human rights, the US scored significantly higher than Zambia. Quality of life was highly correlated with previous advocacy experience, type of schooling, employment, housing, self-determination and human rights. Multiple regression analyses indicated that self-determination, employment, and previous advocacy experience were significant predictors of quality of life. Personal human rights was a significant predictor of self-determination.;These results replicate existing literature which cites self-determination as predictive of quality of life and they are consistent with the topological model of quality of life for cross-cultural understanding. This study shows that through the coordinated improvement of multiple factors: self-determination and advocacy (personal factors), employment (material factors), and human rights (social factors), the quality of life of persons with disabilities may be improved. Future research should focus on the applicability of this model to the monitoring of UNCRPD and policy and program development. |
