Being an older person or a person with a disability: Are supportive policies ageist?

The article concerns the Swedish support system's legal discourse, and investigates the rationale for excluding people over the age of 65 from services that younger people with disabilities may obtain. Data consist of government texts and court decisions under the Severe Disability Act about services for people over the age of 65. It was found that little in the legal discourse concerns the needs and rights of older people, and the general belief is that the Severe Disability Act is primarily intended for children, young people, and adults of working age. Othering of older people was indirectly present in three assumptions about differences in categorizations (people with disabilities vs older people with support needs), needs (active age vs not active age), and comparisons (with people without disabilities of the same age vs with others receiving eldercare). In Sweden, as in many other countries, the support system excludes older people with disabilities from some services, using a division between the categories 'people with disabilities' and 'older people'. The legislation that governs the support system communicates the message that older people with disabilities have different needs as compared to non-old people with disabilities. Justice for non-old people with disabilities is to have similar living conditions as people without disabilities of a similar age, and justice for older people with disabilities is to have similar living conditions as others who receive eldercare. The support system of Sweden rests on the assumption that disability after retirement age is caused by the process of ageing. People who grow old with experience of being part of disability movements may establish new identities as older people with disabilities, and challenge the present order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]