disability

Young people with a disability such as Down's syndrome are forced to leave school at age 18 in some regions of the Netherlands, while they are legally entitled to education until they are 20, according to a study by Reporter Radio. Special education schools stress that continuing education is crucial for these young people's development, NRC reports.

Sven Romkes from Assen managed to just get a spot with his wheelchair in a packed train from Almere station to the north on Tuesday evening. But two young men decided they'd rather have his spot. They picked him up, wheelchair and all, and carried him off the train. Romkes was left on the platform, watching the intercity train to Leeuwarden leave without him, De Stentor reports.

The number of complaints about discrimination against people with disabilities reached a record high last year. The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights received a total of 810 such complaints, compared to 579 in 2016 and 342 in 2015, RTL Nieuws reports.

People with disabilities or health problems in the Netherlands have a hard time finding work. Half of organizations do not want to hire people with disabilities or other health problems, according to a study among 3 thousand employers by social and cultural planning office SCP, BNR reports.

Half of the organizations indicated that they don't want to hire additional people with health restrictions. Two thirds said that they feel responsible for hiring people with disabilities or health problems, but only 11 percent actually intend to do so. 

Children's rights organizations Save the Children and Defense for Children are calling on the Dutch government to do more to fight poverty among hundreds of thousands of kids in the Netherlands

Amsterdam police rescued a wheelchair bound boy from a very busy intersection on Wednesday last week, the Nieuw-West Zuid police said on Facebook. The underage boy is deaf and has both mental and physical disabilities. He was left stranded after his taxi dropped him off at the wrong location.

State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Public Health allocated 13.2 million euros for improving care for disabled people and getting it ready for the future, he wrote to parliament on Friday

This year for the first time more people took a break from the labor market because of stress and physiological reasons as compared to physical symptoms. More than 415,000 people are currently on disability leave because of a mental illness or a behavioral disorder, newspaper Trouw determined in an analysis of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) data.

Psychological problems cost Dutch businesses 20 billion euro every year. This includes the costs of care, absenteeism, loss of productivity and disability. The 20 billion euro is about 3 percent of the size of the Dutch economy.