History and mission

Disabled People's Organisations - Denmark (DPOD) was founded in 1934 and has 32 national member organisations representing more than 320.000 people with disabilities in Denmark. DPOD is the only Danish umbrella organisation in the disability field.

The principal objective of DPOD is to take care of the common interests of the member organisations. Characteristic common tasks are negotiations with the national government about issues like pensions and social benefits, medicine, health care, technical aids and other general issues of importance to all disability groups - such as education, labour market questions and insurance.

Whenever the government - national, regional or local - consults with disabled people or wants disabled people to be represented, DPOD is consulted or asked to designate representatives. This is the situation in respect to almost all Danish ministries.

DPOD designates 7 members to the Danish Disability Council set up by The Danish Government. Furthermore DPOD designates members to a number of other public committees and commissions at national, regional and local level. DPOD often plays an active part in committees and commissions dealing with disagreements, complaints etc. Many of the DPOD representations are written into the law. Some examples of areas/cases where the work of DPOD has been essential:

• Employment on special conditions (flexjob etc.)
• Inclusive education
• Support of the implementation of the UN Standard Rules
• Independent living
• User participation
• Development policy
• Education of architects
• Action plans on accessibility
• Early retirement pension
• Free physiotherapy for people with disability