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).