ABSTRACT
On 3 May 2008 the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) finally came into force, marking perhaps the end of the first phase of the global disability rights movement, which can be said to have begun in 1981, with the formation of Disabled Peoples’ International. Principles and practices such as the social model of disability, independent living, inclusive education, community-based rehabilitation and slogans such as ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ are now in common usage around the world, despite the undoubted survival of charitable ways of thinking and the continued dominance of professional approaches in the disability field. While negative attitudes remain ubiquitous, and despite the damaging impact of austerity in Britain and elsewhere, in high-income countries there is a new generation of people with disabilities who have grown up expecting access to education, employment and community participation. Rather than needing to identify as disability activists, and joining the struggle for their rights, young people with disabilities increasingly have the option of joining the mainstream and of expressing their individuality without reference to their impairment. Access is expected as a right, not a privilege.
