ABSTRACT
The justification for this virtual roundtable book chapter is to interrogate disability activism in the global South from the perspective of emerging disability activists. We understand that a disability rights movement is a global social movement aiming to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all disabled people (United Nations, 2006). The intention of any disability activism is to break attitudinal, environmental (physical and communication) and institutional (policy and programming) barriers, which prevent disabled people from realising human rights, just like other citizens (Chataika, 2019). Activists and critical disability scholars are aware that the disability community tends to be fragmentary and politically inactive as they are often socially and physically isolated (Haagaard, 2017). This is due to disabled people being usually enculturated by ableism beliefs and disabling models of disability such as the medical and charity models of disability (WHO Health Organization [WHO] & World Bank, 2011; Wapling & Downie, 2012). Thus, disability rights concerns become fragmented as a result of their practical implementation at more localised levels of government. Hence, the need for disability activism, or rather advocacy, which is focused on operational aspects of services rather than the broad systemic issues that underpin issues of inequity and access for marginalised groups (Haagaard, 2017). This is because small-scale interventions are easier to conceptualise and implement, with immediate tangible results to politicians or corporate patrons who tend to sponsor impairment-specific interest groups. That is why top-down charities tend to dominate advocacy work in fragmentary contexts. Regrettably, this disfranchises disabled people making disability rights activism challenging.
