What is the Future of Disability Rights?

Abstract

I would like to ask us all to think about the future of disability in our world through two older (but still capable of providing surprises) perspectives: technology and disability rights. Forty years ago, in the USA in particular, a number of advocates and organizations were consciously using the Declaration of Independence as a template for why disabled people’s rights were inalienable, even if rights were at the time not well-established in US law or practice. Their efforts have led to (in the USA) an environment where disability rights in education and the community are based on Federal and state or local laws. An unanticipated consequence of basing rights and services on government-created laws results in a situation in which rights granted by a government can, logically, be taken away by a government.