Policy Legitimacy: A Model for Disability Policy Analysis and Change

Abstract

In this paper we present and apply Legitimacy Policy, a framework for policy analysis that applies a legitimacy lens to the examination, understanding, and illumination of directions for purposive policy change. Interrogating historical and current disability policy: (a) reveals the context-based value-foundations and continued dominance of medical explanations of disability inherent in disability-specific policy and (b) maps a direction for policy change that can advance human rights for disabled citizens.