Introduction

This chapter describes the ways in which the language of human rights has, over the last two decades, come to the fore in disability politics, policy and research in the UK. It reviews a number of factors that have been identified as impacting on disabled people's human rights together with key concepts which have emerged over this period to explain the social mechanisms that underlie these factors.

Some of these issues have been addressed in Chapter 1, not least the process of redefinition by which the question of discrimination has been brought into the foreground. As we have suggested, through the related discourses, disabled children and adults are defined less as patients in need of help or cure, and more as disenfranchised citizens experiencing discrimination and oppression. Consequently, many experiences which were hitherto regarded as inevitable, and negative consequences of impairment are redrawn as unacceptable and unnecessary discrimination – as violations of human rights.

Access and barriers to access

The increased focus on the limiting nature of the context external to the disabled person has brought into frequent use the overarching, twin concepts of access and barriers to access. The notion of reducing barriers and creating social and physical environments and processes that are accessible to, and usable by, disabled people, has been increasingly recognised and developed since the 1970s (Zarb, 1995). It has also been acknowledged that restricted access in one area can create a barrier to access and participation in another. The telling photograph on the cover of The politics of disablement (Oliver, 1990), shows a wheelchair user at the bottom of a flight of steps leading to the entrance to a polling station. It is also acknowledged that experiences frequently associated with disability such as poverty, may also compound and magnify many of the barriers to access which disabled people face. Not being able to afford driving lessons and a suitable car, may leave an individual reliant on a public transport system which still has enormous barriers to access and use by disabled people.

The use of these concepts is widespread and is applied to a range of diverse circumstances. Perhaps the use that is familiar to most people is in relation to the built environment and transport. It can also be applied in relation to a much broader range of concepts and experiences affecting an individual's quality of life.