Advocacy, International

Philosophy and Practice

The philosophy and practice of advocacy, self-help, and social movement building have evolved out of an emerging consciousness of political activists worldwide that is informed both by their own particular local experiences and the reach of the international disability movement. They incorporate the interconnected principles of empowerment and human rights, integration and independence, self-help and self-determination. The meaning of these concepts and where they programmatically lead can, not surprisingly, be different and, more noticeably, can have different strategic movement or organizational importance. This reflects the divergent and often conflictual politics of the movement's activists.

Disability Rights as a New Social Movement

The building of a disability movement rooted in self-help organization and advocacy reflects many of the traits of other new social movements that emphasize identity. These social movements focus on new forms of social and collective action, involve personal intimate needs, and are not centralized but loose and diffuse. There has been much debate among activists and scholars about how similar the disability movement(s) is to other new social movements such as women's, human rights, landless peoples', and environmental movements. In arguing that the disability rights movement is a new social movement, two British disability rights scholars, Mike Oliver and Gerry Zarb, argued that the critical traits of new social movements mirror those of the disability rights/advocacy movement: “To varying degrees and in varying ways the new movements also seek to connect the personal (or cultural) and [Page 51]political realms, or at least they raise psychological issues that were often submerged or ignored.” Oliver and Zarb (1989:237) go so far as to make the assertion, “Hence, the disability movement will come to have a central role in counter-hegemonic politics and the social transformation upon which this will eventually be based.” This assertion contrasts with the lack of interest most sociologists who study social movements have shown in the advocacy, community movement, and self-organization of people with disabilities.

Context of Advocacy, Movement, Organization

Out of the different and often hard realities of everyday life, advocacy organizations of people with disabilities have appeared in virtually every country in the world. These organizations form the core of the international disability rights movement. Although this development touches only a relatively small portion of people with disabilities, it nevertheless parallels the process of consciousness and organization that has given rise to many kinds of community-based advocacy and self-help organizations and social movements.

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