An International Summit Conference on Independent Living Washington, DC
September 21-25, 1999
___________Advocacy
Social Model Gains Acceptance
One of the key achievements of the Independent Living Philosophy is the paradigm replacement of the medical model's explanation of disability as an individual struggle for improvement with the social model's explanation that disability is created by the attitudes of society and the obstacles of social infrastructure. This paradigm shift has motivated disability leaders and the members of disability organizations to begin the lifelong task of advocating for the removal of all barriers and obstacles to the full participation of disabled people in their societies. One of the main challenges confronting disability leaders is that of educating the membership of disability organizations to understand the social model's explanation about the fundamental causes of their inability to function in their communities and to motivate them to seek change.
At this point in time, the worldwide disability leadership is in complete agreement about accepting the social model as the foundation for Independent Living Philosophy. However, often we do not invoke the social model in our conversations but instead only identify the changes we want to see in our lives and in our societies. For example, typically, a disabled person wants to use the bus, enter a building, go to school or get a job but does not know how to "advocate" for or accomplish these changes.
Following are some views of IL Summit participants that illustrate the growing universality of this paradigm shift:
Africa: “In the next millennium in my country, I would like to be equal with non-disabled people in terms of education, employment, transportation. I'd like to live like people without disabilities live.”
Canada: “Disability is not a medical problem, it is a social problem. For persons with disabilities, the problem is all the barriers, social, economical and psychological, which don't allow them to participate in their society. So, in order to give persons with disabilities the opportunity to live more independently, we have to empower disabled people to change the situation.”
Korea: “We can agree that there are essential concepts which we share: choice making, empowerment and that our problems are social not medical.”
Eastern Europe: “The social, economic and psychological barriers limiting people with disabilities to participate in a full social life in their societies is a social challenge, not a medical problem.”
The participants at the conference were all disability leaders from their countries and therefore conversant with the social model. All of the participants spoke of the need for organizing disabled people in their countries to advocate for changes in their own lives and communities.
While almost all of the participants' knowledge of advocacy is based on personal experience or mentoring by foreign disability leaders, many spoke of the need for educating the membership of their disability organizations about how to advocate for social and legislative change. The participants described a need for a practical curriculum for training disabled persons on the methods for effective advocacy at the community and governmental levels, including strategies to make allies of political and governmental officials.
Disability leaders have long recognized that their success in creating social policy change is greatly increased by the adoption of national laws prohibiting discrimination. Therefore, there was strong agreement by the participants on the need to promote the involvement of disabled people within government structures at all levels. This consensus is based on the common experience that disability policy change occurs only when disabled people have a voice in decision making at the government level. Many of the participants wanted to establish an international disability advocacy network that would provide external support for the passage of non-discrimination laws in their countries. Some commentary follows:
America: “People with disabilities need to be part of the government structures. They need to be participating not just as people with disabilities, but as professionals.”
Japan: “It is very hard to get anti-discrimination laws like the ADA separately in each country. We were not successful in Japan. It may be a better strategy to push for an anti-discrimination treaty in the UN, based on the Standard Rules and have each country ratify the treaty. In this way, the law would be effective in each country.”
Latin America: “We want to serve as "consultants" to our governments, thereby creating social and legal mechanisms to effect our own ideas and policies for inclusiveness in the community. We want to assist our governments in ‘translating’ our ideas into policies.”
Western Europe: “A disability advocacy network in all countries should be established. It would be helpful to have a single point of contact in each country to help communications flow and spur group actions when needed. Disability leaders should consider how all countries can help a specific country in need of advocacy support.”
©1999 ILRU Program. All rights reserved.