ABSTRACT
The previous chapter explored the issue of citizenship in terms of disabled people's right to access an assessment, and the various ways in which that right can be undermined or even denied by social services' managerial and bureaucratic practices. In this chapter, the assessment itself is conceived as one of the 'various practices' which define a citizen as a 'competent member of society' (Turner, 1993a). It will explore the ways in which various people are constituted as 'competent members of society' during the process of needs negotiation which takes place between disabled people, 'carers' and practitioners. It addresses the question of how disabled people and their families experience the assessment as a way of negotiating their needs and access to services and support to meet those needs: in other words, how they access their social rights.
