ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter presents disability as an issue of human freedom. It discusses the relation between ability and freedom. Many traditional approaches to freedom tend to rule out the idea that disability can be seen as an issue of human freedom. However, it is suggested here that such approaches render freedom quite meaningless in a lot of contexts when, in real life, the importance of freedom stems from the fact that we consider it to have practical meaning. A model of freedom is introduced that links freedom quite closely with ability, capturing the idea that freedom has practical meaning. Using that model, disability can be seen as an issue of freedom. Indeed, it is shown that the kinds of things denied to people who are disabled are important basic freedoms that are conditional to the enjoyment of many other aspects of life. An advantage of such an approach is that it gives disabled people’s claims for better social provision more moral force. That is, they are claims for the provision of important basic freedoms, which any notion of a just and fair society ought to take seriously. Such an approach, then, renders our concept of freedom more inclusive, meaningful and applicable, enabling theorists to more adequately articulate the remediable hardships endured by many members of our community.
