ABSTRACT
It is now almost fifty years since the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) and the Disability Alliance met in London with the following aims: ‘(a) to consider ways in which disabled people can become more active in the disability field and (b) to consider a long-term programme of action to involve disabled people in discussions about their own affairs’. Their discussions were underpinned by the ground-breaking assertion that disability is a situation ‘caused by social situations.’1 It is this notion, which has come to be known as the social model of disability, that disability rights activist and sociologist, Mike Oliver, explores in the following reflective paper. Because it is short, we have opted to re-present it here in full.
