ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the extent of disability, worldwide and in the UK, and the impact and scope of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Equalities Act for developing disability equality. In the UK it formed the basis of the Duty to Promote Disability Equality in the 2005 Disability Amendment Act. The Disability Movement, which consists of organizations controlled by disabled people, comprises those disabled people and their supporters who understand that they are, regardless of their particular impairment, subjected to a common oppression by the non-disabled world. The chapter provides a brief history of disablement, including the growth of the Disabled People’s Movement and our struggle for civil rights. The Disabled People’s Movement represents the view that the ‘cure’ to the problem of disability lies in the restructuring of society.
