Introduction

We reside within a global village, with approximately 10% of the world's population or 650 million people (including about 200 million children) living with some form of disability (United Nations 2011). This has been estimated to rise to 1.2 billion by 2050 (United Nations 2011). The World Health Organization and the United Nations have recognized that people with disability have a right to access services from all areas of citizenship. The purpose of this special issue of Annals of Leisure Research was to seek contributions examining the inclusion and citizenship of people with disability in ‘cultural life’, defined by the United Nation's (2006) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPWD) to include recreation, leisure, the arts, sport and tourism. In particular, the issue aimed to:

clarify what the terms inclusion and citizenship mean in different cultures;

place inclusion to and citizenship of ‘cultural life’ across discourses relating to economic, social and environmental contexts that affect people with disabilities participation; and

discuss the terms inclusion and citizenship from the ideological frameworks of government, researchers, providers of service or disability advocacy groups.