ABSTRACT
Disability activists have long argued that individuals are 'disabled', not by physical or intellectual impairments, but by a society that does not accommodate difference. The Paralympic Games are one of the most visible platforms of the Paralympic Movement. As an agent of change, the movement holds on to the ideal of a barrier-free society without discrimination and enables athletes and non-athletes to support athlete empowerment through self-determination. It is vital, in terms of developing approaches to advocacy, to make distinctions between impairment and disability or a social model or rights-based approach to advancing, enabling and empowering different types of difference. Historically, groups such as Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) have argued that it is society that disables physically impaired people, whereas the human rights approach of the COE strives to promote the perception of persons with disabilities as holders of rights, in the same way as all other citizens, considering disability to be part of human diversity.
