Resistance, transformation and the politics of hope: imagining a way forward for the disabled people’s movement

Abstract

The social model of disability has been a useful tool to shift the focus of disability as individual deficit to disability as a social construction in an oppressive society. However, a theory of political action is needed to create transformative change. This article develops resistance as a unifying political construct and tool for action. Four critical incidences from different historical eras and different global regions – India, the USA, Cyprus and Zimbabwe – offer examples of how resistance manifests itself and the ways it may be harnessed effectively by disabled individuals and by disabled people’s movements to create and sustain change for a more just society.