7 - The CRPD’s Civilizing Mission

Summary

Recent disability-studies scholarship has begun to critique the field as neo-colonial. Disability-studies theory and concepts are based on the disability experience in the West. Disabled Persons' Organizations were, and remain, extremely significant actors within the lives of persons with disabilities in North America, Western Europe, and other communities throughout the West. These organizations were organized for the purposes of advocating for the independence and individual rights of persons with disabilities who they represented. It is the promotion of this organizational model for DPOs around the world that has become the international disability-rights movements “civilizing mission.” When grassroots DPOs in the Global South prioritize mutual aid, social support, and services over rights advocacy, they are deemed “backwards” by international advocates. These attempts to remake all civil societies in the image of the West deny local diversity and silence voices. Therefore, there is need for a much more open and tolerant global disability movement that reflects the disability experience of everyone.