Independent Living as a Counter-Narrative

Abstract

This article explores the concept of independent living as a counter-narrative. I argue that in addition to being both an aim for disabled people and a campaign objective for the global disabled people’s movement, independent living also acts as a narrative tool that opposes majoritarian social constructions of disability and creates ‘repaired’ identities for disabled people. I analyse documents produced by the disabled people’s movement in the UK to establish how independent living performs the work of resistance and re-draws social identities to enable equality and social justice for disabled people. I suggest that if independent living is to be effectively enshrined in domestic law and policy, the challenge it poses to dominant social narratives must be fully understood, and consider the role of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in effecting this.