Disabled people and social wellbeing : what is good for us is good for everyone

Abstract

Speaking about social wellbeing means focusing on an individual’s wellbeing not only on a personal level, but also on a social level. It involves considering the individual’s opportunities to be with others, to form healthy relationships, and to engage in various activities with others in the mainstream of society. The concerns of the disabled people’s movement, and of the discipline of Disability Studies which developed from that movement, are very similar, dealing as they do with the social aspects of disability. This is because the concept of wellbeing has been colonized and suffused with a non-disabled, often overly therapeutic discourse. This chapter will focus on how the concept of social wellbeing has been used (directly and indirectly) in disabled people’s struggle for recognition of their right to be an integral part of society and in the discipline of Disability Studies itself.