Disability rights movement
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The disability rights movement aims to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. Accessibility and safety are primary issues that this movement works to reform. Access to public areas such as city streets and public buildings and restrooms are some of the more visible changes brought about in recent decades. A noticeable change in some parts of the world is the installation of elevators, transit lifts, wheelchair ramps and curb cuts, allowing people in wheelchairs and otherwise mobility impaired to use public sidewalks and public transit more easily and more safely. This improvement has also been appreciated by parents pushing strollers or trolleys, bicycle users, and travelers with rolling luggage.
Access to education and employment have also been a major focus of this movement. Adaptive technologies enabling people to work jobs they could not have previously helps with access to jobs and economic independence. Access in the classroom has helped improve education opportunities and independence for people with disabilities.
The right to have an independent life as an adult, sometimes using paid assistant care instead of being institutionalized, is a major goal of this movement. The movement has allowed more people with disabilities to be active participants in mainstream society.
The question of whether severely mentally disabled persons should be allowed to have sex is a controversial one. In Germany, this topic is brought to the fore by Nina de Vries who offers paid sexual services to these persons.
Some disability rights advocates have also become active in the anti-euthanasia movement for various reasons. Some disagree with some euthanasia advocates who defend euthanasia on the utilitarian ground that it conserves public resources which would otherwise be used to care for disabled people. Others are concerned about society's double standard with respect to suicide: non-disabled people who are suicidal are strongly discouraged from taking their own lives, while disabled suicidal people are encouraged or even helped to do so. They point out that non-disabled or newly disabled people are apt to underestimate the quality of life that is possible for people with disabilities. Not Dead Yet is a disability rights organization that is well-known for orchestrating protests at public appearances of euthanasia advocates.
External Links
- Not Dead Yet (http://www.notdeadyet.org)
- Unspeakable Conversations (http://www.utilitarian.net/singer/about/20030216.htm) An article written by a disabled disability lawyer about her debates with controversial philosopher Peter Singer