Success and its discontents: independent living and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

This article highlights a paradox. On the one hand, the Independent Living (IL) movement has achieved a resounding success through the widespread ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Yet on the other hand, the mainstreaming of the CRPD has witnessed proliferating misappropriations of IL. This has forced IL activists to fight on two fronts, continuing the older fight for implementing IL policies, while also engaging in a newer fight against misinterpretations of IL. Two recent examples of this newer epistemic struggle are discussed, drawing on the work of the European Network on Independent Living – fighting against representations of continuing institutionalisation as ‘community inclusion’, and fighting against representations of home care as ‘personal assistance’. The analysis concludes with an appeal to power holders to take the knowledge of IL activists seriously to help realise IL, while enabling epistemic justice.