Lost in translation: how government-initiated user-led organisations diluted the disabled people’s movement in the UK

In response to the Special Issue question ‘Are things getting better?’, this article contends that the political power of disabled people in the UK has deteriorated due to the state’s co-optation of the disabled people’s movement. Using a composite auto-ethnographic case study of a User-Led Organisation I call ‘Sunnyside’, the paper traces how the promotion of User-Led Organisations and Direct Payments policy paradoxically weakened grassroots activism in the UK. By evaluating three fundamental principles of authentic user-led practice, grassroots control, social model adherence, and constituent accountability, the article reveals how funding regimes have reduced radical principles to administrative branding. The paper concludes that resisting structural and institutional diminishment of disabled people’s priorities and lives requires the movement to reclaim its history, establish financial independence, and implement a robust accreditation system in order to resist future incorporation.