1. Language as Emancipatory
Do words make a difference?
Marcia Rioux
York University

2. What is self-determination?
having one’s personal autonomy or independence respected,
having the opportunity to develop plans for the future and to act upon them,
having access to the social, cultural, economic and political opportunities of one’s community that help to define a person’s possibilities, and
the right of individuals to determine the choices in their lifestyles

3. What’s the Difference?
Independence
Dependence
Interdependence

4. From Medical Welfare Model to Human Rights Model
Recognizes non-discrimination and equality rather than good-will as the goals of the liberation and inclusion struggle.
Recognizes disability as a state of being rather than a tragic deviation from “normalcy.”
Accepts empowerment and self-direction as key to achieving equality and citizenship

5. Some Recent Reflections on the Meaning of Self-determination
self-determination is a new way of handling public funds
self-determination is a way to reduce the costs of services
self-determination is a set of skills
self-determination is a way for people to get publicly funded support
self-determination is a name for a social movement
self-determination is a new point on the continuum of services

6. Care and Support
Care involves looking after someone; while support is to use recipient-determined help to enable someone to accomplish the choices they make themselves

7. Differences in Meaning
Care Services
Deliverer-determined
Best interests
Paternalism
Predictability
Disempowerment
Carer control
Fixing weakness
Categorization
Minority share-holder
Charity
Support Environment
Recipient-requested
Choice
Self-determination
Unpredictability
Empowerment
Self-advocate control
Developing strengths
Individual need
Majority share-holder
Rights

8. Supporting People
What is sought in assisting disabled people in the community can only become viable when services are constructed which are in essence concerned with supporting disabled people to realize their personal aspirations.

9. Freedom
Freedom is the empowered individual’s right to make choices not within the narrow confines of externally defined limitations but within the full range of possibilities and within their own understanding of what well-being means to them.
Empowerment is the freedom of choice

10. Definitions of Health
Health (WHO Constitution of 1948): a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
Health Promotion: the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health
Health for All: the attainment by all the people of the world of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically useful life

11. Disability Adjusted Life Years
“a unit for measuring both the global burden of disease and the effectiveness of health intervention.”
(World Bank Report, 1993)

12. A Human Rights Framework
Recognizes that:
Disability is a result of social, legal and economic status
A broad set of factors contribute to exclusion and the loss of human rights
Respect for diversity contributes to well-being
People must be supported to exercise their rights
People need a sense of fairness in their communities and societies

13. “It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world”
Mary Wollstonecraft, UNDP Report, 1994)