Disability Movement in the Global South

Crip Camp alumni became activists in the 1970s and 1980s, advocating for public facilities access. They organized a protest in New York that paralyzed the streets. (c) Netflix

The 1950s-1970s were a time of change when advocates of world peace like the ‘hippies’ organised events and camps such as the famous Woodstock festival. Not far away at Catskills was a summer camp called Camp Jened, specifically for young disabled people. James LeBrecht, who joined the camp, captured everything on tape, showing a utopian dream come true for people with disabilities who had so often been left out. However, after the camp, everyone went back to their normal lives, where many faced neglect and discrimination at a time when the USA didn’t have laws to make sure that everyone, including people with disabilities, had the same rights and opportunities.

“I had to fit into this world that wasn’t built for me. It never dawned on me that the world was ever going to change,” said LeBrecht in his documentary film Crip Camp. But some Camp Jened participants like James, and Judith Heumann did start protesting in New York – where they blockaded a central thoroughfare and paralysed the city – and then in Washington, D.C. Finally, in 1972, the government did pass the Rehabilitation Act, though enforcement was lacking.

In response, Heumann and others continued to protest, even occupying a government building in San Francisco. Their actions inspired more big protests in different parts of the US, and eventually, in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, ensuring legal rights and protections for people with disabilities. This movement involving James LeBrecht and others from Camp Jened changed things in the USA and inspired similar changes worldwide, strengthening laws for people with disabilities in many other countries.

Disability movements have tended to occur in the Global North. Camp Jened, for instance, was an incubator and catalyst for significant social change, as its graduates went on to influence policy and raise worldwide awareness about the importance of disability rights and inclusion. However, can we say the same for the Global South? Some governments in southern countries appear to consider the inclusion and rights of disabled people an expensive luxury, and the lack of implementation remains a severe problem for the many people who need them.

The previous article took a look at Nepal, as an example of experience in the Global South. Hundreds of people with disabilities in Nepal staged demonstrations in Kathmandu in May 2024 to express dissatisfaction with the government’s non-implementation of the right to personal assistance for those with severe disabilities. Activists warned the government that they would block the capital’s main roads and were prepared to continue with hunger strikes if their legitimate demands were not addressed. The government finally agreed to spell out within 45 days how this right to personal assistance would be implemented, bringing the protests to an end. Thanks to the individual activism of Mr Deepak Bhandari, the solidarity of the disability movement and concerted nonviolent direct action, severely disabled people should start to receive the support they need.

While not every state in the Global South is a ‘Least Developed Country’ (LDC), and experiences vary wildly within and between nations, the term refers to historical inequalities between the economically powerful ‘North’ (Western Europe and North America) and the historically disadvantaged ‘South’ (Meekosha, 2011). According to the book The Last Civil Rights Movement (Driedger, 1989), 10% of people in Latin America lived with various forms of disability, and most were among the poorest of the poor. More recently, a 2022 report from the World Health Organization indicated that 80% of the world’s disabled people are located in the Global South, where they have also organized into various disability movements.

African civil society organizations, such as Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) or the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) in Nigeria, have long advocated for accessibility and equality, but their efforts have not enjoyed the same level of coverage and recognition as those in the Global North. In Mexico, the Confederación Mexicana de Organizaciones en Favor de la Persona con Discapacidad Intelectual (CONFE) improves the quality of life for people with intellectual disabilities through advocacy and support services. Everywhere, however, there remains a long way to go, including in Brazil, where Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, a 38-year-old black man with a psychosocial disability, lost his life in the state of Sergipe at the hands of Federal Highway Police on 25 May 2022.

The Indian disability rights movement has a long history, and came to particular prominence this century over electoral discrimination. Under Section 33 (3) of the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994, the State Election Commission rejected the nomination of candidates with hearing or speech impairments. Widespread protests by disability rights activists and advocacy groups followed, leading to the amendment of the Act in 2012. However, persons with disabilities (PwDs) in India still face challenges when exercising their franchise due to the absence of accessible polling booths and inclusive procedures such as braille ballot papers. In the 2021 Panchayat election, Mr Tamilarasi, an independent candidate with an 80% locomotor disability, faced accessibility challenges at the Panchayat office, where candidates gathered to select campaign symbols.

Despite the adoption of legislation governing disability and rehabilitation in Nigeria, South Africa, Brazil, Nepal, India and other parts of the Global South, numerous social obstacles persist. Government officials often do not collectively recognize people with disabilities. Discriminatory language, attitudes and superstitions are still widespread, and throughout the world social awareness, education, equal rights and opportunities are far from being achieved. Meekosha’s 2011 research highlighted the complexities surrounding disability rights in less affluent countries, and that the lived experiences of disabled people in the Global South often diverge greatly from the picture implied by legislation supposedly in place.

Sources:

https://frontline.thehindu.com/social-issues/tamil-nadus-disabled-community-fights-to-enter-electoral-politics-social-issues/article68024200.ece

https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/27/death-man-disability-hands-brazilian-police

Downing, A, 2011. Power and Disability in the Global South: A Case Study of Ghana’s Disability Rights Movement.

Grech, S, 2011. ‘Recolonising debates or perpetuated coloniality? Decentring the spaces of disability, development and community in the Global South’, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(1), pp87–100. doi: 10.1080/13603116.2010.496198.

Meekosha, H and Soldatic, K, 2011. ‘Human Rights and the Global South: the case of disability’. Third World Quarterly, 32(8), pp1383-1397.