Characteristics of disability protests around the world 1969 - present
Sharon Barnartt, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, USA
Abstract
This paper uses event-history analysis, a methodology used in social movements' scholarship, in which the unit of analysis is the protest event. It uses reports of disability-related protests collected primarily from newspapers, but reports from other media were also used. It analyzes over 1100 incidents of protest [based upon a US definition of protest which does not include lobbying, letter-writing campaigns, or petitions] from around the world. Comparisons of US and UK protests show statistically significant differences in timing patterns [American protests started much earlier], types of impairment-related demands [UK protests were more likely to be related to mobility and less likely to be related to deafness than the US], categories of protest demands [UK protests were more likely to demand rights, while US protests were more likely to demand services], and disruptiveness but not in whether a governmental target was used and whether there was organizational involvement. Comparisons of protests in more and less developed countries show statistically significant differences in timing patterns [with protests in less developed countries being more recent], types of impairment-related demands [such that blindness protests were much more likely in less developed countries and protests related to mobility much less frequent], categories of protest demands [those in less developed countries less like to demand either rights or services, and more likely to have other types of demands], in whether a governmental target was used, and whether there was organizational involvement but not in disruptiveness. While showing that this is an area in which disability scholars and social movements' scholars should be collaborating, the paper also discusses ways in which social, economic, and cultural contexts shape contentious political action in disability communities around the world.