Young Disabled People’s Fluctuating Activism: Challenging the Perfect Standard of Activist

Abstract

By combining ideas from social movement theory with disability studies, this article unpacks how young disabled people navigate the cultural ideals of the activist and activism as they narrate their past and present experiences of disability activism. Five life history interviews of young disabled people are analysed in detail by deploying the idea of the ‘perfect standard of activist’. This allows taking into account the complexity of identifying as a disability activist. The findings indicate how the cultural ideals of activism and the figure of the activist are out of reach for young disabled people; as a result, they do not necessarily consider themselves as activists while still engaging in activism. The embodied standards of activism, and ways in which ableism frames these, provide a framework to think about young disabled people’s fluctuating activism and the different forms it might take.

Keywords

• youth
• disability
• activism
• narrative