This document discusses the history of citizenship and disability rights from the 1800s to today. It covers major events and developments such as the founding of asylums, eugenics movements, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, deinstitutionalization, and more recent issues like austerity, nationalism, and the elections of Trump and Brexit. Throughout this history are ideas of equality, community, citizenship, and the importance of diversity. The document presents a hopeful message that while there have been setbacks, concepts like basic income, disability pride, and global cooperation can help continue progress toward a more just and inclusive world.

1. Love & Citizenship

2. Wendy Perez
wishes she
was here
and if she was
here she would
have stopped
me talking too
much and using
too many long
words

4. “People with disabilities
will save the world”
Marilyn Wilson

5. There is a revolution going on.
We are beginning to realise
that everyone, every human
being is important. We are
beginning to see that every
human being is beautiful.
At the heart of this revolution
are not the powerful, the
wealthy or intelligent.
It is people with disabilities
who are showing us what is
important - love, community
and the freedom to be
ourselves.
Jean Vanier

6. What’s our dream for those we love?
Money? Power? Fame?
or
a life of citizenship
freedom, meaning,
contribution

8. But if this is a citizenship revolution…
• Where did it come from?
• Where are we now?
• What must we do?

10. • British North America Act (BNA Act)
• First Ugly Laws
1867

11. Those weird and wacky
Victorians, who preferred to
impose order rather than
seek justice

12. • Founding of South Yorkshire Asylum
• Publication of Hereditary Genius
1869

14. South Yorkshire Asylum founded 1869

15. Edward Galton, Hereditary Genius (1869)
“If a twentieth part of the cost and pains were
spent in measures for the improvement of the
human race that is spent on the improvement of
the breed of horses and cattle, what a galaxy of
genius might we not create! We might introduce
prophets and high priests of civilisation into the
world, as surely as we can propagate idiots by
mating cretins.”
The Evil of Eugenics

17. The author Virginia Woolf

18. • Aktion T-4 begins
• World War II begins
1939

19. Hadamar Euthanasia Centre

21. The Most Dangerous Thing - Divided by Our Diversity

22. • The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Start of National Health Service (NHS)
1948

23. UN Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1 - All human beings are born free and equal in
dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2 - Everyone is entitled to all the rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction
of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national or social
origin, property, birth or other status…
Article 3 - Everyone has the right to life, liberty and
security of person.

24. “…only legal and political
institutions that are independent
of the economic forces and
automatism can control and
check the inherently monstrous
potentialities of this process.
Such political controls seem to
function best in the so-called
welfare states whether they call
themselves socialist or capitalist.”
Hannah Arendt
The modern world needs
the welfare state

26. • US Civil Rights Act
• Christmas in Purgatory
1965

27. Christmas in Purgatory (1965)

28. Burton Blatt from Christmas in Purgatory written in 1965
“It does not require a scientific
background or a great deal of
observation to determine
that one has entered the
land of the living dead.”

30. The absence of freedom is the imposition of restraint on my
deliberation as to what I shall do, where I shall live, how much I
shall earn, the kinds of tasks I shall pursue. I am robbed of the
basic quality of humanness. When I cannot choose what I
shall do or where I shall live or how I shall survive, it
means in fact that some system has already made these
a priori decisions for me, and I am reduced to an animal.
I do not live; I merely exist. The only resemblances I have to
real life are the motor responses and function that are akin to
human-kind. I cannot adequately assume responsibility as a
person because I have been made party to a decision in which
I played no part in making.
Martin Luther King
Civil Rights, Citizenship and Freedom

31. • Closure of Darenth Park Hospital
• From Behind the Piano published
1990

32. Wolf Wolfensberger on Social Role Valorisation (1998)
“The ideal service model i.e., the one with the
greatest model coherency would be derived
from the real, primary, and urgent needs of the
people to be served, and all of its process
components would match harmoniously with
each other and the content so as to facilitate
effective address of those needs”
Wolf Wolfensberger on Social Role Valorisation (1998)

36. We’ve got this legacy of
great ideas and practices…
…but sometimes it feels like
we’ve got stuck

37. “The real innovators are people with
disabilities and their families” John O’Brien

39. Judith Snow (1990)
From Behind the Piano
“For true community
building to take root, the
stranger and the citizens
have to make a
permanent commitment
to each other; one that
may change in form
several times but that
continues with fulfilling
interactions on all parts.”

40. • Global Financial Crisis
• Austerity
2008

43. Mark Baum, The Big Short (2015)
“I have a feeling in a few years people are going to be
doing what they always do when the economy tanks.
They will be blaming immigrants and poor people.”

45. • Election of Donald Trump
• Brexit
2016

47. 3 Really bad ideas
• My group is the best group - nationalism etc.
Donald Trump: “From this day forward, a new vision will
govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be
only America first, America first.”
• I’m the only person who counts - liberalism
Donald Trump on not paying taxes: “That makes me
smart.”
• The best people should control the rest - meritocracy
Donald Trump: “I’m, like, a really smart person.”

51. Here’s the good news:
these bad ideas are also
crazy ideas
they contradict each
other and they don’t work

52. • 3 good ideas
• Doing good stuff
Next

53. 3 Good ideas
• Diversity - difference is good
• Equality - we’re all equal
• Citizenship - we can work together as equals

55. Life is like a Jackson Pollock - Liz Etmanski

58. Exeko and colleagues from BC

61. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii by Bill Reid

62. 3 promising things
• Disability Pride and political action
• Basic Income
• Global action - e.g. Citizen Network

63. Pride + Organisation = Power

66. Let’s do what citizens do… work together for a better world

68. Love creates the conditions
for citizenship
You are where
the change
starts