Human Rights and Disability A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions This idea of collective voice has moral significance because it means that policies cannot be developed over the heads of people who will be affected by those policies. It has political significance because it enriches the policy process that would otherwise be impoverished without the input of those who are experts by experience. And it now has legal significance because the UN CRPD requires States to include and actively involve persons with disabilities in policy development and in other major decisions that affect them (article 4.3). As Part II describes, these rights (voice and choice) are complex and not without their share of controversy. They blend two different but compatible philosophies: one that accentuates individual autonomy and another than accentuates social inclusion and support. More than any other, these rights symbolise the shift toward realising human rights for all, as envisaged by Convention. They seek to reverse decades, if not centuries, of denying people with disabilities the right to count as a person and to determine their own lives and future and to fulfil themselves in the community. 2.3. SOCIAL INCLUSION: CREATING PATHWAYS INTO THE LIFE-WORLD Most people fulfil themselves and develop their own unique identity through interacting with others. Most people integrate and socialise in the workplace, in school, in sports, in culture and in leisure. Most people have free access to the justice system and to the broader political system. However, many persons with disabilities are either excluded from, or experience barriers within, all dimensions of community life. Since they are not expected to be there, they are effectively excluded as no allowance is made for their presence. This segregation is a consequence of the cumulative effects of prejudice, hostility, discrimination and inaccessibility. The resulting invisibility of persons with disabilities and their social disconnectedness consolidates and reinforces the cycle of exclusion. Accordingly, social inclusion is one of the key foundations of the human rights frame on disability. The UN CRPD is resolute in its commitment to the rights of persons with disabilities to “full and effective participation and inclusion in society” (article 3(c)). This principle is reflected in most of the headline articles of the Convention dealing with, for example, inclusive education (article 24) and the open labour market (article 27). Fundamentally, this means that persons with disabilities have a right to “be everywhere in the world”,70 living, learning, working and socialising with and alongside persons without disabilities. The UN CRPD, therefore, also promotes a decisive shift away from all forms of involuntary and ‘congregated’ arrangements, such as institutional living, sheltered workplaces, special segregated schools, day centres and other arrangements that separate persons with disabilities from the wider community. However, doing so requires action by States and other actors to create the conditions necessary for effective participation and full inclusion of people with disabilities, including taking steps to ‘open up’ society and its institutions and dedicating public resources to remove barriers and support participation. For example, in relation to employment and work, this might include introducing and enforcing anti-discrimination law, conducting awareness-raising programs to tackle negative employer stereotypes regarding the capabilities of persons with disabilities and investing public resources in the supports that persons with disabilities and employers may require. In the field of education, it may require making adjustments to the curriculum and to teaching methods. 70 26 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, World Conference on Human Rights, 25 June 1993; available at www.ohchr.org/ EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/Vienna.aspx.