It took a long while for the disability rights movement to get the respect it demanded since the 1970s. Activists would not settle for being patronized or marginalized. The presence of activists in wheelchairs on the front lines in the Arab Spring uprisings, in the European anti-austerity protests, in other political activities has shown that disabilities of any kind are not an impediment to full participation in social & political life. Because oppressive regimes target the young to disable them, especially Palestinians & Kashmiris, disability rights has become not just integrated but central to the very fabric of political struggle in those places.
(Photos by Basit Zargar)