Participation and Inclusion - A discourse of welfare or a discourse of rights?

Research among students with physical and sensory disabilities who have succeeded in continuing their education at post-compulsory level as far as higher education, revealed that they have a high level of perceived personal control. This is strongly linked with educational attainment irrespective of severity of disability. The emphasis of these students upon self-help groups, and institutional response to student needs within a discourse of rights, rather than of welfare, has lessons for equity policy and practice with respect to other disadvantaged groups. The wider implications of intervention strategies and compensation programs which label and further marginalise members of disadvantaged groups are explored in the paper, in the context of the social construction of categories of disadvantage and difference, the analysis of competing discourses and social trends of individualisation and globalisation.