ISRAEL ELWYN | LEXICON OF PROFESSIONAL TERMINOLOGY

During these years, protest movements sprang up in the United States and Europe demanding equal rights and the termination of discrimination towards people with disabilities. The effects of these protests were reflected in the social definition of disability as a difficulty to function, a difficulty which stemmed from both the disability itself and from a social structure which made no allowance for people with disabilities and often erected barriers that prevented them from equal social participation. The social model that developed during this period, focused on the societal responsibility to remove barriers and the promise of full social inclusion for people with disabilities in all walks of life. A clear demand to change the environment and society came into existence, followed by a call for laws to address the rights and environmental accessibility for people with disabilities. The laws of the past decades and the UN resolution regarding the rights of people with disabilities are an expression of the process of change that focuses on equal rights for all people, as well as universal adaptability and accessibility. During the last decade, Israel Elwyn has been a partner in the ongoing global conversation that has brought about a change in terminology parallel to the change in professional conceptions and the transition from label-based referencing to equality: the person before the disability – we speak about the person, not about the disability. The present outlook developed from this is in accordance with this point: Nothing about us without us! People with disabilities lead in planning services for themselves. Likewise, new outlooks and principles came and have come to fruition, recognizing that people with disabilities can participate in all areas of life, as part of society's unique and diverse mosaic.