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The question is a valid one, because the example I was referring to is of course not located in the DDA but hails from other policies and legislation. I think there is an onus on the academy to highlight disabled people's rights particularly when these have arisen out of obscure legislation, because it is all to easy for the state to renege on its responsibilities regarding those rights. This is particularly the case when frontline state workers (eg benefits officers, social workers, doctors) and funding bodies (eg health authorities, PCTs, local authorities, social security etc) are unaware of disabled people's rights and their corresponding duties. We know from various analyses of the workings of the state how difficult it is for disabled people, even acting with collective power, to challenge obscure bureaucratic rationing decisions successfully. One thing academics can do within the kind of training relationships we tend to have with the arbiters of the state (the doctors, nurses, social workers, housing officers, benefits officers etc) is support disabled people in claiming their rights by removing one of the barriers they experience in accessing those rights - namely the ignorance of the existance of those rights. A classic example within my field is that disabled people have the right (under the 1986 Disabled Person's Act and 1990 NHSCCA) to an assessment of their needs, but most local authorities act as though this does not apply to disabled people over the age of 65 (because they tend to become the responsibility of social work teams working with 'older' rather than disabled people) which is a dangerous form of ageism that can impact fairly significantly on disabled people. Not only do most disabled people not realise they have this right, and therefore find it difficult to assert, but most local authorities renege on their responsibilities. If we do little else we can at least try to remove the barrier of ignorance! Kirstein ------------------------ Kirstein Rummery NPCRDC 5th Floor, Williamson Building University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Tel: 0161-275-7637 FAX: 0161-275-7600 Email: [log in to unmask] ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.