Paper short abstract:

This article discusses a paradoxical injunction linked to the concept of autonomy in the field of disability. On one side, this discourse asks for the recognition of the capacities before the disability, but, it also emphasizes the need to acknowledge the disability and its daily consequences.

Paper long abstract:

Through ethnographic studies among people with physical disabilities in the Cape Flats, an impoverished area of Cape Town (South Africa), this article aims to discuss a paradoxical injunction linked to the concept of autonomy in the field of disability. Although the social model of disability is generally accepted in South Africa by the members of the government as well as the activists of the disability sector, this consensus hides deeper tensions between two different approaches, namely the idea of integration and the need to protect a minority. In a context highly focusing on people with disabilities' autonomies and capacities, these tensions lead to a paradoxical situation. On one side, the disability must be forgotten in the profit of individual abilities and capacities in the everyday life, but on the other side, there is a growing pressure to acknowledge the marginalization and stigmatization that people with disabilities experience. Some examples of this tension will be discussed at various levels. Firstly, the process of the elaboration of the disability act, still controversial in the South African disability sector, will be used to present the both approaches. Secondly, more personal examples from everyday life will be used to show how this tension is not only theoretical, but directly affects people with disabilities' life and social interactions. Finally, a local attempt to overcome this paradox will be introduced through the idea of diversity.