Disrupting Barriers: Youth Disability and Access to Opportunities

Dear Colleagues,

Imagine yourself a teenager in an enrolment meeting with the school principal of your local high school. The principal turns to your parent(s) and says “because Alex doesn’t communicate, we’re not sure we can teach them. There are schools [special schools] better equipped to meet Alex’s needs.”

The passage to adulthood is stippled with experiences capable of building or diminishing the emerging young adult. For young disabled people, the individualization of disability makes it difficult to form a common identity, often resulting in the absence of strong oppositional role models (Jóhannsdóttir et al., 2022) to repel discrimination and claim a pride identity. The buffering effect that a shared identity with a marginalized group might offer, e.g., Black or LGBTQIA Pride, is not well developed, with disability commonly perceived as a deficit. Interpersonal, institutional and internalized ableism, where disability is cast as a diminished state of being human (Campbell, (2012) reigns unchecked on the path to adulthood. The establishment of ‘special schools’ and segregated classrooms and the entrenched, unchallenged notion that disabled children and young people should be consistently engaged in the pursuit of ‘becoming normal’ (Hodge and Runswick-Cole 2013) are common examples of institutionalized ableism. Intersectionality also plays a role as reflected in a recent review of youth with disabilities from racial minorities revealing the increased barriers encountered in obtaining (and during) employment (Lindsay & Dain, 2025). In the attempt to survive this culture, young people risk internalized ableism that carries shame (Jóhannsdóttir et al., 2022) and reinforces the distancing of disabled people from each other, spurring the “emulation by disabled people of ableist norms” (Campbell 2008, p. 155). These experiences of ableism negatively impact the identity and mental health of young people (Dee-Price et al., 2024)

This Special Issue “Disrupting Barriers: Youth Disability and Access to Opportunities” invites disruption to forces such as ableism and enculturated deficit beliefs about disability; to dispel well-intended euphemisms such as ‘differently abled’ or ‘special needs’ and to ensure words like ‘inclusion’ are not wielded in a way that fails to acknowledge the inherent right to belong. It seeks ideas and solutions for progressive change. For young people, access to opportunity means the liberty to aspire and to be encouraged to build hopes and dreams nurtured by practical adaptations made in schooling and tertiary education. It means safe and welcoming employment opportunities and financial security. Access to opportunity includes the right to decision making, to receive disability-safe and informed health and mental health care and accessible housing and to access built environments and services without needing to ask “will I fit in?” This Special Issue warmly welcomes the contributions of authors to describe ways that might disrupt barriers, build access and opportunities and ultimately improve the lives of many young people.

Acknowledgements: The Guest Editor acknowledges the input of young disabled people and their advocates in helping to describe what access to opportunities means. It also acknowledges Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) for their advocacy and excellent resources on this topic.

Dr. Betty Jean M. Dee-Price
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• access
• disability identity
• ableism
• human rights
• belonging