This chapter uses policy developments, the ideas of campaigning theorists and the words of self-advocates themselves in the UK to provide a case study (which is broadly applicable to many other countries in Western Europe, Australasia, the USA and Canada) of changes that have sought to provide a ‘better’ life for people with intellectual disabilities. We argue that the term ‘good life’ is rarely used in these contexts. Rather policy makers either use undefined mantras such as ‘an ordinary life’ or a ‘life like any other’, or tightly defined terms such as normalisation, social role valorisation or the social model of disability. These ways of thinking and writing and then putting these ideas into practice have led to some positive changes for people with intellectual disabilities. However, in our view they have also camouflaged some of the very real issues that people face in their lives. The chapter identifies continuities in the way life for people with intellectual disabilities has been articulated over three decades. It asks why, given such consistency in aspiration, both over time and between key stakeholders, relatively little progress has been made in people's lives on the ground. Is failure about an implementation gap, as is the common assumption (see, for example, DH, 2009), or does the vision itself need to be questioned? The chapter draws largely on policies developed in England although many of the issues that are raised are also relevant to other Western countries (see Welshman and Walmsley, 2006). We argue that in spite of many changes, the evidence suggests that a good life for most people with intellectual disabilities is still on the far horizon.

This chapter addresses the following questions:

• • What values underpin current theories, ideas and discourses?

• • What contribution have they made to people's lives?

Ideas about a better life: early stirrings

As noted in the Introduction to this book, few policies actually promulgate explicitly a ‘good life’ for people with intellectual disabilities. However, ideas about a better life for people with intellectual disabilities began to emerge as a policy goal in the late 1970s. It was then for the first time that it was stated in a British governmentcommissioned report:

• • Mentally handicapped people have a right to enjoy normal patterns of life within the community

• • Mentally handicapped people have the right to be treated as individuals