Movements with objectives for social change may have to face up to the dilemmas of success as well as the need to adapt to changing circumstances. If a movement is built on opposition what happens when the ideas it seeks to promote start to become accepted into mainstream thinking? Feminists working in the Women’s Refuge Movement, for example, had to make decisions about their preparedness to work within State institutions once the reality of male violence had been accepted as a legitimate focus for action by local authorities (Lovenduski and Randall, 1993). But they also had to address the fact that ideas themselves can undergo change in the process.

The disability movement can claim considerable success in shifting thinking about the nature of disablement. Disability rights legislation is now on the statute book and the media are scrutinising images of disabled people for their tendencies to portray ‘tragic heroes’ or ‘objects of pity’. Disabled people are more visible within public spaces because those public spaces are more accessible to them. While disability activists would rightly claim that they are far from fully achieving the objectives of the movement, many would also acknowledge that they face new dilemmas as a result of the opportunities to enter into more formal relationships with powerful decision makers (eg Barnes and Oliver, 1995).

The disabled people’s organisation which is the subject of this chapter is the longest established coalition in the country. Members include activists who have contributed substantially to the thinking of the movement nationally and internationally, and it is based within a local authority area which prides itself on its radical equal opportunities policies. Yet interviews revealed that some members of the Coalition were not optimistic about its future role vis-à-vis local health and social services agencies. In this chapter, as well as describing the nature and objectives of the group from the perspectives of those active within it, we will consider the nature of changes which have taken place within the Coalition’s relationship with statutory agencies from the perspectives of both ‘sides’. Such changes need to be understood by reference to particular characteristics of the local situation, but also to the substantial changes which have taken place in the ideology and structure of welfare discussed in Chapter 1.