By combining ideas from social movement theory with disability studies, this article unpacks how young disabled people navigate the cultural ideals of the activist and activism as they narrate their past and present experiences of disability activism. This allows taking into account the complexity of identifying as a disability activist. The findings indicate how the cultural ideals of activism and the figure of the activist are out of reach for young disabled people; as a result, they do not necessarily consider themselves as activists while still engaging in activism.
These studies have analysed how young disabled people carve their way into established and formal political arenas. Griffiths found that young people distance themselves from the disability movement due to the conceptualisation of youth within that movement.
Kelly on the other hand argues that we are in need of a new description of disability movement. By analysing the Canadian disability movement, Kelly concludes that instead of one disability movement, we should talk about multiple movements, since the field of activism has expanded due to the restructuring of the non-profit sector.
This restructuring generates activism outside of formal organisations, which requires new conceptual tools to be acknowledged. As part of their exploration of ableism in the daily lives of disabled people, Loja et al. In line with Kelly and Orsini , 15 , I assume that formal ways of influencing and engaging—such as in civil society organisations or more informal ways, for example, blogging, artwork and direct action—need not be understood as opposites or situated in a hierarchy.
Thus, in this article, I aim to analyse how young disabled people narrate their position between formal and informal ways of doing activism. Grounded in interview data and inspired by a narrative approach, I ask 1 how young disabled people position themselves in their narration in relation to being an activist and 2 how they reason between different ways of doing activism.
