Being a parent, for disabled people, is and always has been a right, as much as it is for any other person. However, parenting as a role for disabled people used to be controlled through the practice of sterilisation, abortion, and imposed ignorance. Increasing numbers of disabled people at the end of the twentieth century chose to become parents but "in doing so they often face negative attitudes, inaccessible environments and inappropriate support," as Meg Goodman observed. Being a disabled parent in the twenty-first century is slowly starting to improve but unfortunately disabled parents are still sometimes met with discriminatory attitudes both by professional organisations, and by the family and friends of the disabled parents themselves. This shows that having rights does not immediately equate to positive attitudes from society or adequate services being provided. The role of disabled parents today, therefore, involves not only the usual challenges of raising children, but also the fight for adequate support services and preparing their children to face discriminatory attitudes.

The 1970s saw the beginnings of change in the social perception of disability through the advent of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation in 1976. Political activism during the 1970s and 1980s culminated in 1990 with Michael Oliver’s ‘The Politics of Disablement’ which defined ‘The Social Model of Disability’. This model states that disability and dependency are caused by an oppressive society where disabled people are not the victims of a medical condition or accident, but as the collective victims of a discriminatory society. Theorising disability per se remains a contentious issue but the social model is the preferred way of understanding disability used by many disabled people’s organisations in the UK - that society needs to change, not the disabled person.