Disability, relationships and a right against social deprivation

Disabled people continue to experience social exclusion and denial of meaningful belonging despite legal commitments to independent living and autonomy. This paper brings disability studies, legal scholarship and philosophical debates around a right against social deprivation into conversation. We argue that the concepts of social access needs and social contribution needs provide a valuable framework for identifying harms that existing disability rights and human rights approaches often fail to recognise or adequately address. At the same time, rather than simply applying the right against social deprivation to disability, we contend that disability offers a critical lens through which the right itself must be rethought. Drawing on critical disability studies, we foreground interdependence, care, relationality and vulnerability, while exposing ableist assumptions that may shape theorising in this area. Through engagement with disability law and rights frameworks, we explore the potential of this dialogue to reconfigure understandings of rights, responsibility and justice.