The past several decades have seen the rise of two movements, the disability rights movement and the women's movement, with parallel concerns, histories, organizational issues, and other attributes. This article examines the philosophies of the two movements and their significance for the policymaking process. For example, both have struggled with the issues of difference versus equality in determining public policy; both stress the importance of considering problems to reside not in personal characteristics but in interactions with the environment. The article traces these and other similarities in ways of looking at policy problems between the women's movement and the disability movement, examines how these similarities reveal a fundamentally different view of policymaking, compares this philosophy with basic tenets of the Clinton administration, as expressed by key policymakers, and discusses what policy would look like if these changes occurred.

The purpose of this two‐part symposium of the Policy Studies Journal is to broaden theconcept of disability policy from one that has relevance onlyforpeople interested in that substantive area to that of a major field of social policy having ramifications for the study and teaching of public policy broadly construed. The goal is for experiences in disability policy to be regarded in the same way that experiences in Other substantive areas, such as environmental policy, other social services, and civil rights, illustrate broader themes in areas such as public management, policy analysis, or ethics.

Many graduate schools of public policy are considering how to expand their curriculum to be more inclusive of diverse elements in society. Some of the themes are familiar: how to learn from the experiences of different countries, how to bring in the perspective of women and people of different races and nationalities. Yet rarely does the debate include people with disabilities, despite the fact that there-are far more people with disabilities (as many as 43 million people, according to various estimates), with far more diverse needs, than there are other minorities. One way to teach public policy students what they need to know about the disability constituency is to include materials on disability issues in the curriculum. The point is twofold: that disability is a mainstream public policy topic that can be used to illustrate a wide array of public policy themes; and that disability issues are important enough to be studied in their own right.

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