Swiss Disability Policies at the Crossroads?

Abstract

The year 2024 marks significant anniversaries in the field of Swiss disability policies, reflecting a complex trajectory where notable advances in inclusion and non-discrimination coexist with path-dependency and competing political priorities. This special issue sheds light on the conflicting agendas of the promotion of human rights, inclusion and equality for people with disabilities and their actual implementation, which is confronted by cost-containment measures that restrict access to disability benefits and hinder progressive reforms in disability services. The ambition of this special issue is to highlight the fundamental contradictions between the potentials and limits of disability policy transformation. This editorial introduces how these paradoxes of disability policies operate both internationally and in the Swiss context while providing an overview of the insightful papers included in this special issue.