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In this article I review the contested terrain of relationality, dependency and care within contemporary disability studies and feminist care theory. I begin and end with short personal narratives centring on my relationship with my sister, who has an intellectual disability. These stories are my point of departure in exploring the article's central theme – that the agency and autonomy of individual persons only emerges relationally, through the support and enablement of others. I argue that the concept of relational autonomy, which seeks to reconcile an understanding of our constitutive relationality with a respect for individuality, offers a way of thinking through the tensions between care ethics and disability studies productively. In the concept of relational autonomy that I propose, neither autonomy nor care is privileged, but both are placed in service of the other: autonomy cannot be enabled without care, and care cannot be enabling without respect for autonomy. The article concludes with a discussion of representation and the problem of appropriating the other's voice, an area where the question of the dichotomy between dependency and autonomy is particularly pronounced. Looking at the ways in which voice can be supported and enabled through relational forms of representation, I demonstrate how relational autonomy works as a lived dynamic, highlighting the sorts of caring practices and relationships that foster rather than stifle personal autonomy, and the need for greater support from wider social and political institutions to allow these practices and relationships to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the built environment concept of 'inclusive design' and its emphasis on creating accessible environments for all persons regardless of ability, I suggest that a central task for feminist disability theory is to redesign foundational philosophical concepts to present opportunities rather than barriers to inclusion for people with disability. Accounts of autonomy within liberal philosophy stress self-determination and the dignity of all individual persons, but have excluded people with intellectual disability from moral and political theories by denying their capacity for individual autonomy, seen as a chief marker of moral personhood. This paper modifies and extends feminist theories of relational autonomy by arguing for the need to view autonomy as a feature of persons that is manifested only through relations of support, advocacy, and enablement. An 'inclusively designed,' relational account negotiates the tensions encountered in attempts to apply autonomy to people with high support needs, and politicizes the concept as an advocacy tool for people with intellectual disability and their allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article uses Ikäheimo's concept of institutionally mediated recognition to explore how organisational norms and rules facilitate and constrain interpersonal recognition between a young person with disabilities and their paid support worker. The experience of recognition is important because it reflects the quality of this relationship and shapes the identity of both people in the paid support relationship. To understand the relationships between the pairs, Honneth's interpersonal modes of recognition were applied as the theoretical lens. The data were generated from photovoice, social mapping, interviews and workshops with 42 pairs of young people and their support workers in six organisations. These data were then analysed for the ways institutional practices mediated the interpersonal relationships. Findings: The findings revealed four practices in which the organisational context mediated interpersonal recognition: the support sites, application of organisation policies, practices to manage staff and practices to organise young people's support. Some organisational practices facilitated recognition within the relationships, whereas others were viewed by the pair or managers as constraints on conditions for recognition. Some young people and support workers also exercised initiative or resisted the organisational constraints in the way they conducted their relationship. Applications: The findings imply that to promote quality relationships, organisations must create the practice conditions for recognition, respond to misrecognition, and encourage practices that make room for initiative and change within the paid relationship. This requires supervision and training for and by support workers and people with disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quality of paid relationships is key for effective support, yet little is known about how people receiving and providing support understand and experience the relationship. This paper reports on recent research that explored the role of relationships with paid support workers in strengthening the rights and wellbeing of young people with cognitive disability in Australia. The research used photo-rich participatory methods with 42 pairs of young people and their support workers and drew on Honneth's recognition theory to specifically explore experiences of being valued, respected and cared about in their work together. The findings point to the importance of these connected aspects of recognition in paid support relationships, highlighting both the presence and absence of these, as well as experiences of misrecognition. The implications of recognition for strengthening support need close consideration in an international context characterised by personalisation of support, resource constraints and inquiries into poor practice. Relationships are key to good quality support. We wanted to know whether and how paid support relationships between young people with cognitive disability and support workers in Australia contribute to feeling valued, respected and cared about. Young people felt valued when the worker noticed what they did and found ways to help them achieve what they wanted to do. They felt respected when they could make decisions about choices and control over their lives. They felt cared about when they felt personal warmth, they were listened to, they felt their views mattered and they trusted each other. When young people felt harmed, they felt it deeply. The worker often did not intend to cause harm with their words or actions. The careless harm sometimes was from unequal power in the relationship. The inequality sometimes took away the voice of the young person. Sometimes the support worker also felt like their voice could not be heard. The research is important because how we feel about being with another person is key to how we know who we are. It develops the self-esteem, self-respect and self-confidence of the young person and the support worker. Knowing this matters for improving the quality of personal support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]