In the last decade, we have seen 28 countries worldwide pass same-sex marriage laws from Portugal, Iceland and Argentina in 2010, to Austria, Costa Rica and Taiwan in 2019. There has been a raft of other pieces of right-based legislation passed into law, from adoption rights to outlawing hate speech and hate crimes.

In the last decade we have witnessed legislative progress on disability rights too. The most significant is the 2011 newAmericans with Disabilities Act mandating increased accessibility requirements for recreational facilities as well as standards of service provision.

In the US, about 15 million Americans identify as LGBTQ+ whereas there are 40 million people living with a disability. In terms of volume, the bigger minority has made less progress. In the minds of many businesses and governments LGBTQ+ is not a cost line item, whereas they view disability as a significant budget commitment.

However, legislation is only the start. Its been the shift in cultural attitudes that has seen greater inclusion of LGBTQ+ people than ever before. And the lack of shift that has left many disabled people out in the cold.

LGBTQ+ change has been cultural, disability legislative

How do we witness cultural change? When Casey Stoney, the Captain of the England Womens football team, came out as lesbian, it was a major milestone for straight people supporting a gay role model. When Ireland voted by a huge majority tolegalise same-sex marriage, it was the first country in the world to do so by a referendum. When Prince William appeared on the front cover of gay magazine,Attitude, stating that no one should be bullied because of their sexuality, it was another landmark moment. In Pete Buttigieg we now have an openly gay man running to be American President.

We havent yet seen such a cultural shift in attitudes towards disability.

A lot of change surrounding disability has been resisted, rather than embraced, such as captioning requirements for broadcast video and, since 2014, internet-based businesses also. Its been the law, rather than culture that has led the way, for example the 2010 Rosa's Law, which changed references in many US federal statutes that referred to "mental retardation" to make them refer, instead, to "intellectual disability". Barack Obama renamed White Cane Safety Dayas Blind Americans Equality Day. It was left to the UN and World Health Organisation to release a joint international statement eliminating forced, coercive and otherwise involuntary sterilization.

Horns and halo effect

This divergence between culturally led LGBTQ+ advancement and legislatively driven disability stalling has partly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can understand it in terms of the horns and halo effect. When we come to regard something as positive, we can see subsequent tropes in its image as positive a halo effect. Conversely, when we remain fearful or ignorant of something, we can be subject to the horns effect.

For example, the more LGBTQ+ inclusion becomes normalised the more straight people want to include. The longer disability appears segregated, the harder it remains for non-disabled people to include. It was only in 2006 that countries started to adopt the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Whilst the CRPD has now been ratified by 163 countries, the cultural change is in many cases yet to start.

Much of the disability legislation still focuses on fundamental basic rights. For example, the launch of the UN Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies aims to allow everyone to simply communicate with each other.Many of the LGBT rights passed such as permitting the celebration of civil partnerships in religious buildings in the UK are great but these buildings often remain physically inaccessible for disabled people, essentially leaving the door shut to some while opening it for others. One of the more recent high-profile disability issues to hit the US media has been emotional support pets on flights. For many, this just fuels the horns effect.

Future cultural change

LGBTQ+ progress has not come without backlash. In 2016, 49 people were killed and 53 people injured after agunman opened firein the LGBT nightclub Pulse, in Orlando. In Chad homosexuality was criminalized in 2017 and in many countries laws are being brought in to respond to a perceived (or invented) homosexual agenda. Disability has suffered backlash before its progress has really come to fruition. Part of this is to do to the horns and halo effect, part due to perceived cost.

The next frontier is how, to use the British PMs new phrase, we can level up. How we can ensure the diversity of all of us can be advanced. This is going to require more legislation. But moreover, its going to rely on contact between different people, easier and harder in a digital age, and above all its going to require leadership.

Next year is the Tokyo Paralympic Games. If it can build on the tangible progress from Beijing in 2008, London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 we will see significant improvements in accessibility, visibility and inclusion. UK broadcasters are going to make 2020 a year of disability to increase positive representation on screen. Hollywood is getting with the program and supporting, Lights, Camera, Access! an initiative to increase disabled representation in mainstream culture. If we can secure more cultural buy in, the legislation may finally be built upon to improve the quality of life for all of us.

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Divergent Diversity: Why Has LGBTQ+ Achieved Such Progress And Disability Hasnt? - Forbes