Convening a conference under the banner: Making Inclusion Happen, reminds us that the struggle for disabled people's rights to the minimum expectations of citizenship; access to education, work, housing, health care, civic connection remains urgent. Notwithstanding the hard fought for United Nations, human rights charters and national legislation around the world, declaring legal commitment to rid ourselves of discrimination on the grounds of disability, these landmark civil rights achievements will not in and of themselves rid us of exclusion. We can test this proposition simply by considering the caveats, conditions and exemptions in legislation such as Disability Discrimination Acts and international charters such as the recent United Nations Convention on the Rights of Disabled Persons and its Optional Protocol.