This paper, originally an address given in a workshop on CBR in Indonesia in 1994, presents the need to strengthen the role of disabled people in community based rehabilitation programmes. It focuses on the need for rehabilitation of society and not the disabled person, and enablement issues. It also details a primary health project in Mexico PROJIMO, which has disabled staff members on the team, and the benefits of this. The final section is about disabled rights issues and how to strengthen disabled peoples’ roles in society
