Risk as a Right: Supporting Dignity of Risk in Disability Services
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Keywords
dignity of risk, duty of care, disability, human rights, consequences
Abstract
People with disabilities have long faced over-protection from caregivers, guardians, and others in their lives who are tasked with supporting and caring for them. Due to this over-protection, disabled people are often robbed of their right to take risks and learn from consequences of their behavior. In this article, a summary of a presentation at the 40th annual Pacific Rim Conference on Disability held in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, in April of 2025, the author explores the balance between dignity of risk and duty of care, provides context for the importance of preserving people’s right to take risks, and outlines some guidelines for care providers to facilitate dignity of risk for the people they support while still upholding their duty of care.
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Lindsay Piper, University of Washington Medicine
Lindsay Piper, MS, MNLM, GCSE, is presently a Prevention Specialist at UW Medicine, where leadership is provided for the All-In project, focusing on reducing sexual violence in the intellectual and developmental disabilities community.