This paper explores the human through critical disability studies and the theories of Rosi Braidotti. We ask: what does it mean to be human in the 21 st Century and in what ways does disability enhance these meanings? In addressing this question we seek to work through entangled connections of nature, society, technology, medicine, biopower and culture to consider the extent to which the human might be an outdated phenomenon, replaced by BraidottiÕs posthuman condition. We then introduce disability as a political category, an identity and a moment of relational ethics. Critical disability studies, we argue, are perfectly at ease with the posthuman because disability has always contravened the traditional classical humanist conception of what it means to be human. Disability also invites a critical analysis of the posthuman. We examine the ways in which disability and posthuman work together, enhancing and complicating one another in ways that raise important questions about the kinds of life and death we value. We consider three of BraidottiÕs themes in relation to disability: I. Life beyond the self: Rethinking enhancement; II. Life beyond the species:Rethinking animal; III. Life beyond death: Rethinking death. We conclude by advocating a posthuman disability studies that responds directly to contemporary complexities around the human whilst celebrating moments of difference and disruption i . This quote kick-starts Rosi BraidottiÕs text and initiates a key task of her book: to target/secure the problem/possibility of the post/human. The human, as it is classically understood, is a self-aggrandising, abstract ideal and symbol of classical humanity that was born in Europe Ôpredicated on eighteenth and nineteenth-century renditions of classical Antiquity and Italian Renaissance idealsÕ (Ibid: 13) and shaped, more recently, through modernist and capitalist mouldings. ÔHumanityÕ Braidotti (2013: 24) notes, Ôis very much a male of the species: it is a heÕ. Moreover, Ôhe is white, European, handsome and able-bodiedÕ (Braidotti, 2013: 24), Ôan ideal of bodily perfectionÕ (Ibid: 13), Ôimplicitly assumed to be masculine, white, urbanized, speaking a standard language, heterosexually inscribed in a reproductive unit and a full citizen of a recognised polityÕ (Ibid: 65), Ôa rational animal endowed with languageÕ (Ibid: 141). This means that while all citizens are humans Ôsome or

Background  For parents of disabled children, the role of advocate often develops to a level of frequency and complexity that other parents do not usually face. This paper considers whether this high level of advocacy translates into a form of activism on the part of mothers and if so, why this shift might occur. Materials and Methods  The broader study from which the data are taken aimed to explore the experiences of living with autism. Qualitative methods were used to understand how participants made sense of their lives and negotiated the social world. This analysis is based on interviews with 36 mothers of children on the autism spectrum. Results  Most mothers adopted an enhanced advocacy role acting either independently or collectively through involvement with support groups. In both cases, some mothers demonstrated an activist role and extended their efforts towards campaigning for change outside of their families. Conclusions  Mothers’ experiences do not sit comfortably within existing articulations of activism but suggest that advocacy and activism may be experienced on a continuum. For many mothers, advocacy and activism are a major part of the experience of mothering a disabled child yet this remains a largely unrecognized role.

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