Specialised Discourse in Parliament: the Joint Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill

This study focuses primarily on the Minutes of Evidence, i.e. the official transcript of the proceedings of the Joint Committee on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill 2004, final section, Questions 644-784, dealing with proposals for reforming the UK Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The analysis considers two main aspects of the Minutes of Evidence: first, discourse practices and parliamentary procedures for the evaluation of proposals for legislative change; second, the use of language referring to people with disabilities, reflecting changes in the paradigms of disability.