This paper raises issues relating to disability and citizenship, especially those concerned with difference, discrimination, power, and the politics of identity. It adopts a social model of disability that is critical of individualized, homogenized, deficit views of people with disabilities and urges an equal opportunities approach in which the demands for civil rights, choice, participation, and antidiscrimination legislation are essential components. The paper argues that, historically, people with disabilities have been fundamentally excluded from citizenship; they have been viewed as subhuman and therefore unworthy or unable to experience the entitlements and responsibilities associated with citizenship. The need for schools at all levels to provide inclusive services and involve people with disabilities in discussions and decisions that will empower them to exercise the rights of citizenship in the future is examined. (Contains 44 references.) (DB)