Dignity of Risk: the right to make crappy choices
Respecting Autonomy for People with Disability
When we talk about disability support, the conversation often centres around safety, care, and protection. While these are all important, they can sometimes overshadow an equally vital concept: dignity of risk.
Put simply, dignity of risk is the idea that everyone — including people with disability — has the right to make their own choices, even if those choices come with risk.
This might look like:
Choosing to drink alcohol at a party
Staying out late with friends
Smoking weed (even if it's technically illegal)
Swearing to express frustration
Dating someone others may not approve of
Refusing to follow a routine
These behaviours might make others uncomfortable. But discomfort isn’t the same as danger — and it’s certainly not a reason to pathologise someone’s autonomy.
Not Every “Unusual” Choice Is a “Behaviour of Concern”
Too often in disability and behaviour support work, there’s a tendency to label anything outside the norm — or anything that doesn’t align with service provider preferences — as a “behaviour of concern.”
But let’s be clear: having agency is not a concern.
Let’s flip the lens:
A neurotypical adult swearing when annoyed? Normal.
Having a wine after a long day? Common.
Sleeping in? A luxury most of us enjoy.
Choosing not to follow a strict routine? A sign of flexibility.
When a disabled person makes the same choices, they're often met with documentation, behaviour support plans, or restrictions. That’s not equity — that’s ableism dressed up as risk management.
The Right to Make Crappy Choices
Here’s the thing: we all make crappy choices sometimes. We speed. We drink too much. We text someone we shouldn't. We get tattoos we regret or spend money on things we don’t need. These are part of being human — and they’re often how we learn.
People with disability have the same right to make mistakes, test boundaries, and explore decisions that aren’t perfect. Our job is not to prevent “crappy choices” — it’s to walk beside people as they explore life on their terms, and to offer support without taking away their power.
Yes, even if that means they smoke weed. Yes, even if it's illegal. And yes, even if it makes us uncomfortable.
Supported Decision-Making, Not Substituted Control
True support doesn’t mean making decisions for someone — it means making sure they have the information, support, and freedom to make decisions for themselves.
Supported decision-making means:
Explaining risks clearly, without fear or shame
Offering strategies to stay safe, not ultimatums
Respecting legal realities without using them as weapons
Recognising that the goal is autonomy, not compliance
We all need scaffolding sometimes — but the goal of support is not to build a cage. It’s to offer tools, guidance, and respect.
In Summary
People with disability are not fragile beings to be protected from life — they are human beings with full lives to live. That includes joy, frustration, love, heartbreak, rebellion, risk, and resilience.
Let’s stop labeling autonomy as “concerning.”
Let’s start respecting it as essential.
Because a life without risk isn’t safety — it’s oppression.
And a life without the right to make crappy choices… isn’t really a life at all.
