Questioning the dominant welfare discourse on personalization and autonomy embodied in personal budget policy

Personal budget policies have been introduced in various welfare regimes as a means to integrate a demand-driven approach in the sector of care and support for people with disabilities. This chapter unravels how personal budget policies have clear roots in a humanist discourse that emphasizes a rational citizen as a neutral description of the human being. The experiences of ten people with intellectual disabilities who took part in a participatory photovoice project challenge this discourse through revealing that autonomy and personalization are primarily relational concepts. We draw from these stories to argue for a critical view on human rights that balances the usefulness of an appeal to individual human rights against a careful consideration of what is achieved through such an appeal. That implies the need for a continued inquiry that maximizes the diversity of the notions of personalization and autonomy.