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After just two years in existence, the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) faces being merged with the equality organisations for gender and race. The government has announced that, after consultations, it is considering creating a single equality body for racial, sexual and disabled discrimination (see panel this page).

But disability campaigners fear that the protection and promotion of the rights of disabled people will be marginalised by issues with a higher political priority or that exert greater social pressure.

Yet on the face of it, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 has provided greater protection in employment and rights for access to services. And the DRC has supported 4,000 people who have made complaints under the act and has brought 150 legal actions.

This week the commission has called for a radical shake-up of the act so that it would be harder for employers to justify discrimination and to improve access to business premises and transport.

However, commission chairperson Bert Massie is concerned about the proposals for a merger.

"Disabled people fought for many years to establish enforceable rights - these began to come into force only five years ago and many remain to be implemented," he says.

"We must ensure that disabled people's voices continue to be heard and their rights enforced."

Massie says that the new commission should only be introduced after a new single equality act implements a common set of rights on discrimination.

But the commission is accused by some activists of spending too much effort negotiating rather than pushing for tougher legislation, taking aggressive enforcement action or campaigning to improve the rights of disabled people.

It is also accused of failing to push vigorously enough on behalf of disabled people because of attempts to appease the concerns of businesses.

Britain's 8.5 million strong disability lobby should be a powerful economic and political force for change. But there is growing anger among activists that there is still little political or public awareness of disability issues.

Many believe that only way to speed-up the pace of change is for greater activism by disabled people rather than a continuing reliance on the statutory and voluntary groups.

Professor Colin Davies, founder of the centre for disability studies at Leeds University, said: "Over the past 40 years the image of disability has been transformed by activities of disabled people rather than paternalistic organisations.

"There has been progress but we started from such a low base that there is still so much to do. We must remember that only 50 years ago disabled people were still be locked away."

Although the notion of disability rights has now been adopted by the political mainstream there is a growing feeling that the agenda has been watered down.

"The government has taken in the language - but there is a still a long way to go in implementing the policies," said Davies.

"There has been a shift in public attitudes but if you look at the figures for employment or the number of disabled people in special schools they are not that different from 20 years ago."

Local disabled rights groups have achieved success in areas such as personal care, living allowances and transport. But the enormous amount of time required on local issues and limited funding means little of this success has been translated to the national agenda.

"I think we are heading for a summer of disillusion but it is time for disabled people to take hold of the agenda," said Davies.

Rachel Hurst, director of Disability Awareness in Action and chairperson of Rights Now, says: "Disability is now seen as a rights issue and that has been an enormous step forward. But from where I sit there is an increasing public repugnance and distaste in all that is entailed with being a disabled person.

"We now seem to have this idea in society that you should eliminate people because you can not bear to watch them suffer rather than to do something which makes their lives better."

Despite the rhetoric there is a feeling that politicians and civil servants still see disabled people as being different from the rest of humanity - requiring special care, buses and buildings, says Hurst.

Providing accessible buildings and transport or arranging personal care is still largely seen as a burden rather than a fundamental right that benefits society as a whole.

"We have a government that does not understand disablism and does not understand institutional disablism in the way that they understand institutional racism and sexism.

"I hope that after a summer of disillusion that the bile will start to rise and that we see a winter of action," says Hurst. CC

l Centre for Disability Studies is at www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies