The possibility to participate
in education and lifelong learning has been introduced in EU disability
policy in recent decades as one of the key means to improve the
socioeconomic position of disabled persons. Simultaneously, lifelong
learning has been developed as the defining concept of EU education
policy to increase social cohesion and economic competitiveness.
However, the education, employment rate and socioeconomic status of
disabled persons have remained far below the EU average. In this
article, we theorize governmentality to explore (1) how EU lifelong
learning and disability policy discourses constitute and govern disabled
persons and (2) how disabled persons are positioned in the policy
discourses. The data consist of the most relevant EU policy documents
concerning lifelong learning and disability policy in the twenty-first
century. We argue that the policies constitute and govern disabled
persons as a group who do not fulfil the premises set for the lifelong
learner, and that consequently, policy discourses marginalize disabled
persons instead.