The history of the disability rights movement, featuring a litany of impressive activists determined to create a world where everyone, regardless of impairment, is valued and can participate fully. The story of the rise and triumph of the disability rights movement, featuring some of the most impressive activists you've never heard of. The film uses exclusive interviews with movement leaders from the past five decades, combined with rarely seen archival footage sourced from Australia, USA and the UK. The story begins in the big institutions where disabled people were routinely imprisoned for life. From the 1960s onward, small numbers began to escape, only to end up battling a brutal and dehumanising system. Defiant Lives is full of extraordinary characters determined to create a better world.