Councils for disabled people have been a participation scheme in the municipalities for many years. This arrangement has been incorporated into the Local Government Act since 2019. The state authorities have established guidelines and recommendations for the councils’ activities. Through a survey directed towards the leaders of municipal councils for disabled people, we have studied various aspects of the councils, such as how they are appointed, organised and function. A major finding is that small municipalities face significant challenges in fulfilling the expectations set by the state authorities regarding how the councils should operate. We discuss what these challenges may mean for representation as well as the concepts of system capacity and citizen effectiveness. Finally, we discuss different ways which small municipalities may address these challenges.