Disabled Futures makes an important intervention in disability studies by taking an intersectional approach to race, gender, and disability. Milo Obourn reads disability studies, gender and sexuality studies, and critical race studies to develop a framework for addressing inequity. They theorize the concept of "racialized disgender"-to describe the ways in which racialization and gendering are social processes with disabling effects-thereby offering a new avenue for understanding race, gender, and disability as mutually constitutive. Obourn uses readings of literature and popular culture from Lost and Avatar to Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy to explore and unpack specific ways that race and gender construct-and are constructed by-historical notions of ability and disability, sickness and health, and successful recovery versus damaged lives. What emerges is not only a more complex and deeper understanding of the intersections between ableism, racism, and (cis)sexism, but also possibilities for imagining alternate and more radically inclusive futures in which all of our identities, experiences, freedoms, and oppressions are understood as interdependent and intertwined.

Through a series of critical essays this book concerns the relationships and possibilities in and between "prose" and "disability". It covers a diverse range from the role of the disability memoir, the effect of disablement on soldiers, phantom limb syndrome and the suspicion of 'faking it' that sometimes surrounds.

This book provides a diverse range of basic information and practical advice for adults with dyspraxia. Colley is able to describe in detail the impact that coordination and motor learning difficulties can have on many everyday activities, including cooking, shopping, sewing, gardening and swallowing medicines. This book provides a very readable, comprehensive and useful resource for adults with dyspraxia and their carers. It might also be useful for clinicians who are new to the field and have limited practical experience.' - British Journal of Occupational Therapy 'This concise and interestingly written handbook is aimed at helping dyspraxic adults to understand their condition and its impact on work, study, social relationships and leisure activities. It contains practical tips on everyday living, including voice control, body language, cooking, study skills, driving and self-care. Especially fascinating are the accounts by four dyspraxic adults of their own experiences. I would recommend the book to teachers and parents, student therapists and clinicians (especially those working in a multidisciplinary setting) who need an insight into developmental dyspraxia as experienced by adolescent and adult clients and an overview of the help available.' - Speech and Language Therapy in Practice For people with Developmental Dyspraxia, everyday life can pose a multitude of problems. Tasks the majority of people would find simple can often be taxing and fraught with difficulty. Living with Dyspraxia was written to help all adults with Dyspraxia tackle the everyday situations that many people take for granted. It is full of practical advice on everything from getting a diagnosis to learning how to manage household chores. Important topics are addressed, such as self-esteem, whether to disclose your condition within the workplace, how to communicate more effectively and also how Dyspraxia often interacts with other conditions, such as Dyslexia, ADHD and Asperger's Syndrome. This practical resource will be of use to adults with Dyspraxia, the professionals and families members who come into contact with them as well as those who simply wish to learn more about Dyspraxia.

Tomas Young's War is the tragic yet life affirming story of a paralyzed Iraq War veteran who spent his last ten years battling heroically with his injuries, while courageously speaking against America's wars. Based on hours of interviews with Young and those close to him, the book puts the reader alongside Young as he struggles with life as a paralyzed veteran, suffering frustration and humiliation as he attempts to reenter society and resume as normal an existence as possible. It shows his fight to balance his precarious health with his drive to speak out for veterans care and against the war, and the impact his catastrophic injuries had on his family and his relationships. This emotional and powerful book sheds light on many crucial but often overlooked issues such as veterans' care, public attitudes toward the disabled, medical marijuana, and the terminally ill. Tomas Young's War shares everything, as unflinchingly honest as Tomas himself: the depression, the pain, the love, and laughter . . . the life of this man whose world was turned upside down by an Iraqi bullet more than ten years ago. Throughout, it serves as a powerful testament to the true cost of war.

The Measure of Manliness examines the proliferation of crippled, maimed, and disabled men in the mid-nineteenth-century novel, showing that far from being marginalized or pathologized, disability was central to Victorian narrative form. Karen Bourrier argues that this unexpected interest in masculine weakness and disability was a response to the rise of a new Victorian culture of industry and vitality, and its corollary emphasis on a hardy, active manhood. In chapters on novels by Kingsley, Yonge, Mulock Craik, Arnold, Eliot, and Henry James, Bourrier shows how the figure of the voluble weak man was a necessary narrative complement to the silent strong man. The analysis unites historical and narrative concerns, showing how developments in nineteenth-century masculinity led to a formal innovation in literature: the focalization or narration of the novel through the perspective of a weak or disabled man. The book will appeal to those interested in disability studies, gender and masculinity studies, the theorization of sympathy and affect, the recovery of women's writing and popular fiction, the history of medicine and technology, and queer theory.

The Willowbrook Wars is a dramatic and illuminating account of the effort to close down a scandal-ridden institution and return its 5,400 handicapped residents to communities in New York. The wars began in 1972 with Geraldo Rivera's televised raid on the Willowbrook State School. They continued for three years in a federal courtroom, with civil libertarian lawyers persuading a conservative and conscience-stricken judge to expand the rights of the disabled, and they culminated in a 1975 consent decree, with the state of New York pledging to accomplish the unprecedented assignment in six years.

From 1975 to 1982, David and Sheila Rothman observed this remarkable chapter in American reform of mental disabilities care. Would the state live up to its agreement without "dumping" residents into other nightmarish institutions? Would the lawyers prove as interested in meeting client needs as in securing client rights? Could a tradition-bound bureaucracy create a new network of community services? And finally, would a governor and a legislature tolerate such outside intervention, and if so, for how long? In answering these questions,

The Willowbrook Wars takes us behind the scenes to clarify the role of the judiciary, the fate of the underprivileged, and the potential for social justice. In their new afterword, the authors bring the story up to date, describing the results of the closing of the institution in 1987 from the experiences of integrating the former residents into communities to the legal battles between the state of New York and advocates for the mentally handicapped.

The modern concept of disability did not exist in the Romantic period. This study addresses the anachronistic use of 'disability' in scholarship of the Romantic era, providing a disability studies theorized account that explores the relationship between ideas of function and aesthetics. Unpacking the politics of ability, the book reveals the centrality of capacity and weakness concepts to the egalitarian politics of the 1790s, and the importance of desert theory to debates about sentiment and the charitable relief of impaired soldiers. Clarifying the aesthetics of deformity as distinct from discussions of ability, Joshua uncovers a controversy over the use of deformity in picturesque aesthetics, offers accounts of deformity that anticipate recent disability studies theory, and discusses deformity and monstrosity as a blended category in Frankenstein. Setting aside the modern concept of disability, Joshua cogently argues for the historical and critical value of period-specific terms.

Create campuses inclusive and supportive of disabled students, staff, and faculty Disability in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach examines how disability is conceptualized in higher education and ways in which students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and served on college campuses. Drawing on multiple theoretical frameworks, research, and experience creating inclusive campuses, this text offers a new framework for understanding disability using a social justice lens. Many institutions focus solely on legal access and accommodation, enabling a system of exclusion and oppression. However, using principles of universal design, social justice, and other inclusive practices, campus environments can be transformed into more inclusive and equitable settings for all constituents. The authors consider the experiences of students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and offer strategies for addressing ableism within a variety of settings, including classrooms, residence halls, admissions and orientation, student organizations, career development, and counseling. They also expand traditional student affairs understandings of disability issues by including chapters on technology, law, theory, and disability services. Using social justice principles, the discussion spans the entire college experience of individuals with disabilities, and avoids any single-issue focus such as physical accessibility or classroom accommodations. The book will help readers: * Consider issues in addition to access and accommodation * Use principles of universal design to benefit students and employees in academic, cocurricular, and employment settings * Understand how disability interacts with multiple aspects of identity and experience. Despite their best intentions, college personnel frequently approach disability from the singular perspective of access to the exclusion of other important issues. This book provides strategies for addressing ableism in the assumptions, policies and practices, organizational structures, attitudes, and physical structures of higher education.

Exploring contemporary theory and practice surrounding loss and bereavement for people with intellectual disabilities (ID), this book brings together international contributors with a range of academic, professional and personal experience. This authoritative edited book looks at diverse experiences of loss across this population whether it be loss due to transition, the loss or death of others, or facing their own impending death. The book begins by offering theoretical perspectives on loss and compassion, bereavement, disenfranchised grief, spirituality, and psychological support. It then addresses contemporary practice issues in health and social care contexts and explores loss for specific communities with ID including children, individuals with autism, those in forensic environments, and those at the end of life. Identifying inherent challenges that arise when supporting individuals with ID experiencing loss, and providing evidence and case studies to support best practice approaches, this book will be valuable reading for students, academics and professionals in the fields of disability, health and social care.

The figure of the freak as perceived by the Western gaze has always been a part of the Latin American imaginary, from the letters that Columbus wrote about his encounters with dog-faced people to Shakespeare's Caliban. The freak acquires greater significance in a globalized, neoliberal world that defines the "abnormal" as one who does not conform mentally, physically, or emotionally and is unable or unwilling to follow the economic and cultural norms of the institutions in power. Freak Performances examines the continuing effects of colonialism on modern Latin American identities, with a particular focus on the way it has constructed the body of the other through performance. Theater questions the representations of these bodies, as it enables the empowerment of the silenced other; the freak as a spectacle of otherness finds in performance an opportunity for re-appropriation by artists resisting the dominant authority. Through an analysis of experimental theater, dance theater, performance art, and gallery-based installation art across eight countries, Analola Santana explores the theoretical issues shaped by the encounters and negotiations between different bodies in the current Latin American landscape.

Many critical analyses of disability address important 'macro' concerns, but are often far removed from an interactional and micro-level focus. Written by leading scholars in the field, and containing a range of theoretical and empirical contributions from around the world, this book focuses on the taken-for-granted, mundane human activities at the heart of how social life is reproduced, and how this impacts on the lives of those with a disability, family members, and other allies. It departs from earlier accounts by making sense of how disability is lived, mobilised, and enacted in everyday lives. Although broad in focus and navigating diverse social contexts, chapters are united by a concern with foregrounding micro, mundane moments for making sense of powerful discourses, practices, affects, relations, and world-making for disabled people and their allies. Using different examples - including learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, dementia, polio, and Parkinson's disease - contributions move beyond a simplified narrow classification of disability which creates rigid categories of existence and denies bodily variation. Disability, Normalcy, and the Everyday should be considered essential reading for disability studies students and academics, as well as professionals involved in health and social care. With contributions located within new and familiar debates around embodiment, stigma, gender, identity, inequality, care, ethics, choice, materiality, youth, and representation, this book will be of interest to academics from different disciplinary backgrounds including sociology, anthropology, humanities, public health, allied health professions, science and technology studies, social work, and social policy.

This volume explores questions about narrative frameworks in disability research. Narrative is a omnipresent meaning-producing communication form in social life that is both cultural and personal. Public understandings of disability tend to follow a medical storyline in which disability is a personal tragedy to be treated through professional intervention - a frame that disempowers and fails to resonate with many disabled people. Scholars in disability studies and the social sciences have proposed an alternative that portrays social structures, forces, and attitudes as the problems to be resolved - a frame that, while empowering, may neglect, or even repress, some kinds of personal disability stories. This volume seeks to answer the call for richer, more diverse understandings of disability. We explore how narrative inquiry can broaden perspectives on disability to include pain, suffering, chronic illness, and episodic disability, as well as the perspectives of family members and caregivers, while also serving as a platform for dismantling prejudice and discrimination in order to promote positive social change.

Disability studies has become a legitimate area of academic study. It is multi-disciplinary in its critique of the oppressions that have historically "dumped" disabled people on the margins of society. This fully revised and updated edition not only explains disability studies as an academic field of inquiry, it also explores many of the current issues affecting the lives and circumstances of disabled people.
The book explores and analyzes "quality of life" factors in the lives of disabled people in relation to the professional development of undergraduates and examines the emergence of "rights" for disabled people in the local area, the UK and abroad. The author indicates the strengths and weaknesses of organizations "of" and "for" disabled people, and provides examples of individual and institutional oppressions against disabled people and "success stories," exploring how these have been overcome in education and employment. The book suggests how disabled and non-disabled people can collaborate in the development of inclusive communities and neighborhoods.
The text is suitable for students taking courses in the areas of health, social care and allied services at NVQ, BTEC, Degree and PGCE level. The author encourages students to raise their own questions and develop their own forms of inquiry.

At its best Disability Studies is an arena of critical debate addressing controversial issues concerning, not just the meaning of disability, but the nature of society, dominant values, quality of life, and even the right to live. Indeed, Disability Studies is itself the subject of controversy, in terms of its theoretical basis and who controls courses and research and whether it should be shaped and controlled by disabled academics or grassroots activists. Within these debates, generated by the social model of disability, are fundamental challenges to policy, provision and professional practice that are directly relevant to all who work with disabled people, whether in the field of social work, health or education. Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society has been written specifically to raise questions and stimulate debate. It has been designed for use with students in group discussion, and to support in-depth study on a variety of professional courses. It covers a wide range of specific, substantive issues within Disability Studies in a series of succinct chapters. Each chapter sets a question for debate, places the key issues in context and presents a particular argument. This is an accessible and engaging book which challenges dominant positions and ideologies from a social model viewpoint of disability.

In this new edition, the editors and contributors update and expand on the educational framework that was introduced in the first edition for rethinking disability in public health study and practice and for attaining the competencies that should accompany this knowledge. The second edition highlights key areas of research that have emerged since the first edition was published. This edition includes new and updated chapters that have particular relevance for public health practice: Disability, Intersectionality, and Inequity: Life in the Margins Disability and Health Programs: Emerging Partners Children with Special Healthcare Needs Disasters and Disability: Rhetoric and Reality Inter-relationship of Health Insurance and Employment for People with Disabilities Public Health, Work, and Disability Actions to Prepare a Competent Workforce Public Health Perspectives on Disability: Science, Social Justice, Ethics, and Beyond, 2nd Edition, is an essential resource for public health educators and practitioners as well as students in graduate schools of public health throughout the United States.

Rather than being evidence-based, the 'everyday' practice of ADHD health care enacted daily by a multitude of professionals is the result of the interaction of historical, social, political, economic and institutional elements. By drawing on several critical theorists, this book provides an ethnographic investigation of the nexus of elements that conditioned the possibility for the everyday social practice of ADHD to be in place within an NHS region in Scotland. The book develops a critical analytical approach, using the concepts of 'problematisation' and the 'apparatus' to capture a two-stage process - the questioning of how and why certain 'things' become a problem, but also how these 'things' are shaped as the objects that they become. The object of interest for this project was young people and the fieldwork was conducted in a small geographical region in Scotland, consisting of several periods in health and education services. Ethnographic tools utilised in the book include observation of clinical appointments, document analysis, interviews and archival research. The different layers of qualitative material examined in the study - from individual clinical appointment to national policy - have allowed for a reconnection of the discursive field in which the current practice of ADHD emerged. With a detailed theorisation of the theoretical concepts, as well as a clear account of application in empirical research, this book will act as a guide for researchers aiming to apply these concepts in applied research.

This "Handbook" represents the first comprehensive collection of research on communication and people with disabilities. The editors have brought together original contributions focusing on the identity, social, and relationship adjustments faced by people with disabilities and those with whom they relate. Essays report on topics across the communication spectrum--interpersonal and relationship issues, people with disabilities in organizational settings, disability and culture, media and technologies, communication issues as they impact specific types of disabilities--and establish a future agenda for communication and disability research. Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art literature review, practical applications of the material, and keywords and discussion questions to facilitate classroom use.
In providing an outlet for current research on communication and disability issues, this unique collection contributes to the lives of people with and without disabilities, helping them to improve their own communication and relationships. Intended for readers in communication, psychology, sociology, rehabilitation, social work, special education, gerontology, and related disciplines, this handbook is certain to augment further theory and research, as well as offer insights for both personal and professional relationships.

Sensory-being: the enveloping of natural presentness and awareness in an unfolding sensory moment. Sensory Beings: people whose experience of the world, and meaning within it, is primarily sensory. Often these are people who do not have access to language. If you support someone who understands the world in a primarily sensory way, for example someone with PMLD or later stage dementia, you will recognise that they often face periods of time in which they are left without an activity they can access. This unique, practical guide helps you to plan and deliver sensory activities that lead people into a calm, focused state. You are even invited to let the person you support lead you into a state of sensory focus. Written by a leading sensory specialist this book will help you to: View the world as the person you support may view it, and identify times when a sensory-being activity may be appropriate. Understand how to select and create the most engaging, low cost, sensory foci to suit the specific needs of the individuals in your care. Effectively facilitate sensory-being sessions from start to finish so that the people you care for receive the full and many benefits of calm, focused time. Tried and tested in a diverse range of settings prior to publication, these techniques and practical tools have already helped many people provide an enriched experience of life for those in their care. Throughout the book you will find numerous case studies and insights from parents, carers, special school practitioners, therapists, research institutions and more so that you can benefit from this broad body of experience.

Teaching Students with Learning Disabilities at Beacon College is a collection of essays written by professors and learning specialists (educational support personnel) at Beacon College, an accredited four-year institution for students with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences. The purpose of this book is to help fill the massive gap in the literature on teaching students with learning disabilities at the college level. The attrition rate of students with learning disabilities at traditional colleges and universities is very high. With a 70% four-year graduation rate, Beacon College is well-positioned to be an instructional model for other institutions. The essays discuss institutional practices, alternative teaching strategies, and personal instructor experiences.

Adopting a predominantly psychological approach, this book provides carers with up-to-date information and resources to provide appropriately individualised care to people with learning disabilities who self-injure. Understanding and Working with People with Learning Disabilities who Self-Injure synthesises traditional (behavioural) and newer (psychological) approaches to understanding self-injury, drawing on psychoanalytic and social theory to provide practical guidelines for more sustained and effective support. It suggests that motivations for self-injury may be similar for people with and without learning disabilities, and draws on case work examples to suggest person-centred techniques that encourage communication - particularly important with people who do not use verbal communication - and recovery. The book covers a range of specific needs, including people with autism who self-injure, and emphasises the views of people with learning disabilities themselves and their families about what has worked best, and why. At the end of each chapter, a variety of practical implications for the provision of support are given. This book is for those supporting people with learning disabilities who self-injure and will be a useful resource for social workers, psychologists, counsellors, learning support workers, nurses and social and health care students.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities promotes ability equality, but this is not experienced in national laws. Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK and the US all have one thing in common: regulatory frameworks which treat workers with psychosocial disabilities less favorably than workers with either physical or sensory disabilities. Ableism at Work is a comprehensive and comparative legal, practical and theoretical analysis of workplace inequalities experienced by workers with psychosocial disabilities. Whether it be denying anti-discrimination protection to people with episodic disabilities, addictions or other psychological impairments, failing to make reasonable accommodations/adjustments for workers with psychosocial disabilities, or denying them workers' compensation or occupational health and safety protections, regulatory interventions imbed inequalities. Ableism, sanism and prejudice are expressly stated in laws, reflected in judgments, and perpetuated by workplace practices and this book enables advocates, policy makers and lawmakers to understand the wider context in which systems discriminate workers with psychosocial disabilities.

In this revised and expanded edition of Medicine Stories, Aurora Levins Morales weaves together insights and lessons learned over a lifetime of activism to offer a new theory of social justice. Calling for a politics of integrity that recognizes the complicated wholeness of individual and collective lives, Levins Morales delves among the interwoven roots of multiple oppressions, exposing connections, crafting strategies, and uncovering the wellsprings of resilience and joy. Throughout these twenty-eight essays-twenty-one of which are new or extensively revised-she exposes the structures and mechanisms that silence voices and divide movements. The result is a medicine bag full of techniques and perspectives to build a universal solidarity that is flexible, nuanced, and strong enough to fundamentally shift our world toward justice. Intimately personal and globally relevant, Medicine Stories brings clarity and hope to tangled, emotionally charged social issues in beautiful and accessible language.

Educator Patti Lather and psychologist Chris Smithies observed and chronicled support groups for women diagnosed with HIV. Whether black, Latina, poor, or middle class, the women in these groups share the common bond of living with HIV/AIDS, and they describe how it affects their lives in terms full of practical reality and moving poignancy, as they fight the disease, accept, reflect, live and die with and in it.