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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Disability: social aspects
Uses of disability in literature are often problematic and harmful
to disabled people. This is also true, of course, in children's and
young adult literature, but interestingly, when disability is
paired and confused with adolescence in narratives, interesting,
complex arcs often arise. In From Wallflowers to Bulletproof
Families: The Power of Disability in Young Adult Narratives, author
Abbye E. Meyer examines different ways authors use and portray
disability in literature. She demonstrates how narratives about and
for young adults differ from the norm. With a distinctive young
adult voice based in disability, these narratives allow for
readings that conflate and complicate both adolescence and
disability. Throughout, Meyer examines common representations of
disability and more importantly, the ways that young adult
narratives expose these tropes and explicitly challenge harmful
messages they might otherwise reinforce. She illustrates how
two-dimensional characters allow literary metaphors to work, while
forcing texts to ignore reality and reinforce the assumption that
disability is a problem to be fixed. She sifts the freak
characters, often marked as disabled, and she reclaims the derided
genre of problem novels arguing they empower disabled characters
and introduce the goals of disability-rights movements. The
analysis offered expands to include narratives in other media:
nonfiction essays and memoirs, songs, television series, films, and
digital narratives. These contemporary works, affected by digital
media, combine elements of literary criticism, narrative
expression, disability theory, and political activism to create and
represent the solidarity of family-like communities.
From two-time National Book Award nominee Melissa Fay Greene comes
a profound and surprising account of dogs on the front lines of
rescuing both children and adults from the trenches of grief,
emotional, physical, and cognitive disability, and post-traumatic
stress disorder. The Underdogs tells the story of Karen Shirk,
felled at age twenty-four by a neuromuscular disease and facing
life as a ventilator-dependent, immobile patient, who was turned
down by every service dog agency in the country because she was
"too disabled." Her nurse encouraged her to tone down the suicidal
thoughts, find a puppy, and raise her own service dog. Karen did
this, and Ben, a German shepherd, dragged her back into life. "How
many people are stranded like I was," she wondered, "who would lead
productive lives if only they had a dog?" A thousand
state-of-the-art dogs later, Karen Shirk's service dog academy, 4
Paws for Ability, is restoring broken children and their families
to life. Long shunned by scientists as a manmade, synthetic
species, and oft- referred to as "Man's Best Friend" almost
patronizingly, dogs are finally paid respectful attention by a new
generation of neuroscientists and animal behaviorists. Melissa Fay
Greene weaves the latest scientific discoveries about our
co-evolution with dogs with Karen's story and a few exquisitely
rendered stories of suffering children and their heartbroken
families. Written with characteristic insight, humanity, humor, and
irrepressible joy, what could have been merely touching is a
penetrating, compassionate exploration of larger questions: about
our attachment to dogs, what constitutes a productive life, and
what can be accomplished with unconditional love.
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Love is Blind
(Hardcover)
Ruth E; Edited by Jane Warren, Madeleine Leger
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R811
R711
Discovery Miles 7 110
Save R100 (12%)
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While the written word is an important means of communication among
people, the technological revolution has increased the demands on
mental processes involved in the processing of written information,
which endangers the quality of life of people who have reading
difficulties and are not completely functionally literate.
Educational technologies have vastly improved in past decades,
especially in the realm of aiding individuals with development and
learning disorders. With these learning technologies becoming more
mainstream, individuals struggling to maintain a sense of normalcy
in everyday life now have a chance to overcome various barriers.
Dyslexia and Accessibility in the Modern Era: Emerging Research and
Opportunities provides emerging research on a literacy portal that
offers the virtual background for the support and strengthening of
reading skills and for leading the user while using the internet.
The book also creates a tool based on user feedback with
instructions on how to adapt current tools to meet the
accessibility requirements for people with dyslexia. Featuring
coverage on a broad range of topics such as e-learning, lifelong
learning, and neurodevelopment disabilities, this book is ideally
designed for teachers, software developers, academics, researchers,
students, and learning professionals.
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