This book contains a series of articles, written by international experts in the fields of intellectual disability and quality of life, that explore a broad range of issues that impact on the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their families. The book commences with a general discussion on defining quality of life and family quality of life and the appropriateness of using these constructs in the field of intellectual disability, and is followed by an analysis on the effects of living arrangements and employment on quality of life. The book concludes with discussions on the unique issues facing children with intellectual disabilities and people living in developing countries and the effect these issues have upon their quality of life.

How do students with learning disabilities or emotional and behavioral disorders fare in adulthood? Are their rates of employment, graduation from post-secondary schools, living independently similar to their non-disabled peers? What can schools and communities do to teach and support youth and young adults with learning disabilities or emotional and behavioral disorders? This Transition of Youth and Young Adult volume presents eminent scholars discussing critical and timely topics related to the transition of youth and young adults with learning disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders and provides a comprehensive selection of chapters that address variables, issues, practices, and outcomes related to the broad topic of transition.

Within the past two decades, dramatic advances in medical technology have led to a complete restructuring of medical care services for pregnant women and their newborns. Regionalization provides a full accountant of this new system known as regionalized perinatal care. Perinatologists, epidemiologists, public health administrators, and anyone involved with maternal-child care will find in this book, practical answers to their questions.

The editors of this remarkable volume have collected 18 essays by humanists about Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. AIDS seems to seek out as its victims the weakest and already victimized, writes Albert R. Jonsen, describing the inhumanity of this disease. Jonsen states that scientists have already fashioned a language for describing the disease in objective, clinical terms. What is needed now is a language to describe the human experience and instruct us on how to live humanely while AIDS is among us. To help construct this language, this collection examines AIDS from the perspective of the humanities: History can recall past experience for our instruction, Philosophy can define terms such as welfare, freedom, health, and disease, that guide our discourse, and Literature can reveal the images that shape the social reality of AIDS. Editors Eric T. Juengst and Barbara Koenig begin this study by delineating six interpretations of AIDS. Their aim is to demonstrate the many ways in which AIDS is viewed by society. The book is then divided into three parts. Part One examines how our current knowledge of AIDS was generated and how this knowledge is interpreted. Part Two explores the meaning of AIDS for health professionals and the ethical issues it can raise. Part Three examines public policy and AIDS. The contributors clarify and correct definitions, recall analogous incidents in our history and draw values and principles out of the obscurity of emotions and into the light of reason. divided into three parts. Part One examines the current knowledge of AIDS and how this knowledge is interpreted. Part Two explores the meaning and perceptions of AIDS in the medical community. Part Three examines public policy and AIDS. The contributors clarify and correct definitions, recall analogous incidents in our history and draw values and principles out of the obscurity of emotion and into the light of reason.

This book traces the development of paid work for visually impaired people in the UK from the 18th century to the present day. It gives a voice to visually impaired people to talk about their working lives and documents the history of employment from their experience, an approach which is severely lacking in the current literature about visual impairment and employment. By analysing fifty in-depth face-to-face interviews with visually impaired people talking about their working lives (featuring those who have worked in traditional jobs such as telephony, physiotherapy and piano tuning, to those who have pursued more unusual occupations and professions), and grouping them according to occupation and framed by documentary, historical research, these stories can be situated in their broader political, economic, ideological and cultural contexts. The themes that emerge will help to inform present day policy and practice within a context of high unemployment amongst visually impaired people of working age. It is part of a growing literature which gives voice to disabled people about their own lives and which adds to the growing academic discipline of disability studies and the empowerment of disabled people.

This is the first book to challenge the concept of paid work for disabled people as a means to 'independence' and 'self determination'. Recent attempts in many countries to increase the employment rates of disabled people have actually led to an erosion of financial support for many workless disabled people and their increasing stigmatisation as 'scroungers'. Led by the disability movement's concern with the employment choices faced by disabled people, this controversial book uses sociological and philosophical approaches, as well as international examples, to critically engage with possible alternatives to paid work. Essential reading for students, practitioners, activists and anyone interested in relationships between work, welfare and disability.

Long Lives Are for the Rich is the title of a silent ominous program that affects the lives of millions of people. In all developed countries disadvantaged and, especially, poor people die much earlier than the most advantaged. During these shorter lives they suffer ten to twenty years longer from disabilities or chronic disease. This does not happen accidentally: health inequalities – including those between healthy and unhealthy life styles – are mainly caused by social inequalities that are reproduced over the life course. This crucial function of the life course has become painfully visible during its neoliberal reorganization since the early 1980s. Studies about aging over the life course, from birth to death, show the inhumane consequences as people get older. In spite of the enormous wealth that has been piled up in the US for a dwindling percentage of the population, there has been growing public indifference about the needs of those in jobs with low pay and high stress, but also about citizens from a broad middle class who can hardly afford high quality education or healthcare. However, this ominous program affects all: recent mortality rates show that all Americans, including the rich, are unhealthier and dying earlier than citizens of other developed countries. Moreover, the underlying social inequalities are tearing the population apart with nasty consequences for all citizens, including the rich. Although the public awareness of the consequences has been growing, neoliberal policies remain tempting for the economic and political elites of the developed world because of the enormous wealth that is flowing to the top. All this poses urgent questions of social justice. Unfortunately, the predominant studies of social justice along the life course help to reproduce these inequalities by neglecting them. This book analyzes the main dynamics of social inequality over the life course and proposes a theory of social justice that sketches a way forward for a country that is willing to invest in its greatest resource: the creative potential of its population.

Disability Servitude traces the history and legacy of institutional peonage. For over a century, public and private institutions across the country relied on the unpaid, forced labor of their residents and patients in order to operate. This book describes the work they performed, in some cases for ten or more hours a day, seven days a week, and the lawsuits they brought in an effort to get paid. The impact of those lawsuits included accelerated de-institutionalization, but they fell short of obtaining equal and fair compensation for their plaintiffs. Instead, thousands of resident and patient-workers were replaced by non-disabled employees. Disability Servitude includes a detailed history of longstanding problems with the oversight of the sub-minimum wage provision in the Fair Labor Standards Act oversight. Beckwith shows how that history has resulted in the continued segregation and exploitation of over 400,000 workers with disabilities in sheltered workshops that legally pay far less than minimum wage.

This book recounts the dramatic story of the transformation of the Iowa Commission for the Blind from a verifiably ineffective service agency to perhaps the most outstanding and effective adult service program in the nation in the span of 10 short years. What happened in Iowa was revolutionary, and the character of work with the blind in America and around the world was altered forever - the alternative civil rights - based service model worked. Using Kenneth Jernigan's own writings of Board meeting minutes, reports, and letters, I present the details of the remarkable story from an activist's point of view.

This NIH-supported study of HIV's physical and psychosocial impacts offers both practical and inspiring accounts of how individuals living with HIV respond and cope with the disease and its progressive stages and impacts. The longitudinal approach of the research and the rich resources offered by extensive interviews with the persons with HIV and those closest to them avail the reader of insights and responses that should improve others' coping and caring abilities.

The author's professional experience and extensive research informs the work throughout and fashions a remarkable and moving synthesis of the themes that will help those living with AIDS as well as all who relate to them. From the first awareness of infection to coping with bereavement, this book honestly, sensitively, and substantively addresses the essential concerns that any and all who are touched by the HIV pandemic must reflect on.

Originally published between 1973 and 1990, this collection reissues twelve books that focus on the lives of children with mental and physical disabilities. Together, the books reflect research being done in the period and look at the challenges individuals, families, and professionals faced at that time. Topics covered include caring for children with disabilities, inclusion, and coping with particular disabilities.

Nowadays networks, microprocessors, memory chips, smart sensors and actuators are faster, cheaper and smaller than ever. They are becoming available anywhere, anytime. Current advances in such enabling technologies let foresee novel applications and services for improving the life of elderly and disabled people in their home and outside. These conference proceedings present the latest approaches and technical solutions in the area of smart homes, health telematics, and enabling technologies. The first chapter delves into the user perspective to ascertain real needs and design truly useful services. The following chapter explores the enabling technology. Distributed sensors, smart devices and networks appear as the nuts and bolts compulsory to build up smart homes. Chapter three looks at the realization of smart homes. Pervasive computing is emerging as one of the key approaches to organize computations within smart homes. The fourth chapter addresses the issue of using smart home features to design and deliver smart care services to persons with disabilities and elderly people. Finally Chapter five outlines standardization efforts and practical and industrial experiences.I COST aims at creating an active research community dedicated to explore how smart homes in particular and health telematics in general can foster independent living and an enhanced life style for elderly and disabled people. On the one hand, smart homes are augmented environments with embedded computers, information appliances and multi-modal sensors allowing people to perform tasks efficiently by offering unprecedented levels of access to information and assistance from computer. On the other hand, health telematics makes the most of networks and telecommunications to propose health services, expertise and information at distance.

The first major anthology by parents with disabilities. 'Being a disabled parent is a rebellious act. Disabled people should have the same right to parent as anyone else, but often when we decide to start a family we are met with judgement and discrimination. We are questioned rather than supported. We have to push up against the medical system. And we have to confront society's model of parenting. Yet, despite all this, we still choose to parent. And we are damn good at it too!' When writer and musician Eliza Hull was pregnant with her first child, like most like most parents-to-be she felt a mix of nerves and excitement. But as a disabled person, she faced added complexities. She wondered: Will the pregnancy be too hard? Will people judge me? Will I cope with the demands of parenting? In We've Got This, thirty parents who identify as Deaf, disabled, neurodiverse, or chronically ill discuss the highs and lows of their parenting journeys and show that the greatest obstacles lie in other people's attitudes. The result is a moving, revelatory, and empowering anthology that celebrates the richness of disabled parenting in the twenty-first century. 'Such an important book. Joyous, eye-opening, and deeply moving, these powerful stories will challenge long-held assumptions and hopefully shift societal attitudes towards disabled parents. Everyone should read this.' Francesca Martinez, author of What the **** Is Normal?!

Drawing upon qualitative material from parents and professionals, including ethnography, narrative inquiry, interviews and focus groups, this book brings together feminist and critical disability studies theories.

Who determines whether persons are disabled and eligible to receive the billions of dollars that are awarded in benefits under federal disability programs today in the United States? What kinds of standards are applied in making awards to millions of applicants? And how are disability determinations made and claims adjudicated? Frank S. Bloch provides a careful study of disability determinations in five major federal programs. His findings, models, and calls for reform, including the greater use of medical personnel, should interest those who want to know more about the medical-legal issues relevant to disability determination, the many factors that impact on disability decisionmaking, and the administrative process for making disability decisions. This survey covers the disability determination process in U.S. social security, railroad retirement, civil service, veteran, and black lung disability programs at the federal level. Dr. Bloch defines various standards, key issues, the current use of medical personnel and models for their fuller use and for reforming the disability determination process.

This book puts the critical into dementia studies. It makes a timely and novel contribution to the field, offering a provocative and thought-provoking critique of current thinking and debate on dementia. Collectively the contributions gathered together in this text make a powerful case for a more politically engaged, deconstructive and critical treatment of dementia and the systems and structures that currently govern and frame it. The book is interdisciplinary and draws together leading dementia scholars alongside dementia activists from around the world. It frames dementia as first and foremost a political category. The book advances both theoretical and methodological thinking in the field as well as sharing learning from empirical research. Outlining the limits to existing efforts to frame and theorise the condition it proposes a new critical movement for the field of dementia studies and practice. The book will be of direct interest to researchers and scholars in the field of dementia studies and wider fields of health, disability and care. It will provide a novel resource for students and practitioners in the fields of dementia, health care and social care. The book also has implications for dementia policymaking, commissioning and community development.

This book examines the state of art in disability studies, focusing on the Indian context, as well as the broader South Asian situation. It presents interdisciplinary perspectives on the basic idea, evolution, practices and challenges of researching and teaching disability studies at various higher education institutions and in other civil society spaces. The chapters address a range of related themes, including activism, development policies, research, pedagogy, spatial and social access, caste and gender representations and rights-based discourses. Given the scope of its coverage, the book is of interest to scholars and students in area of humanities, education, law, sociology and social work, political science development and disability studies.

This novel treats the two themes of incurable diseases and euthanasia at various levels to bring into focus a web of dense arguments legal and medical woven together that never tire the readers in their attempts to grapple with issues of human suffering, disease and death and its over-arching subject of sympathy, pity and humanity. To lend credence to all the impressive arguments, the novel draws parallels from real life situations and cases that made possible a debate on physician-assisted suicides and importance of human dignity and right to life and death.

Now students, general readers, advocates, rehabilitation professionals, and others seeking to learn more about the history and progress of the disability rights movement can turn to a valuable new reference book, The ABC-CLIO Companion to the Disability Rights Movement. The book is designed as a general introduction to the many varied influences on the growth of this movement, including notable individuals, some of whom will be familiar to general readers, while others remain virtually unknown outside of the communities they have affected. Here, through fascinating biographical narratives, their contributions are highlighted. Nearly 500 alphabetically arranged entries explore landmark laws and court cases, prominent figures, historic events, issues, notable programs, key concepts, and centers of disability culture and education. With a detailed chronology, extensive cross-referencing, illustrations, and a subject index, this volume is an exceptionally useful reference for anyone seeking to better understand the people and events shaping the American disability rights movement.

Leading ethicist and pastoral theologian Brian Brock reflects on the challenge of disability, refuting widely held misconceptions and helping readers respond well to the pastoral implications of disability. Brock, the father of a child with special needs, weaves together theological commentary with narrative reflection, offering rich theological wisdom for shepherding people with disabilities. He shows pastors and ministers-in-training that thinking more closely and theologically about disability is a doorway into a more vibrant and welcoming church life for all Christians.

Disability and the Victorians brings together in one collection a range of topics, perspectives and experiences from the Victorian era that present a unique overview of the development and impact of attitudes and interventions towards those with impairments during this time. The collection also considers how the legacies of these actions can be seen to have continued throughout the twentieth century right up to the present day. Subjects addressed include deafness, blindness, language delay, substance dependency, imperialism and the representation of disabled characters in popular fiction. These varied topics illustrate how common themes can be found in how Victorian philanthropists and administrators responded to those under their care. Often character, morality and the chance to be restored to productivity and usefulness overrode medical need and this both influenced and reflected wider societal views of impairment and inability. -- .

In this accessible introduction to the study of Disability Arts and Culture, Petra Kuppers foregrounds themes, artists and theoretical concepts in this diverse field. Complete with case studies, exercises and questions for further study, the book introduces students to the work of disabled artists and their allies, and explores artful responses to living with physical, cognitive, emotional or sensory difference. Engaging readers as cultural producers, Kuppers provides useful frameworks for critical analysis and encourages students to explore their own positioning within the frames of gender, race, sexuality, class and disability. Comprehensive and accessible, this is an essential handbook for undergraduate students or anyone interested in disabled bodies and minds in theatre, performance, creative writing, art and dance.