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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social issues > Disability: social aspects
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.
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.
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.
"Disabled Veterans in History" explores the long-neglected
history of those who have sustained lasting injuries or chronic
illnesses while serving in uniform. The contributors to this volume
cover an impressive range of countries in Europe and North America
as well as a wide sweep of chronology from the Ancient World to the
present. This revised and enlarged edition, available for the first
time in paperback, has been updated to reflect the new realities of
war injuries in the 21st century, including PTSD. The book includes
an afterword by noted Veterans Administration psychiatrist and
MacArthur Award winner Jonathan Shay, a new preface, and an added
essay on the changing nature of the American war hero.
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I, Atsu
(Hardcover)
Atsushi Uyeda, Teruko Uyeda
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R706
Discovery Miles 7 060
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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This book is about the social condition of Deaf people, told
through a Deaf woman's autobiography and a series of essays
investigating how hearing societies relate to Deaf people. Michel
Foucault described the powerful one as the beholder who is not
seen. This is why a Deaf woman's perspective is important:
Minorities that we don't even suspect we have power over observe us
in turn. Majorities exert power over minorities by influencing the
environment and institutions that simplify or hinder lives:
language, mindsets, representations, norms, the use of professional
power. Based on data collected by Eurostat, this volume provides
the first discussion of statistics on the condition of Deaf people
in a series of European countries, concerning education, labor,
gender. This creates a new opportunity to discuss inequalities on
the basis of data. The case studies in this volume reconstruct
untold moments of great advancement in Deaf history, successful
didactics supporting bilingualism, the reasons why Deaf empowerment
for and by Deaf people does and does not succeed. A work of
empowerment is effective if it acts on a double level: the
community to be empowered and society at large, resulting in a
transformation of society as a whole. This book provides
instruments to work towards such a transformation.
Despite the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990,
many forms of discrimination against people with disabilities are
still practiced, denying opportunity for employees, as well as the
employers who might hire and support them. Based on a multi-year
research project by a team of experts in human resource management,
economics, and communications, Hidden Talent showcases the
innovative practices of organizations that are actively hiring,
training, and retaining people with disabilities-and thriving as a
result. The authors reveal the roots of disability discrimination
and demonstrate the benefits, to employers and employees alike, of
investing in disabled workers, featuring in-depth case examples.
Additional resources, including an overview of the ADA, information
on tax and legal incentives, and listing of related publications,
organizations, and websites, will make this book essential for
anyone researching, managing, or experiencing the dynamics of
disability in the workplace. The Americans with Disabilities Act
was signed into law in 1990 to protect and assist over 20 million
people with disabilities. Though its mandates for business are
far-reaching, many forms of discrimination are still practiced,
denying opportunity for employees and potential employees with
disabilites, as well as the companies that might hire and support
them. Meanwhile, as many analysts argue, we are heading toward a
high-skill labor shortage, with a largely untapped resource ready
to fill the gap. Based on a multi-year research project by a team
of experts in human resource management, economics, and
communications, Hidden Talent showcases the innovative practices of
organizations that are actively hiring, training, and retaining
people with disabilities-and thriving as a result. The authors
reveal the roots of disability discrimination, and demonstrate the
benefits, to employers and employees alike, of investing in
disabled workers, featuring in-depth case examples. Additional
resources, including an overview of the ADA, information on tax and
legal incentives, and a listing of related publications,
organizations, and websites, will make this book essential for
anyone researching, managing, or experiencing the dynamics of
disability in the workplace.
One message that comes along with ever-improving fertility
treatments and increasing acceptance of single motherhood, older
first-time mothers, and same-sex partnerships, is that almost any
woman can and should become a mother. The media and many studies
focus on infertile and involuntarily childless women who are
seeking treatment. They characterize this group as anxious and
willing to try anything, even elaborate and financially ruinous
high-tech interventions, to achieve a successful pregnancy.
But the majority of women who struggle with fertility avoid
treatment. The women whose interviews appear in "Not Trying" belong
to this majority. Their attitudes vary and may change as their life
circumstances evolve. Some support the prevailing cultural
narrative that women are meant to be mothers and refuse to see
themselves as childfree by choice. Most of these women, who come
from a wider range of social backgrounds than most researchers have
studied, experience deep ambivalence about motherhood and
non-motherhood, never actually choosing either path. They prefer to
let life unfold, an attitude that seems to reduce anxiety about not
conforming to social expectations.
Disability, Augmentative Communication, and the American Dream is a
collaborative effort to tell the life story of Jon A. Feucht, a man
who was born with a form of cerebral palsy that left him reliant on
a wheelchair for mobility, with limited use of his arms and an
inability to speak without an assistive communication device. It is
a story about finding one's voice, about defying low expectations,
about fulfilling one's dreams, and about making a difference in the
world. Sociologist C. Wright Mills famously called for a
"sociological imagination" that grapples with the intersection of
biography and history in society and the ways in which personal
troubles are related to public issues. Disability, Augmentative
Communication, and the American Dream heeds this call through a
qualitative "mixed-methods" study that situates Feucht's life in
broader social context, understanding disability not just as an
individual experience but also as a social phenomenon. In the
tradition of disability studies, it also illuminates an experience
of disability that avoids reading it as tragic or pitiable.
Disability, Augmentative Communication, and the American Dream is
intended as an analytical and empirical contribution to both
disability studies and qualitative sociology, to be read by social
science scholars and students taking courses in disability studies
and qualitative research, as well as by professionals working in
the fields of special education and speech pathology. Written in an
accessible style, the book will also be of interest to lay readers
who want to learn more about disability issues and the disability
experience.
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