* This anthology has been curated by a seasoned playwright, academic, director and actor who has lived experience of being deaf. * Would be recommended reading in deaf studies and deaf culture courses across the world. * This book is the first anthology of its kind.

Locates social attitudes towards blindness in a personal and cultural landscape. Is interdisciplinary in its crossing of lines among education, the humanities, and the social sciences. Includes case-studies from Canada, Cyprus, India, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, South America, and Spain.

Disability is a widespread phenomenon, indeed a potentially universal one as life expectancies rise. Within the academic world, it has relevance for all disciplines yet is often dismissed as a niche market or someone else's domain. This collection explores how academic avoidance of disability studies and disability theory is indicative of social prejudice and highlights, conversely, how the academy can and does engage with disability studies. This innovative book brings together work in the humanities and the social sciences, and draws on the riches of cultural diversity to challenge institutional and disciplinary avoidance. Divided into three parts, the first looks at how educational institutions and systems implicitly uphold double standards, which can result in negative experiences for staff and students who are disabled. The second part explores how disability studies informs and improves a number of academic disciplines, from social work to performance arts. The final part shows how more diverse cultural engagement offers a way forward for the academy, demonstrating ways in which we can make more explicit the interdisciplinary significance of disability studies - and, by extension, disability theory, activism, experience, and culture. Disability, Avoidance and the Academy: Challenging Resistance will interest students and scholars of disability studies, education studies and cultural studies.

Culture and Disabilty is a groundbreaking work on persons with disabilities from diverse immigrant backgrounds. It is a pioneering and practical volume dealing with topics that have been too long ignored. Using a 'cultural broker' model and written by individuals who have emigrated to the U.S. from countries such as China, Korea, Jamaica, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, Providing Cultural Competent Disability Services contains concrete examples, case studies, and recommendations that will help rehabilitation practitioners in their day-to-day activities. Providing Cultural Competent Disability Service also serves as an excellent supplemental text for undergraduate and graduate programs in rehabilitation and related disciplines. -Paul Leung, Ph.D., CRC, University of North Texas One in ten persons living in the United States was born in another country, and in many areas this percentage is much higher. Minority groups are currently underrepresented in the rehabilitation professions; consequently many persons with disabilities are served by professionals from a culture that may be very different than their own. Culture and Disabilty provides information about views of disability in other cultures and ways in which rehabilitation professionals may improve services for persons from other cultures, especially recent immigrants. Culture and Disabilty includes chapters with descriptions of the interaction of culture and disability. A model on "Culture Brokering" provides a framework for addressing conflicts that often arise between service providers and clients from differing cultures. Seven chapters discuss the cultural perspectives of China, Jamaica, Korea, Haiti, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam, focusing on how disability is understood in these cultures. Each of these chapters includes a discussion of the history of immigration to the United States, the role of the family and the community in rehabilitation, as well as recommendations for service providers on working with persons from each culture. Culture and Disabilty is a unique and timely text for students and instructors in disability-related programs. It is also a vital resource for service providers who work in cross-cultural environments.

Naming Adult Autism is one of the first critiques of cultural and medical narratives of Autism to be authored by an adult diagnosed with this condition. Autism is a 'social disorder', defined by interactions and lifestyle. Yet, the expectations of normalcy against which Autism is defined have too rarely been questioned. This book demonstrates the value of the Humanities towards developing fuller understandings of Autistic adulthood, adapting theory from Adorno, Foucault and Butler. The chapters expose serious scientific limitations of medical assumptions that Autistic people are gifted at maths but indifferent to fiction. After interrogating such cliches in literature, cinema and television, James McGrath also explores more radical depictions of Autism via novels by Douglas Coupland, Margaret Atwood, Clare Morrall and Meg Wolitzer, plus poems by Les Murray and Joanne Limburg. Follow this link to see James McGrath in conversation with Kelly-Anne Watson at Leeds Beckett University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQOotRZRzv4 Follow this link to view a content breakdown of the above interview: https://www.academia.edu/36406389/Naming_Adult_Autism_A_Conversation_winter_2017_ Follow this link to read a 'Seeking Sara' blog interview with James: https://seekingsara174.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/639/

- Coverage of deaf people and cognition, neuroscience, bimodal/bilingualism, and education technology - Strong multicultural focus - Case studies from authors' clinical and educational practices - Three deaf and one hearing author-a deaf/hearing bilingual team

Based on data collected through in-depth fieldwork observation and interviews in Bai Township, this book examines how women with disabilities in rural Southwest China compensate for their disability identity through marriage. As the first book to theorize the married life of rural-based women with different types of disabilities, it provides a more holistic picture of their marital life by tracing the marriage process from mate selection to wedding ceremony, reproduction and role performance. It also generates a substantive theory grounded in the real experiences of women living with disabilities with Jing Yang arguing that these women are not passive victims in the marital process, but active agents who endeavour to minimize the risk of abuse and maximize security and satisfaction in their marriage. By examining the effects of fertility, patriarchy and village society on women with disability, this book will be of huge interest to students and scholars of many disciplines, including disability studies, sociology, social work, women's studies and Chinese culture and society.

Over the last three decades, a number of reforms have taken place in European social policy with an impact on the opportunities for persons with disabilities to be full and active members of society. The policy reforms have aimed to change the balance between citizens' rights and duties and the opportunities to enjoy choice and autonomy, live in the community and participate in political decision-making processes of importance for one's life. How do the reforms influence the opportunities to exercise Active Citizenship? This volume presents the findings from the first cross-national comparison of how persons with disabilities reflexively make their way through the world, pursuing their own interests and values. The volume considers how their experiences, views and aspirations regarding participation vary across Europe. Based on retrospective life-course interviews, the volume examines the scope for agency on the part of persons with disabilities, i.e. the extent to which men and women with disabilities are able to make choices and pursue lives they have reasons to value. Drawing on structuration theory and the capability approach, the volume investigates the opportunities for exercising Active Citizenship among men and women in nine European countries. The volume identifies the policy implications of a process-oriented and multi-dimensional approach to Active Citizenship in European disability policy. It will appeal to policymakers and policy officials, as well as to researchers and students of disability studies, comparative social policy, international disability law and qualitative research methods.

Representing Youth with Disability on Television is a complex and multidimensional mainstream cultural discourse that examines specific stereotypes in fictional programming. The book draws attention to the group labeled as disabled, which is often marginalized, misrepresented, and misunderstood in the media, by analyzing the popular television programs Glee, Breaking Bad, and Parenthood. To obtain a more rigorous account of the way that youth (9-18 years of age) with disability are framed on television, this analysis examines the following issues: how research on popular culture is contextualized within social theory; the theoretical perspectives on representations of disability in popular culture; and the various contexts, genres, media, representations, and definitions of youth with disability in popular culture. The text also outlines the historical growth of disability, which is crucial for a discussion regarding the changing dimensions of popular culture. Critical hermeneutics, content analysis, and methodological bricolage are the melange of methodologies used to closely examine the dominant models of disability (social vs. medical) used in the portrayal of disabled youth on television today.

In this ground-breaking book, Jenny Slater uses the lens of 'the reasonable' to explore how normative understandings of youth, dis/ability and the intersecting identities of gender and sexuality impact upon the lives of young dis/abled people. Although youth and disability have separately been thought within socio-cultural frameworks, rarely have sociological studies of 'youth' and 'disability' been brought together. By taking an interdisciplinary, critical disability studies approach to explore the socio-cultural concepts of 'youth' and 'disability' alongside one-another, Slater convincingly demonstrates that 'youth' and 'disability' have been conceptualised within medical/psychological frameworks for too long. With chapters focusing on access and youth culture, independence, autonomy and disabled people's movements, and the body, gender and sexuality, this volume's intersectional and transdisciplinary engagement with social theory offers a significant contribution to existing theoretical and empirical literature and knowledges around disability and youth. Indeed, through highlighting the ableism of adulthood and the falsity of conceptualising youth as a time of becoming-independent-adult, the need to shift approaches to research around dis/abled youth is one of the main themes of the book. This book therefore is a provocation to rethink what is implicit about 'youth' and 'disability'. Moreover, through such an endeavour, this book sits as a challenge to Mr Reasonable.

Moving away from clinical, medical or therapeutic perspectives on disability, this book explores disability in India as a social, cultural and political phenomenon, arguing that this 'difference' should be accepted as a part of social diversity. It further interrogates the multiple issues of identification of the disabled and the forms of oppression they face.

The disability of blindness is a learned social role. The various attitudes and patterns of behavior that characterize people who are blind are not inherent in their condition but, rather, are acquired through ordinary processes of social learning. The Making of Blind Men is intended as a systematic and integrated overview of the blindness problem in America. Dr. Scott chronicles which aspects of this problem are being dealt with by organizations for the blind and the effectiveness of this intervention system. He details the potential consequences of blind people becoming clients of blindness agencies by pointing out that many of the attitudes, behavior patterns, and qualities of character that have been assumed to be given to blind people by their condition are, in fact, products of socialization. As the self-concepts of blind men are generated by the same processes of socialization that shape us all, Dr. Scott puts forth the challenge of reforming the organized intervention system by critically evaluating the validity of blindness workers' assumptions about blindness and the blind. It is felt that an enlightened work force can then render the socialization process of the blind into a rational and deliberate force for positive change.

A crucial contemporary dynamic around children and young people in the Global North is the multiple ways that have emerged to monitor their development, behaviour and character. In particular disabled children or children with unusual developmental patterns can find themselves surrounded by multiple practices through which they are examined. This rich book draws on a wide range of qualitative research to look at how disabled children have been cared for, treated and categorised. Narrative and longitudinal interviews with children and their families, along with stories and images they have produced and notes from observations of different spaces in their lives - medical consultation rooms, cafes and leisure centres, homes, classrooms and playgrounds amongst others - all make a contribution. Bringing this wealth of empirical data together with conceptual ideas from disability studies, sociology of the body, childhood studies, symbolic interactionism and feminist critical theory, the authors explore the multiple ways in which monitoring occurs within childhood disability and its social effects. Their discussion includes examining the dynamics of differentiation via medicine, social interaction, and embodiment and the multiple actors - including children and young people themselves - involved. The book also investigates the practices that differentiate children into different categories and what this means for notions of normality, integration, belonging and citizenship. Scrutinising the multiple forms of monitoring around disabled children and the consequences they generate for how we think about childhood and what is 'normal', this volume sits at the intersection of disability studies and childhood studies.

First published in 1992, Images of Disability on Television examines the frequency and nature of disability on British and American television and how it is perceived and presented by programme makers. Attitudes held by those closest to the issues - disabled people, their carers, and television producers and writers - are presented as the result of interviews and discussions. There is an increasingly strong sentiment that television has got it wrong as far as disability is concerned and does not play its proper role in allowing the non-disabled to understand fully the world of disabled people. This book provides information to promote greater understanding of the needs of the disabled people in television portrayal and opens up possibilities for a change in attitudes. It will be valuable reading for students, researchers and lecturers in the social sciences, communication studies, and media studies.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

"Colker's book provides a comprehensive review of the ADA's history and a thorough analysis of how effective it has been in vindicating the rights of the disabled. She does not paint a pretty picture, but it is an accurate, empirically based assessment."
--"Trial"

"[A] comprehensive, factually-supported, and carefully reasoned book in a manner worthy of academic interest. At the same time, [Colker] writes in a plain style free of academic jargon and returns consistently to the human-interest arena of practical ramifications."
--"New York Law Journal"

"This book is must reading for teachers, school administrators, parents, vocational rehabilitation counselors, disability rights lawyers, and Deaf Community leaders who hope to help take the citizen ship interests of deaf and hard-of-hearing people to the next level. The book helps these constituencies make the essential connections between raising and educating deaf children and the rights and opportunities those children hope to enjoy."
--Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

"The Disability Pendulum chronicles societal views and court reactions to the evolving ADA. Ruth Colker shows that public acceptance and inclusion of persons with disabilities into society is as much driven by attitudes about disability as by law and policy themselves. Colker offers an enriched and fresh analysis of the forces affecting the civil rights movement of persons with disabilities in American society."
--Peter Blank, Charles M. and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law and Director, Law, Health Policy & Disability Center, University of Iowa College of Law

"Ruth Colker's bookis an absolute must-read for anyone interested in disability rights. Colker has long been one of the most astute observers of the development of disability rights in the courts. This book lays out the compelling story of what the ADA was intended to do and what the courts have done to the ADA. The book is both inspiring and sobering."
--Chai Feldblum, Georgetown University Law Center

a[Colker] does not paint a pretty picture, but is an accurate, empirically based assessmenta
-- Adele Rapport, The Associate Regional Attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commissionas Indianapolis District Office

"The Disability Pendulum helps us to appreciate that how we address these issues will shape the lives of the next generation of children with disabilities."
--"The Law and Politics Book Review"

Signed into law in July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became effective two years later, and court decisions about the law began to multiply in the middle of the decade. In The Disability Pendulum, Ruth Colker presents the first legislative history of the enactment of the ADA in Congress and analyzes the first decade of judicial decisions under the act. She assesses the success and failure of the first ten years of litigation under the ADA, focusing on its three major titles: employment, public entities, and public accommodations.

The Disability Pendulum argues that despite an initial atmosphere of bipartisan support with the expectation that the ADA would make a significant difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities, judicial decisions have not been consistent with Congressa intentions. The courts have operated like a pendulum, at timesswinging to a pro-disabled plaintiff and then back again to a pro-defendant stance. Colker, whose work on the ADA has been cited by the Supreme Court, offers insightful and practical suggestions on where to amend the act to make it more effective in defending disability rights, and also explains judicial hostility toward enforcing the act.

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.

"The writings of Rubin, Mukhopadhyay, and all of the contributors are testament to the need to embrace a 'disability consciousness' in seeking educational and therapeutic options for autistic persons so that they can achieve their full potential. While Biklen refrains from extensive analysis of his contributors' words, his book is truly valuable in its straightforward presentation of the voices of autistic persons speaking not only for but as themselves."
--"Disability Studies Quarterly"

"Disagrees with the common picture of autism, presenting chapters written by those with autism themselves--including those considered most severely disabled within the world of autism--to present a personalized view of how autism is experienced by those diagnosed. . . . A 'must' for any who understand the autistic experience."
--"Bookwatch"

"Biklen's tenacity is to be admired."
--"CHOICE"

aThe prevailing view of autism and disability is redefined in this beautifully written book. Can you ask for more than to inform, inspire, challenge, and help to create new ways of understanding? "Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone" forces us to confront misunderstanding, misperceptions, and lack of knowledge, and to rethink disability and autism. It demands that we embrace people who act, communicate, and socialize differently. I love this book!a
--Jan Nisbet, Director, Institute on Disability

aAustism and the Myth of the Person Alone is one of those rare professional books that causes one to pause and consider what it tells us about our literature, our field, and, perhaps, ourselves...Biklen has given us a fascinating, thoughtful and, most important, essential book by including insights, experiences, and perspectives of individuals with autism to add to the canon.a
--"American Association on Mental Retardation"

Autism has been defined by experts as a developmental disorder affecting social and communication skills as well as verbal and nonverbal communication. It is said to occur in as many as 2 to 6 in 1,000 individuals. This book challenges the prevailing, tragic narrative of impairment that so often characterizes discussions about autism.

Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone seriously engages the perspectives of people with autism, including those who have been considered as the most severely disabled within the autism spectrum. The heart of the book consists of chapters by people with autism themselves, either in an interview format with the author or written by themselves. Each author communicates either by typing or by a combination of speech and typing. These chapters are framed by a substantive introduction and conclusion that contextualize the book, the methodology, and the analysis, and situate it within a critical disability studies framework. The volume allows a look into the rich and insightful perspectives of people who have heretofore been thought of as uninterested in the world.

In Curative Violence Eunjung Kim examines what the social and material investment in curing illnesses and disabilities tells us about the relationship between disability and Korean nationalism. Kim uses the concept of curative violence to question the representation of cure as a universal good and to understand how nonmedical and medical cures come with violent effects that are not only symbolic but also physical. Writing disability theory in a transnational context, Kim tracks the shifts from the 1930s to the present in the ways that disabled bodies and narratives of cure have been represented in Korean folktales, novels, visual culture, media accounts, policies, and activism. Whether analyzing eugenics, the management of Hansen's disease, discourses on disabled people's sexuality, violence against disabled women, or rethinking the use of disabled people as a metaphor for life under Japanese colonial rule or under the U.S. military occupation, Kim shows how the possibility of life with disability that is free from violence depends on the creation of a space and time where cure is seen as a negotiation rather than a necessity.

Growing numbers of human beings live with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities. Exploring the moral, social and political implications of this trend, Valuing Profoundly Disabled People addresses questions that are high on policy and practice agendas in numerous regions around the world, including the UK and the EU, the USA, and Australasia. In this important work Vorhaus examines fundamental moral and social questions about profound disability, and each chapter combines a comprehensive review of existing literature with thought-provoking and original philosophical arguments. Vorhaus argues that there is a pressing need to consider the moral and political claims of people whose lives are characterised by extensive impairments, dependency and vulnerability. The book prompts readers to reflect on complex issues relating to the practices of caring, teaching and treating people with profound disabilities in contexts such as education, health care and social policy. Providing a much-needed contribution to the field, this book will be of interest to postgraduates, academics and researchers in a number of distinct and interrelated fields, including disability and impairment, human rights, philosophy, sociology, health and social policy, and education. The book will also be of great interest to practitioners and policymakers seeking to promote the aims of realising human potential and respecting disability.

Identifying and Addressing the Social Issues Experienced by Individuals with IDD, Volume 52 provides an ongoing scholarly look at research into the causes, effects, classification systems and syndromes, etc. of developmental disabilities. Updates to this new volume include chapters on Using large-scale databases to examine abuse and vulnerability in populations with ASD and other developmental disabilities, Peer relationships among children with ASD: Social acceptance, friendships and peer networks, Negative peer experiences in adolescents with ASD in the general education setting, Pathways to Inclusion and Belonging: Peer-Mediated Interventions for Students with Severe Disabilities, and Social Vulnerability in Williams Syndrome. Contributors to this series come from wide-ranging perspectives, including genetics, psychology, education, and other health and behavioral sciences.

The number of disability related support services controlled and run by disabled people themselves has increased significantly in the UK and internationally over the past forty years. As a result, greater user involvement in service provision and delivery is a key priority for many western Governments. This book provides the first comprehensive review and analysis of these developments in the UK. Drawing on evidence from a range of sources, including material from the first national study of user-controlled services, this book provides a critical evaluation of the development and organisation of user-controlled services in the UK and identifies the principal forces - economic, political and cultural - that influence and inhibit their further development. It summarises and discusses the policy implications for the future development of services and includes an up-to-date and comprehensive literature and research review. "Independent futures" is essential reading for academics and students on a range of courses including: health and social care; social work; allied health professions, such as nursing, occupational therapy and speech therapy; social policy; sociology; and psychology. It will also be of interest to practitioners and policy makers who need a reliable overview of current policy and critical analysis of key issues affecting future policy and practice.

This book examines disability, diversity, and schooling exclusion in Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew. Defending a social and anthropological conception of disability as a consequence of any situation that makes a subject uncomfortable and unable to live or act properly, the book explores the difficulties that disabled children face within the school system and considers how social exclusion provokes and exacerbates educational exclusion. With contributions from linguists, educational sociologists, educational psychologists, educators, and historians, the chapters focus on a range of phenomena such as the balance of languages used for teaching, gender equity, associated disorders, and the experiences of left-handed and deaf students. Ultimately, the authors demonstrate how the educational relationships built and practiced in school influence the perceptions of people with disabilities, with respect to both singular contexts and pedagogical practices. As such, it represents an important study of the relationship between school exclusion, disability, and those with precarious socio-familial conditions, and how they can be conceptualized and addressed in the context of crises. It will appeal to scholars, researchers, and academics with interests in diversity and inclusive education, pedagogy, crisis education, and educational psychology. Chapters 1, 3, 7, and 8 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. They have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Being an 'active citizen' involves exercising social rights and duties, enjoying choice and autonomy, and participating in political decision-making processes which are of importance for one's life. Amid the new challenges facing contemporary welfare states, debate over just how 'active' citizens can and ought to be has redoubled. Presenting research from the first major comparative and cross-national study of active citizenship and disability in Europe, this book analyses the consequences of ongoing changes in Europe - what opportunities do persons with disabilities have to exercise Active Citizenship? The Changing Disability Policy System: Active Citizenship and Disability in Europe Volume 1 approaches the conditions for Active Citizenship from a macro perspective in order to capture the impact of the overall disability policy system. This system takes diverse and changing forms in the nine European countries under study. Central to the analysis are issues of coherence and coordination between three subsystems of the disability policy system, and between levels of governance. This book identifies the implications and policy lessons of the findings for future disability policy in Europe and beyond. It will appeal to policymakers and policy officials, as well as to researchers and students of disability studies, comparative social policy, international disability law and qualitative research methods.

This is the first book-length study of physical disability in eighteenth-century England. It assesses the ways in which meanings of physical difference were formed within different cultural contexts, and examines how disabled men and women used, appropriated, or rejected these representations in making sense of their own experiences. In the process, it asks a series of related questions: what constituted 'disability' in eighteenth-century culture and society? How was impairment perceived? How did people with disabilities see themselves and relate to others? What do their stories tell us about the social and cultural contexts of disability, and in what ways were these narratives and experiences shaped by class and gender? In order to answer these questions, the book explores the languages of disability, the relationship between religious and medical discourses of disability, and analyzes depictions of people with disabilities in popular culture, art, and the media. It also uncovers the 'hidden histories' of disabled men and women themselves drawing on elite letters and autobiographies, Poor Law documents and criminal court records.

Research has long substantiated the fact that living with a disability creates significant and complex challenges to identity negotiation, the practice of communication, and the development of interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, individuals without disabilities often lack the knowledge and tools to experience self-efficacy in communicating with their differently-abled peers. So how do these challenges translate to the incorporation of disability studies in a classroom context and the need to foster an inclusive environment for differently-abled students? Bringing together a range of perspectives from communication and disability studies scholars, this collection provides a theoretical foundation along with practical solutions for the inclusion of disability studies within the everyday curriculum. It examines a variety of aspects of communication studies including interpersonal, intercultural, health, political and business communication as well as ethics, gender and public speaking, offering case study examples and pedagogical strategies as to the best way to approach the subject of disability in education. It will be of interest to students, researchers and educators in communication and disability studies as well as scholars of sociology and social policy, gender studies, public health and pedagogy. It will also appeal to anyone who has wondered how to bring about a greater degree of inclusion and ethics within the classroom.

The provision of assistive technology is an important individual and collective service of the welfare state. The state plays a significant role towards linking users and products, and the matching of devices and users is both a science and an art. However, many people feel it is stigmatising to use individually designed assistive technologies as they often, in a subtle way, convey discriminating barriers in society. The major challenges of assistive technology are thus to reduce social exclusion and marginalisation and, importantly, to reduce individual risks and societal costs related to non-use due to deficiencies in usability, aesthetics and design of the technologies. This groundbreaking book discusses the relationships among society, disability and technology by using different empirical examples (e.g., school, everyday life) to show why the combination of disability studies and STS-studies (science, technology and society) is a fruitful approach to understanding and meeting these challenges. The book explores the significance of the technologies for users, society and the field; identifies challenges to designing, adopting and using assistive technologies; and points at theoretical challenges in research as well as professional challenges in assistive technology service provision. The book also scrutinises the role of assistive technology devices, as well as the organisational structure of the assistive technology market, in relation to disabled people's lives. This book will be valuable reading for students, academics, teachers and social educators interested in Disability Studies, STS Studies, Product Design, Sociology, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, as well as engineers working in the field of assistive technology.