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.

Music has long been a way in which visually impaired people could gain financial independence, excel at a highly-valued skill, or simply enjoy musical participation. Existing literature on visual impairment and music includes perspectives from the social history of music, ethnomusicology, child development and areas of music psychology, music therapy, special educational needs, and music education, as well as more popular biographical texts on famous musicians. But there has been relatively little sociological research bringing together the views and experiences of visually impaired musicians themselves across the life course. Insights in Sound: Visually Impaired Musicians' Lives and Learning aims to increase knowledge and understanding both within and beyond this multifaceted group. Through an international survey combined with life-history interviews, a vivid picture is drawn of how visually impaired musicians approach and conceive their musical activities, with detailed illustrations of the particular opportunities and challenges faced by a variety of individuals. Baker and Green look beyond affiliation with particular musical styles, genres, instruments or practices. All 'levels' are included: from adult beginners to those who have returned to music-making after a gap; and from 'regular' amateur and professional musicians, to some who are extraordinarily 'elite' or 'successful'. Themes surrounding education, training, and informal learning; notation and ear playing; digital technologies; and issues around disability, identity, opportunity, marginality, discrimination, despair, fulfilment, and joy surfaced, as the authors set out to discover, analyse, and share insights into the worlds of these musicians.

In this wide-ranging and probing book Erin Manning extends her previous inquiries into the politics of movement to the concept of the minor gesture. The minor gesture, although it may pass almost unperceived, transforms the field of relations. More than a chance variation, less than a volition, it requires rethinking common assumptions about human agency and political action. To embrace the minor gesture's power to fashion relations, its capacity to open new modes of experience and manners of expression, is to challenge the ways in which the neurotypical image of the human devalues alternative ways of being moved by and moving through the world-in particular what Manning terms "autistic perception." Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari's schizoanalysis and Whitehead's speculative pragmatism, Manning's far-reaching analyses range from fashion to depression to the writings of autistics, in each case affirming the neurodiversity of the minor and the alternative politics it gestures toward.

First published in 1985, this book considers the financial consequences of parents and other relatives caring for severely disabled children at home. At the time of publication little reliable information was available on the costs incurred by 'informal carers', which this book set to rectify. The volume interweaves hard statistical material about money with the detailed personal responses of parents. It examines the claim that disablement in a child reduces parents' earnings while simultaneously creating an extra expense. The author compares the incomes and expenditure patterns of more than 500 families with disabled children and 700 control families of the time showing that the financial effects of disablement in a child can be far-reaching and pervasive. This book discusses contemporary policy implications of these findings in a chapter dealing with the rational for compensating families with disabled children, and in the final chapter. Although the book was original published in 1985, it references issues that are still important today and, whilst its main concern is families with disabled children, it will also be useful to anyone caring for other kinds of dependent people, such as the elderly.

First published in 1990, this book was the first informed study to focus on care within the voluntary sector. Written with the child in mind, it is a sensitive work which explores the administration, strategy, and problems facing carers in children's homes, at that time. Centring on small, community-based facilities, the authors discuss the processes involved in setting up and running such facilities. They examine the difficulties of evaluating progressive services that are influenced by the philosophy of normalisation, and highlight the lessons from which other providers of services are able to learn. Written by experienced researchers with contributions from service managers, Normalisation in Practice offers pragmatic advice on managing innovation efficiently without neglecting the needs of the child. Detailed interviews are combined with theoretical insight to provide an important guide for students and practitioners and a model for academics undertaking evaluative research. Although written at the start of the 1990s, this book contains discussions and material that are still very relevant to the subject today.

First published in 1986, this study explores the increased public concern with policies of 'community care' and their effects on informal carers, at that time. It looks at the widespread evidence that one particular group of informal carers- parents looking after their severely disabled child- lack information, advice and a co-ordinated pattern of supporting services. The author, who carried out research on disabled children and their families for a number of years, describes in detail a low-cost experimental project in which specialist social workers set out to remedy these shortcomings. Drawing on the results of this particular study, the author argues strongly for widespread assignment of 'key' social workers to this and other groups of informal carers. Despite being written in the mid-1980s, this book discusses topic that will still be of interest and use today.

First published in 1989, this book is about integrating or mainstreaming policies, looking specifically at how to improve circumstances for schoolchildren with disabilities or handicaps, and their teachers. The author draws on her experiences, both within and outside the academic institution, to conceptualise and theorise policy, so as to place this policy in a political framework and locate it in a wider model of social life. This model is then used to disentangle the nature and effects of policy practices surrounding integration and mainstreaming, looking at practice in various parts of Europe, the US and Australia, at that time. Although written at the end of the 1980s, this book discusses topics that are still relevant today.

Working futures? looks at the current effectiveness and future scope for enabling policy in the field of disability and employment. By addressing the current strengths and weaknesses of disability and employment policy, the book asks Is the dichotomy of 'work for those who can and support for those who cannot' appropriate to the lives of disabled people? Does current and recent policy reduce or reinforce barriers to paid employment? What lessons from other welfare regimes can we draw on to further disabled people's working futures? The book is original in bringing together a wide range of policy insights to bear on the question of disabled people's working futures. It includes analyses of recent policy initiatives as diverse as the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Draft Disability Bill, the benefits system, New Deal for Disabled People, job retention policy, comparative disability policy, the role of the voluntary sector and 'new policies for a new workplace'. Contributions from academics, NGOs, the OECD and the disabled peoples' movement bring multiple theoretical, professional and user perspectives to the debates at the heart of the book.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games - the biggest, most accessible and best-attended games in the Paralympics' 64-year history - came with an explicit aim to "transform the perception of disabled people in society," and use sport to contribute to "a better world for all people with a disability." This social agenda offered the potential to re-frame disability; to symbolically challenge "ableist" ideology and to offer a reinvention of the (dis)abled body and a redefinition of the possible. This edited collection investigates what has and is happening in relation to these ambitions. The book is structured around three key questions: 1. What were the predominant mediated narratives surrounding the Paralympics, and what are the associated meanings attached to them? 2. How were the Paralympics experienced by media audiences (both disabled and non-disabled)? 3. To what extent did the 2012 Paralympics inspire social change? Each section of this book is interspersed with authentic "voices" from outside academia: broadcasters, athletes and disabled schoolchildren.

In Approaches to Social Research: The Case of Deaf Studies, Alys Young and Bogusia Temple explore the relationship between key methodological debates in social research and the special context of studies concerning d/Deaf people(s). The book is organized around 7 topics: being d/Deaf as a site of contested identity and representation; epistemology and the boundaries of claims for population specific and plural epistemologies; ethics and the implications of collective identity on standard ethical principles and practices; populations and sampling given the highly heterogeneous nature of d/Deaf people(s); narrative methodologies re-examined in light of the visual nature of signed languages; interpretation, translation and transcription and the context of multiple modalities; and information and communication technologies as transformative epistemologies. Through these themes, new aspects of old debates within social research become evident, and the authors challenge specialist field of studies by, with, and about d/Deaf people. Throughout the volume, the authors also show how the field provides challenges to established ways of thinking and working. The book is of interest to scholars within and outside of research concerning d/Deaf people(s), as well as practitioners in the fields of deaf education, social work and allied health professions.

In a critical intervention into the bioethics debate over human enhancement, philosopher Melinda Hall tackles the claim that the expansion and development of human capacities is a moral obligation. Hall draws on French philosopher Michel Foucault to reveal and challenge the ways disability is central to the conversation. The Bioethics of Enhancement includes a close reading and analysis of the last century of enhancement thinking and contemporary transhumanist thinkers, the strongest promoters of the obligation to pursue enhancement technology. With specific attention to the work of bioethicists Nick Bostrom and Julian Savulescu, the book challenges the rhetoric and strategies of enhancement thinking. These include the desire to transcend the body and decide who should live in future generations through emerging technologies such as genetic selection. Hall provides new analyses rethinking both the philosophy of enhancement and disability, arguing that enhancement should be a matter of social and political interventions, not genetic and biological interventions. Hall concludes that human vulnerability and difference should be cherished rather than extinguished. This book will be of interest to academics working in bioethics and disability studies, along with those working in Continental philosophy (especially on Foucault).

Feminist Perspectives on Disability provides a unique introduction to the key debates in relation to both feminism and disability. The author considers contemporary similarities, differences and contentious areas and how concepts drawn from postmodern feminism can be usefully applied to the disability arena. The book explores many important aspects of the field, including: biological debates; issues of power, knowledge, equality, difference, subjectivity and the body; interface of public and private/care and community; medical and social barriers; politics, citizenship and identity. Feminist Perspectives on Disability will be compulsory reading for students of all levels in Women's Studies, Gender Relations, Social Policy, Social Work/Social Care and social Science.

In the twenty-first century there is increasing global recognition of pain relief as a basic human right. However, as Susan Honeyman argues in this new take on child pain and invisible disability, such a belief has historically been driven by adult, ideological needs, whereas the needs of children in pain have traditionally been marginalised or overlooked in comparison. Examining migraines in children and the socially disabling effects that chronic pain can have, this book uses medical, political and cultural discourse to convey a sense of invisible disability in children with migraine and its subsequent oppression within educational and medical policy. The book is supported by authentic migraineurs' experiences and first-hand interviews as well as testimonials from a range of historical, literary, and medical sources never combined in a child-centred context before. Representations of child pain and lifespan migraine within literature, art and popular culture are also pulled together in order to provide an interdisciplinary guide to those wanting to understand migraine in children and the identity politics of disability more fully. Child Pain, Migraine, and Invisible Disability will appeal to scholars in childhood studies, children's rights, literary and visual culture, disability studies and medical humanities. It will also be of interest to anyone who has suffered from migraines or has cared for children affected by chronic pain.

Disability rights advocates in the United Kingdom and the United States recently embraced new media technologies in unexpected and innovative ways. This book sheds light on this process of renewal and asks whether the digitalisation of disability rights advocacy can help re-configure political participation into a more inclusive experience for disabled Internet users, enhancing their stakes in democratic citizenship. Through the examination of social media content, Web link analysis, and interviews with leading figures in grassroots groups on both sides of the Atlantic, Filippo Trevisan reveals the profound impact that the Internet has had on disability advocacy in the wake of the austerity agenda that followed the 2008 global financial crisis. In Britain, a new, tech-savvy generation of young disabled self-advocates has emerged from this process. The role of social media platforms such as Facebook in helping politically inexperienced users make sense of complex policy changes through the use of personal stories is discussed also. In addition, this book explains why British disability advocates adopted more innovative and participatory strategies compared to their American counterparts when faced with similar policy crises. This book reviews the implications of this unexpected digital transformation for the structure of the disability rights movement, its leadership, and the opportunity for disabled citizens to participate fully in democratic politics vis-a-vis persisting Web access and accessibility barriers. An original perspective on the relationship between disability and the Internet, and an indispensable read for scholars wishing to contextualize and enrich their knowledge on digital disability rights campaigns vis-a-vis the broader ecology of policymaking.

This book includes a collection of essays that explore the relationship between Disability Studies and literary ecocriticism, particularly as this relationship plays out in American literature and culture. The contributors to this collection operate from the premise that there is much to be gained for both fields by putting them in conversation, and they do so in a variety of ways. In this manner, the collection contributes to what Joni Adamson and Scott Slovic have referred to as a "third wave of ecocriticism." Adamson and Slovic attribute the rise of this "third wave" to the richly diverse contributions to ecocriticism over the past decade by scholars intent on including postmodernism, ecofeminism, transnationalism, globalization, and postcolonialism into ecocritical discussions. The essays in Toward an Ecosomatic Paradigm extend this approach of this "third wave" by analyzing disability from an "environmental point of view" while simultaneously examining the environmental imagination from a disability studies perspective. More specifically, the goal of the collection is to investigate the role that literary narratives play in fostering the "ecosomatic paradigm." As a theoretical framework, the ecosomatic paradigm underscores the dynamic and inter-relational process wherein human mind-bodies interact with the places, both built and wild, they inhabit. That is, the ecosomatic paradigm proceeds from the assumption that nature and culture are meshed in an ongoing and deep relationship that has implications for both the human subject and the natural world. An ecosomatic approach highlights the profound overlap between embodiment and emplacement, and is therefore enriched by both disability studies and ecocritical insight. By drawing on points of confluence between disability studies and ecological criticism, the various ecosomatic readings in this collection challenge normative (even ableist) constructions of the body-environment dyad by complicating and expanding our understanding of this relationship as it is represented in American literature and culture. Collectively, the essays in this book augment the American environmental imagination by highlighting the relationship between disability and the environment as reflected in American literary texts across multiple periods and genres.

Produced in conjunction with Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect), Australia's largest provider of services with people on the autism spectrum, this new text explores the experiences, needs and aspirations of adults on the spectrum. The volume utilises the structure of a recent survey (the only one of its type in Australia and one of few conducted internationally) and presents data from the study with contributions from adults on the spectrum to illustrate the findings with first person accounts and case studies. By drawing on these unique experiences, this valuable resource is presented in a way that will be both engaging and accessible for a wide range of readers.

How do you become an 'amputee', 'war-wounded', 'victim' or 'disabled' person? This book describes how an amputee and war-wounded community was created after a decade long conflict (1991-2002) in Sierra Leone. Beginning with a general socio-cultural and historical analysis of what is understood by impairment and disability, it also explains how disability was politically created both during the conflict and post-conflict, as violence became part of the everyday. Despite participating in the neoliberal rebuilding of the nation state, ex-combatants and the security of the nation were the government's main priorities, not amputee and war-wounded people. In order to survive, people had to form partnerships with NGOs and participate in new discourses and practices around disability and rights, thus accessing identities of 'disabled' or 'persons with disabilities'. NGOs, charities and religious organisations that understood impairment and disability were most successful at aiding this community of people. However, since discourse and practice on disability were mainly bureaucratic, top-down, and not democratic about mainstreaming disability, neoliberal organisations and INGOs have caused a new colonisation of consciousness, and amputee and war-wounded people have had to become skilled in negotiating these new forms of subjectivities to survive.

The first book to focus on non-traditional, emerging disabilities and their implications for rehabilitation practice. Emerging disabilities are disabling conditions that are either new to medical science, often medically debated, and lacking in known etiology; or those increasing in prevalence in recent years. This master's level text is the first to eschew traditional disabilities to focus specifically on the unique characteristics and needs of individuals with emerging disabilities (i.e. multiple chemical sensitivity, fibromyalgia, Lyme disease) or those currently increasing in prevalence (i.e. diabetes, autism, PTSD), and explore their implications for rehabilitation counseling practice. The text is also unique in its examination of how disability causes, types, and patterns are changing in response to current medical, social, cultural, and environmental trends and in addressing necessary changes to rehabilitation policies and practices to better serve consumers with emerging disabilities. The book explores important sociological and environmental phenomena such as global warming, pollution, poverty, violence, migration patterns, addiction,and substance abuse, and the changing age demographic of the U.S. that has altered the landscape of disability policy and rehabilitation services in the 21st century. Each chapter provides specific examples of disabling conditions and discusses their medical, psychosocial, and vocational significance. The authors examine implications for rehabilitation assessment, planning and placement, and emphasize changes needed to rehabilitation policy and practice. The text is replete with practical evidence-based strategies for meeting the psychosocial and vocational needs of people with emerging disabilities. Each chapter includes case examples, learning objectives, and discussion questions. An instructor's manual accompanies the textbook. Key Features: Describes disabling conditions either new to medical science or increasing in prevalence in modern society Examines socio-cultural, environmental, and legislative trends that have resulted in emerging disabilities Delivers policy, programming, and research recommendations to improve services and supports for Americans with emerging disabilities Provides practical, evidence-based strategies for meeting the psychosocial and vocational needs of people with emerging disabilities Includes learning objectives, case examples, instructor's manual, Power Points, syllabus, and test bank

Although undeniably subject to the coercive political institutions of a liberal state, citizens with cognitive disabilities have frequently and without justification been denied political equality and political liberty. Rather than opposing this treatment, philosophers have tacitly condoned it, often by silence, and other times by explicitly neglecting the concerns for justice that these citizens have. In Recognizing Justice for Citizens with Cognitive Disabilities, Kacey Brooke Warren searches for a theory of justice that can adequately address these concerns. Students and scholars of philosophy, political theory, and disability studies will benefit from Warren's discussion of four of the most influential contemporary theories of justice and her analysis of which of the four is most promising for extending political equality and political liberty to citizens with cognitive disabilities.

The first book to explore food allergies in the United States from the perspective of disability and race Are food allergies disabilities? What structures and systems ensure the survival of some with food allergies and not others? Allergic Intimacies is a groundbreaking critical engagement with food allergies in their cultural representations, advocacy, law, and stories about personal experiences from a disability studies perspective. Author Michael Gill questions the predominantly individualized medical approaches to food allergies, pointing out that these approaches are particularly problematic where allergy testing and treatments are expensive, inconsistent, and inaccessible for many people of color. This thought-provoking book explores the multiple meanings of food allergies and eating in the United States, demonstrating how much more is at stake than we realize, at a critical time when food allergies are on the rise: An estimated 32 million Americans, including one in thirteen children, have food allergies. Diagnoses of food allergies in children have increased by 50 percent since 1997. Yet as the author makes clear, the whiteness of the food allergy community and single-identity disability theory is inherently limiting and insufficient to address the complex choices that those with food allergies make. Gill argues that racism and ableism create unique precarity for disabled people of color that food allergic communities are only beginning to address. There is a huge disparity in access to testing and treatment, with African American and Latinx children having higher risk of adverse outcomes than white children, including more rates of anaphylaxis. Food allergy professionals have a responsibility to move beyond individualized approaches to more robust coalitional efforts grounded in disability and racial justice to undo these patterns of exclusion. Allergic Intimacies celebrates the various creative ways food allergic communities are challenging historical and current practice of exclusion, while identifying the depth of work that still needs to be done to shift focus from a white allergic experience toward a more representative understanding of the racial, ethnic, religious, and economic diversity of those in the United States. Gill's book is a discerning and vital exploration of the key debates about risks, dangers, safety, representations, and political concerns affecting the lives of individuals with food allergies.

Whilst legislation may have progressed internationally and nationally for disabled people, barriers continue to exist, of which one of the most pervasive and ingrained is attitudinal. Social attitudes are often rooted in a lack of knowledge and are perpetuated through erroneous stereotypes, and ultimately these legal and policy changes are ineffectual without a corresponding attitudinal change. This unique book provides a much needed, multifaceted exploration of changing social attitudes toward disability. Adopting a tripartite approach to examining disability, the book looks at historical, cultural, and education studies, broadly conceived, in order to provide a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to the documentation and endorsement of changing social attitudes toward disability. Written by a selection of established and emerging scholars in the field, the book aims to break down some of the unhelpful boundaries between disciplines so that disability is recognised as an issue for all of us across all aspects of society, and to encourage readers to recognise disability in all its forms and within all its contexts. This truly multidimensional approach to changing social attitudes will be important reading for students and researchers of disability from education, cultural and disability studies, and all those interested in the questions and issues surrounding attitudes toward disability.

Focusing on contemporary childhood disability issues, and relevant to the lived experiences of disabled children and young people and their families, this book addresses themes such as transition, identity, education, inclusion, and service provision. It also includes insightful contributions on participatory research and practice with disabled children and young people, including an emphasis on capability, voice, and communicative spaces for those with life limiting and more severe levels of impairment. The contributions to this book are grounded in a commitment to the rights of disabled children and young people, as explicitly recognised under the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (1989) and Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006). However, the authors also draw our attention to the detrimental impact of economic austerity and conflict on the extent to which these rights are being realised, encouraging further consideration of issues relating to social justice, inter-dependence, and participation. Addressing the diversity of disabled children's lives across service domains and international contexts, this book provides an evidence base to support the realisation of the rights of disabled children and young people. This book was originally published as a special issue of Child Care in Practice.

Nearly 20% of the population has a disability. Despite this, mainstream research often does not explicitly address the methodological and practical issues that can act as barriers to disabled people's participation in social research. In this book, Aidley and Fearon provide a concise, practical introduction to making it easier for everyone to take part in research. Requiring no prior knowledge about accessible research methods, the book: * explains how removing barriers to participation will improve the quality of the research; * covers the research process from design, to collecting data, to dissemination and publication; * includes checklists and further reading, as well as useful examples and vignettes to illustrate how issues play out in practice. This book will be invaluable to researchers from a variety of backgrounds looking to increase participation in their research, whether postgraduate students, experienced academic researchers, practitioners or professionals.

What are the unconscious fantasies circulating in representations of disability? What role do these fantasies play in defining the condition of disability? What can these fantasies teach us about human vulnerability writ large? The Fantasy of Disability explores how popular culture texts, such as Degrassi: The Next Generation and Glee, fantasize about what life with a physical disability must be like, while at the same time exerting tremendous pressure on disabled individuals to conform their identity and behaviour to fit within the margins of these societally perpetuated archetypes. Rather than merely engaging with how disability is represented, though, this text investigates how representations of disability reveal their nondisabled producers to be perpetually anxious subjects, doomed to fear not just the disabled subject but the very reality of disability lurking within. Situated at the nexus of disability studies, media studies and psychology, this text presents an innovative way of analyzing representations of disability in popular culture, inverting the psychoanalytic gaze back upon the nondisabled to investigate how disability can become a lens through which to interrogate the normate subject.

This book reports on the first substantial UK study of parenting, disability and mental health. It examines the views of parents and children in 75 families. Covering a broad spectrum of issues facing disabled parents and their families, Parenting and disability: provides a comprehensive review of relevant policy issues; explores the barriers to full participation in parenting that disabled parents face; examines the complex ways in which broader social divisions, including gender and socioeconomic status, interact with disability; advocates measures to support disabled parents and their families by promoting and supporting relationships within the family. The book is aimed at a wide audience, including students and academics in social policy, social work, disability studies, sociology, education, and nursing, people working in the voluntary sector, disabled activists and their supporters, as well as policy makers and practitioners in a range of statutory agencies.