This innovative book discusses the meaning of 'inclusion' through the exploration of the interactions between disabled and non-disabled people at a community leisure centre. In exploring the nature of this interface, the book takes a very different approach to that of existing texts, which have tended to concentrate solely on disabled people's experiences of exclusion. The advantage of this new approach is that it adds an extra dimension to our understanding of how discriminatory practice is variously perpetuated and challenged. This book does not seek to undermine existing disability study texts, but rather to extend the focus of disability research to pay more attention to the ways that activity in the disabled and non-disabled interface is implicated in reinforcing or challenging oppression.

The book is aimed at a wide audience of people who are working towards increased social inclusion for disabled people, including theorists and students of disability studies and learning difficulty, leisure management and disability service providers, and their families. Using a practical case study approach, it explores the impact that social interaction between disabled and non-disabled people can have increasing or decreasing disabled people's opportunities for inclusion. Examples of both inclusive and discriminatory practice are described in detail, and the positive and negative effects of these actions on the participants are demonstrated and discussed. This book offers a wide range of practical suggestions for the future development of more inclusive theory, policy and practice that will be of use to its diverse readership.

Author Biography:
Petra Kuppers is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies at Bryant College. She is Artistic Director of the Olimpias Performance Research Project and she has written extensively in the fields of cultural, performance and disability studies.

Inspired by the author's personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences of ABI survivors. The author follows the everyday experiences of six male survivors and critically investigates their identity (re)construction after their ABI. As well as demonstrating identity (re)construction after ABI, the experiences of the participants allow the reader to investigate neurological rehabilitation from their perspective. This book suggests that rehabilitation after ABI is often a continual process that extends beyond the formal, medically prescribed period. It also shows that identity after ABI is often (re)constructed in an unpredictable way; a way that emphasises the importance of reciprocal support and the uncertainty of future life. A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity is essential reading for academics and students from a range of social scientific disciplines with an interest in biographical or ethnographic research methods. This book offers a social scientific view of rehabilitation and as such is also essential reading for academics, students and professionals with an interest in health and illness, particularly neurological rehabilitation and brain injury rehabilitation.

This book explores what happens to people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) when they reach adulthood. It provides an examination of various terms and definitions in use and a critical exploration of current UK policies. The author brings a wealth of many years' experience as a family carer, independent consultant and trainer to demonstrate the significant changes that a person-centred, specialised therapeutic and incremental approach can make to an individual's life. Advances in medical science mean more than ever, people with (PIMD) are growing into adulthood. What is this experience like for an adult who needs support in all aspects of their life? How do we include them in planning support when their intellectual disability means they cannot tell us first hand, what they want or need? Too often this group are overlooked or considered as an afterthought in policy and planning. Notions of independence, employment and mainstream inclusion are all problematic policy ideas for this group of people. Within one-size-fits-all service planning this focus means there is less capacity to meet their life-long specialist, complex and individualised needs. Understanding Profound and Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities in Adults is essential reading for anyone who is involved in the lives of adults with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, whether as a researcher, student, carer or policy-maker.

This book is a case study which narrates the history of the National Organization of the Spanish Blind (ONCE), established in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. Contrary to other affluent countries where most blind people live on welfare benefits, the Spanish blind enjoy full employment. Furthermore, the average income of the Spanish blind is higher than that of the sighted. Why is this so? Why the blind, and not the deaf mute, or any other group of disabled people? This book shows that ONCE answers these questions. The book explains ONCE'S origins, the shifting strategies that the organization has pursued to adapt to an ever-changing environment, its original goals and the way they have mutated and been interpreted, its conflicting relationship with an authoritarian regime, its struggle to find its place in a democratic regime, and its relations with other groups of disabled people. A historical narrative, the book lies at the intersection between disability and organization studies, history and sociology. It will be of interest to all scholars of disability studies, the sociology of work, the history of medicine and contemporary Spanish history.

Disability and Social Representations Theory provides theoretical and methodological knowledge to uncover the public perception of disabilities. Over the last decade there has been a significant shift from body to environment, and the relation between the two, when understanding the phenomenon of disabilities. The current trend is to view disabilities as the outcome of this interaction; in short from a biopsychosocial perspective. This has called for research based on frameworks that incorporate both the body and the environment. There is a great corpus of knowledge of the functions of a body, and a growing corpus of environmental factors such as perceptions among specific groups of persons towards disabilities. However, there is a lack of knowledge of the perception of disabilities from a general population. This book offers an insight into how we can broaden our understanding of disability by using Social Representations Theory, with specific examples from studies on hearing loss. The authors highlight that attitudes and actions are outcomes of a more fundamental disposition (i.e., social representation) towards a phenomenon like disability. This book is written assuming the reader has no prior knowledge of Social Representations Theory. It will be of interest to all scholars, students and professionals working in the fields of disability studies, health and social care, and sociology.

Contemporary research in philosophy of religion is dominated by traditional problems such as the nature of evil, arguments against theism, issues of foreknowledge and freedom, the divine attributes, and religious pluralism. This volume instead focuses on unrepresented and underrepresented issues in the discipline. The essays address how issues like race, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, feminist and pantheist conceptions of the divine, and nonhuman animals connect to existing issues in philosophy of religion. By staking out new avenues for future research, this book will be of interest to a wide range of scholars in analytic philosophy of religion and analytic philosophical theology.

A presentation of research on disability in 2003, this text provides extensive coverage on the development of thinking cultures of disability; development of the social model of disability; disability and the politcs of social justice; and media treatement of disability, amongst other issues.

Deaf adults and children, like their hearing counterparts, experience a full range of mental health problems. They develop psychoses, sink into deep depressions, abuse alcohol and drugs, commit sexual offenses, or simply have trouble adjusting to new life situations. But when a deaf client appears on the doorstep of an ordinary hospital, residential facility, clinic, or office, panic often ensues. Mental Health Care of Deaf People: A Culturally Affirmative Approach, offers much-needed help to clinical and counseling psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and other mental health professionals--and to their program administrators. The editors, a psychologist and a psychiatrist, and the authors, leading authorities with a variety of expertises, systematically review the special needs of deaf patients, particularly those who regard themselves as "culturally Deaf," and provide professionals with the tools they need to meet those needs. Among these tools is an extensive "library" of pictorial questionnaires and information sheets developed by one of the very few psychiatric units in the country devoted to the deaf. These handouts greatly simplify the processes involved in the diagnosis and treatment of people who in many cases are not good readers--for example, explaining medication and inquiring about side-effects. The handouts are reproduced on downloadable resources, to enable purchasers to print out and use copies in their work. This comprehensive clinical guide and its accompanying downloadable resources constitute vital resources for all those who seek to provide sensitive, effective mental health care to deaf people.

Dyslexia is a condition that is widely misunderstood in the world of work.

Adult Dyslexia: A Guide for the Workplace shows why small and large employers should be aware of European laws on anti-discrimination and dyslexia. It provides practical advice on how to identify dyslexics in the workplace, how to create the right environment for them to thrive and how organizations can make the transition from a framework that perceives dyslexia as a problem to one that perceives it as a solution.

Throughout the book, real-life case studies illustrate the points being made and a number of invaluable practical resources are available including an appendix of useful organizations, an adult dyslexia screening check list and a seven-step procedure for counselling adult dyslexics.

Gary Fitzgibbon and Brian O'Connor have varied and extensive experience of both advising organizations on adult dyslexia issues and providing assessment, counselling and training services to adult dyslexics. Their book is an essential resource for disability specialists, occupational psychologists, counsellors, HR managers, teachers/lecturers of adults and importantly, dyslexics and their families.

This book explores the economic situation of disabled people in developing countries focusing on rehabilitation and uses particpatory framework to community development. Although dealing specifically with a case study from Jordan, this needs assessment study provides comparisons with other developing societies. The author considers the prospect for future improvement in disability policy at a time when state budgets are already over stretched by widespread poverty, unemployment and poor health conditions. The book is divided into three parts. Part one explores disability and economic rehabilitation within global context and sets the scene for understanding what disability is and the impact of having disability across cultures with emphasis on the experience of discrimination. Part two deals with disability theory and practice in Jordan in terms of economic policies and provisions available for disabled people. Part three presents concluding remarks on the rise of disability politics in developing countries and the development of a participatory policy agenda.

First published in 1999, this volume examines the inclusion of disabled children as a category of children in need under the Children Act 1989 and as eligible for assessments of need under the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 has drawn renewed attention to the plight of these children and their families. This book presents the findings from a study of parents whose child has cerebral palsy. The research undertaken at the cost of social policy change focuses on the apparent gap between the well-argued proposals for community care and the experiences of carers. A bewildering picture emerges of inadequate services and treatments from the health, education and social services in the public, voluntary and private sectors. Parents experience isolation and stress as they explore ways to improve the quality of their children's lives by experimenting with unregulated and under-researched treatments for an incurable physical condition. The conclusion that there has been deterioration in provision for these families is a serious indictment on current social policy direction.

This book focuses on the clinical treatment of disability from French researchers in the fields of psychology, anthropology, psychiatry, and philosophy. It provides English-speaking readers with an insight into the way French authors raise the relevant issues and implement innovative practices.

Solomon's startling proposition in "Far from the Tree" is that being exceptional is at the core of the human condition--that difference is what unites us. He writes about families coping with deafness, dwarfism, Down syndrome, autism, schizophrenia, or multiple severe disabilities; with children who are prodigies, who are conceived in rape, who become criminals, who are transgender. While each of these characteristics is potentially isolating, the experience of difference within families is universal, and Solomon documents triumphs of love over prejudice in every chapter.
All parenting turns on a crucial question: to what extent should parents accept their children for who they are, and to what extent they should help them become their best selves. Drawing on ten years of research and interviews with more than three hundred families, Solomon mines the eloquence of ordinary people facing extreme challenges.
Elegantly reported by a spectacularly original and compassionate thinker, "Far from the Tree" explores how people who love each other must struggle to accept each other--a theme in every family's life.

Rethinking the Sociology of Mental Health is a collection of original papers introducing new ways of thinking sociologically about the terrain of mental health. There are more general papers about mental health and mental health policy and papers about specific types of mental illness and particular policy issues such as dangerousness.

bThe detailed study of learning disability features rarely in university courses. To a large extent this reflects the low value attributed by our society and its human services to people with learning difficulties. This unusual book, based on one of those rare courses, includes contributions from academic specialists, students and people with learning difficulties, all of whom have participated in the course. Its 'social approach' challenges the very idea of what should be taught about the subject of learning disability and who should teach it.
Learning Disability - A Social Approach looks at how people's lives are affected by human services. It covers specific policy and service issues, different aspects of working with people and key debates. The unique insights gained from the combination of academic knowledge and real life experience make it a topical and thought-provoking text for anyone involved with learning disability - student, teacher, professional or policy maker.

bThe detailed study of learning disability features rarely in university courses. To a large extent this reflects the low value attributed by our society and its human services to people with learning difficulties. This unusual book, based on one of those rare courses, includes contributions from academic specialists, students and people with learning difficulties, all of whom have participated in the course. Its 'social approach' challenges the very idea of what should be taught about the subject of learning disability and who should teach it.
Learning Disability - A Social Approach looks at how people's lives are affected by human services. It covers specific policy and service issues, different aspects of working with people and key debates. The unique insights gained from the combination of academic knowledge and real life experience make it a topical and thought-provoking text for anyone involved with learning disability - student, teacher, professional or policy maker.

Identity (Re)constructions After Brain Injury: Personal and Family Identity investigates how being diagnosed with acquired brain injury (ABI) impacts identity (re)construction in both adults with ABI and their close relatives. To show how being diagnosed with ABI impacts identity (re)construction, this book investigates key patterns of identity construction. Discourse analysis, especially on the concept of positioning, provides an understanding of the changes and developmental processes in these self-narratives. These narrative (re)constructions point to a developmental change of identity in the course of the different phases of the recovery process for both persons with ABI and their relatives, including conflicting voices from society, service providers, relatives, and other adults with ABI. In addition, the (re)construction process is characterized by much ambivalence in both ABI survivors and relatives. Three perspectives are triangulated: (1) an insider perspective from ABI survivors; (2) an insider perspective from relatives; and (3) an outsider perspective from the researchers. This allows us to see how identities are negotiated and constructed in concrete situations. This innovative book will be required reading for all students and academics working in the fields of disability studies, rehabilitation psychology, sociology, allied health, and social care.

Contends that disability is a central but misunderstood element of global austerity politics. Broadly attentive to the political and economic shifts of the last several decades, Robert McRuer asks how disability activists, artists and social movements generate change and resist the dominant forms of globalization in an age of austerity, or "crip times." Throughout Crip Times, McRuer considers how transnational queer disability theory and culture-activism, blogs, art, photography, literature, and performance-provide important and generative sites for both contesting austerity politics and imagining alternatives. The book engages various cultural flashpoints, including the spectacle surrounding the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games; the murder trial of South African Paralympian Oscar Pistorius; the photography of Brazilian artist Livia Radwanski which documents the gentrification of Colonia Roma in Mexico City; the defiance of Chilean students demanding a free and accessible education for all; the sculpture and performance of UK artist Liz Crow; and the problematic rhetoric of "aspiration" dependent upon both able-bodied and disabled figurations that emerged in Thatcher's England. Crip Times asserts that disabled people themselves are demanding that disability be central to our understanding of political economy and uneven development and suggests that, in some locations, their demand for disability justice is starting to register. Ultimately, McRuer argues that a politics of austerity will always generate the compulsion to fortify borders and to separate a narrowly defined "us" in need of protection from "them."

The Dyslexic Adult: Living in a non-dyslexic world is aimed at teachers, employers, careers advisers, counsellors and any others who work with, support or live with dyslexic adults. Using case studies and adult "voices" to illustrate and elaborate their points, the authors explore a range of issues affecting dyslexic adults. The book approaches the understanding of dyslexia through the perspective of the dyslexic adult and through examining the dyslexic "cognitive style" approaches an understanding of the lives of dyslexic adults through examining their cognitive style and its impact on how this affects them in their personal, academic educational (academic doesn't have the same general meaning in Britain where it is used to oppose vocational) and work lives. It explores the importance of diagnosis and discusses many of the contentious issues surrounding the assessment of in assessing dyslexic adults. It suggests strategies and creative solutions for dyslexic difficulties as well as ways of exploiting? capitalising on? using? dyslexic strengths. Finally, it takes a look into the future, suggesting that changes in the 21st century may alter perceptions of dyslexia and the opportunities for role which dyslexic adults play in society, and encourages the non-dyslexic world to value the contributions which dyslexic adults can make.

In the decades following the collapse of state socialism at the end of 1980s, disabled people in Central and Eastern Europe endured economic marginalisation, cultural devaluation and political disempowerment. Some of the mechanisms producing these injustices were inherited from state socialism, while others emerged with postsocialist neoliberalisation. State socialism promised social security guaranteed by the public, and postsocialist neoliberalisation promised independent living underpinned by the market. This book argues that both promises failed as far as disabled people were concerned, drawing on a wide range of scholarly reports and analyses, policy documents, legislation, and historical accounts, as well as on disability studies and social justice theory. Besides differences, the book also illuminates continuities between state socialism and postsocialist capitalism, providing on this basis a more general and historically grounded critique of contemporary neoliberalisation and its impact on individual and collective life. The book will appeal to anyone interested in disability studies and postsocialism, as well as social policy, social movements and critical theory. It will also be of interest to professionals involved in disability-related service provision, as well as to disability activists and policy makers.

In recent decades, record numbers of Jews are taking a newfound interest in their legal heritage - the Bible and the Talmud, the law codes and the rabbinical responsa literature. In the course of this encounter, they may be interested in how these sources relate to the issue of disability, and the degree to which halakhic attitudes to disability are in harmony with contemporary sensibilities. For example, can the blind or those in wheelchairs serve as prayer leaders? Need the mentally incompetent observe any ritual law? Is institutionalization in a special-education facility where Jewish dietary laws are not observed permitted if it will enhance a child's functioning? And how are we to interpret teachings that seem inconsonant with current sensibilities?
Disability in Jewish Law answers the pressing need for insight into the position of Jewish law with respect to the rights and status of those with physical and mental impairments, and the corresponding duties of the non-disabled.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203219511

Anti-Racist Practice (ARP), Anti-Discriminatory Practice (ADP) and Anti-Oppressive Practice (AOP) form a trinity of concepts, nested into one another, which have evolved in welfare services over the last fifteen years. They tend to have developed as forms of practice panaceas and as a result have been subject to both unrealistic expectations and, at times, to political ridicule. This book clarifies the distinctions between three key concepts - ARP, ADP and AOP. Critically and constructively analysing these three approaches to practice it reappraises their potential in the light of emerging equality issues in the health service
With contributions from leading teachers and practitioners in the field, Equalising Opportunities provides students and practitioners in health and social care with a clear overview of an area where there is much confusion and imperfect understanding.

Being Disabled, Becoming a Champion is an accessible presentation of current European research on the most recent evolutions in sports for people with disabilities, demonstrating knowledge developed from the field of sports practices of people with disabilities. It covers three interrelated themes. First, it covers the different facets of the history of sports organizations set up during the 1950s for athletes with motor or intellectual impairments. The second part focuses on the athletes themselves. Voices are given to the top-level athletes in adapted sports: people with intellectual impairment; the pioneers of wheelchair racing who invented a new discipline, off-road wheelchair racing; and a former Paralympic athlete who has become a researcher and a defender of specific sports practices. Finally, the third part interrogates the way support for disabled people can modify the existing definitions and conceptions of the body, of disability, of what is human, and of sports performance. This is an ideal text for students and researchers studying and working in the areas of Disability Studies, Sport Sciences and Paralympic Studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of Sport in Society.

Offering readings of a range of fictional and biographical texts, including work by Richard Selzer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Gaston Leroux, Willa Cather, Natalie Kusz, and Lucy Grealy, this book examines reactions to facially disfigured people on the basis of Emmanuel Levinas' ethics of the face. Drawing on Levinas' concern with the holistic dimension of the face as an encounter with the other's "whole person" and the sense of moral obligation that this instils in us-a sense that disfigurement disrupts by drawing our attention to the disfigurement as a "spectacle" and threatening to limit our view of that individual-the author explores how we react to the facially disfigured and how we ought to react.