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.

Contents:
Contents 1. Introduction 2. Researching the Interface 3. Greenways Leisure Centre: Issues, Identities and Impairment Factors 4. Being a Researcher 5. Being a Consultant 6. Being a Member of Staff 7. Being a Friend 8. Being a Woman 9. Being White 10. Being a Body 11. Being a Disabled Person 12. Being a Oppressor 13. Being an Activist 14. Conclusions