Are persons with disabilities included in the Colombian peace process?

This article follows on from our previous one about the armed conflict in Colombia and its relationship with disability. We seek here to explore the ways in which people with disabilities are starting to be involved in the peace process with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP), and the avenues there are for representative organizations of disabled people to have a louder voice in Colombia. Currently, while legal and human rights approaches are important, people with disabilities in Colombia do not generally have the resources to fight for their own rights. However, there could be opportunities in the negotiations currently with the National Liberation Army (ELN) to include a specific focus on the rights of people with disabilities.     

Disability advocacy in Kinshasa,Democratic Republic of the Congo

This article frames a discussion of disability advocacy in Kinshasa by arguing the importance of disability rights legislation for the quality of life of people with disabilities and by outlining the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s situation as a nation characterized by conflict. The author provides an overview of the recent positive steps the government has taken to affirm the rights of its citizens with disabilities, discusses the strong disability advocacy movement based in the capital city of Kinshasa, and identifies some of the challenges to Congolese disability rights legislation.     

'We Won't Go Back': the ADA on the grass roots level

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights statute protecting people from discrimination based on a disability in both the private and the public sectors. Using interviews with grass roots persons with disabilities across the USA-many of whom are experienced activists-and using other sources this article describes the reaction of the disability community in the United States to the passage of the ADA and its impact. Largely people with disabilities feel empowered by the ADA. However, a strong amount of cynicism is also found at the grass roots level regarding it. A revealing example of the empowerment felt by people with disabilities is the conflict in New York City over a proposal for non-accessible public toilets. Other reactions and developments are discussed including the possibility of the repeal or weakening of the ADA. A fundamental change occurred in the US with the passage of the ADA and the disability community will not allow that change to be undone.     

Disability, gender, and unemployment relationships in the United States from the behavioral risk factor surveillance system

Women with disabilities face simultaneous oppression in employment due to discrimination with regard to disability and gender. This article investigates the potential disparity in participation in employment for women, particularly women with disabilities. We analysed weighted data from disability surveillance programs and the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) on over 47,000 respondents. The disability BRFSS was a telephone survey in 11 states and Washington DC. Logistic regression analyses produced adjusted models of the association between gender and employment. Compared with people without disabilities, there were disparities found for people with disabilities, and women with and without disabilities, with the larger discrepancy for women without disabilities. Additional detail about level of employment is needed to make conclusive statements; however, it is clear that disparities in employment continue to exist for women, regardless of their disability status.     

Siblinghood through disability studies perspectives: diversifying discourse and knowledge about siblings with and without disabilities

Research about siblings where one has a disability has historically focused on the psychological outcomes of siblings of people with disabilities and has very rarely asked people with disabilities about their sibling relationships. This research focus represents the common individualizing approach and under-representation of people with disabilities that disability studies has argued against. Tracing the history of research about siblings and disability through de/institutionalization and towards current broader theories in disability studies, this article suggests that a range of disability studies perspectives can usefully de-individualize and expand research about siblings where one has a disability. Through examples of how materialist, feminist and inclusive perspectives can be applied to open up research about siblings and disability, the article argues that viewing siblinghood through the range of disability studies perspectives has the potential to expand this research field and represent new facets of siblings’ identities and lives together.     

WORDLESS PAIN

Current health care discussions often deal with issues such as self-determination, consumer orientation, civil rights and choices for patients and people with disabilities. Other experiences of illness and disability, such as pain and suffering are often avoided in these discussions because these expressions seem to confirm the public prejudice of tragic victimhood of people with disabilities. Various scholars have sought to reintroduce the enactment of the sick and disabled body into the discourses around disability. This essay is a part of that endeavour. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork from a centre for physical rehabilitation, this article questions the idea that suffering turns people into passive victims of their bodies. By articulating the ways in which participants deal with suffering during the day-to-day activities of rehabilitation practice, the paper seeks to demonstrate that people do not passively sink into their suffering, but actively deal with it in the multiple settings and conditions of their embodied living. Three different ways in which rehabilitation participants deal with suffering will be unravelled. First, suffering is translated in the sense that it is transformed and transferred. Second, people actively manage their situation and balance different kinds of misery. Finally, people create a space where suffering is allowed to exist.     

Social entrepreneurship as an employment pathway for people with disabilities: exploring political–economic and socio-cultural factors

The current economic climate demands more innovative approaches to increasing labor market participation for people with disabilities. Social entrepreneurship (SE) offers one alternative employment pathway. However, little is known about the broader factors influencing SE for people with disabilities. Using empirical data from focus groups comprised of social entrepreneurs with disabilities and interviews with key stakeholders working in the fields of policy, disability, and business, this research frames its analysis in the intersection of disability studies and entrepreneurship to explore which factors influence the potential for SE to provide equal participation opportunities for people with disabilities in the labor market. Findings suggest that further consideration of political–economic and socio-cultural factors is needed if we are to better understand the potential of SE for people with disabilities.     

Social work field education: believing in supervisors who are living with disabilities

Much of what is written by non-disabled authors about living with disabilities does not mirror people’s experiences or opportunities. Literature is often written about people’s abilities (or disabilities) rather than by or with people. Discourse about supervision of social work students can risk assuming that supervisors are people who do not identify as living with disabilities. This research is a co-operative inquiry into the experience of being an Australian social work student supervisor who is living with disabilities. The article extends the literature about being a social work field educator to include ability, and values the practice wisdom of experienced social workers including a current student supervisor who is living with a disability.     

Understanding pre-service teachers' construct of disability: a metacognitive process

This study identified pre-service teachers' understanding of disability as it relates to students they might teach and people they might meet in public, and determined the development of their understanding. Participants' voices were elicited through semi-structured interviews. Themes uncovered included: (a) many people with disabilities were 'hidden away'; (b) participants were afraid of people with disabilities; (c) participants lacked self-efficacy in teaching people with disabilities; (d) participants believed that people with disabilities lacked the ability to learn the same syllabus as typical students; and (e) participants also felt people with disabilities belonged and had rights in society. Conclusions drawn include the fact that in this Asian context, having a close relative with a disability did not presume that the participants would have a positive outlook on people with disabilities. Furthermore, there is a need for acceptance of people with disabilities in daily life activities, including in schools and other recreational activities.     

Identity challenges and social experiences of higher education students with disabilities in Slovenia

This article focuses on the experiences and experiencing of disability, policies of self-understanding, and the life plans and aspirations of students with disabilities. The article draws on the results of a qualitative survey of students with disabilities taking courses in various faculties of the University of Ljubljana. The results show that students with disabilities are able to reshape their identities in a way that does not consist of the disability experienced, but is independent of it, and they are able to accept their disability as the reality of life without losing their own purpose of living and life plans. This experience is a significant part of the identity formation of people with disabilities, and the social experience of people with disabilities strengthens their selfhood while also producing new responses and challenges to contemporary issues of identity formation and identity policies.     

Social (and Disability) Policy in the New Democracies of Europe (Slovenia by Way of Example)

Social transformation in states of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989 have brought about fundamental changes in the existing social policies, including also disability policies and status of people with disabilities. This changes affect the status of people with disabilities profoundly. Severe economic and political crises, reduction of social transfers, increasing unemployment - all this exerts a negative influence upon the chances for integration and full participation of the people with disabilities in social life. On other hand, however, a different understanding of human rights and movement for an independent way of life allow people with disabilities to co-decide on matters that are of consequence to the specific population to which they belong. In Slovenia in 1991, the Parliament adopted Strategy on National Development Policy for People with Disabilities, laying down guidelines for the development of this specific section of social policy. Established in the course of the same year was a governmental Committee on Disability, while in 1994 a special parliamentary commission was founded to this effect. This means that on the strategic and conceptual level, respectively, the disability problems are receiving proper attention, while a number of operational problems remain open and will have to be solved one by one, in collaboration with the Parliament, government, organisations of people with disabilities and experts.     

Siblings of People with Disabilities’ Explicit and Implicit Disability Attitude Divergence

Siblings of people with disabilities have more exposure to people with disabilities than most nondisabled people, uniquely positioning them toward disability, yet less is known about how this might impact their attitudes. This study examined siblings’ disability attitudes by determining siblings’ explicit and implicit disability bias, mapping their 2-dimensional prejudice, and examining theoretical variables that might be relevant to their attitudes. To do so, the Disability Attitudes Implicit Association Test, the Symbolic Ableism Scale, and survey questions were administered to 48 siblings. Findings revealed the majority of the siblings implicitly preferred nondisabled people, despite reporting low levels of explicit attitudes.     

Toward a Holistic View of Health and Health Promotion in Social Work with People with Disabilities

Abstract

The individual medically oriented model of disability suggests that people with disabilities seldom achieve health and wellness because of their impairments and disabilities. This paper provides an alternative to the tendency in social work to focus on the medicalization of disability without a due consideration of the social context. It draws insights from the social model that asserts disability is a form of social restriction encountered by people with disabilities and that social barriers of disability must be removed through collective action. Also, this model posits that people with disabilities can be healthy if the barriers preventing good health are removed. However, medical aspects of a person with a disability should not be forsaken entirely. Therefore, this article proposes a holistic view that converges insights of the individual and social models toward a better understanding of health issues for people with disabilities. It shows the implications for social work that follow from the convergence.     

Qualitative inquiry of sibling relationships: reinforcement of disability devaluation through the exclusion of voices

People with disabilities share a history and culture of marginalization and oppression. In disability studies, disability has been re-defined as an inability or limitation in performance of the roles and tasks expected of individuals within society which excludes people from becoming full participants in social, cultural, and political affairs. Disability research has traditionally been ‘on’ rather than ‘with’ people with disabilities. This article examines how qualitative sibling disability research has been conducted, with a particular focus on the exclusion of people with disabilities.     

Paris in Bogotá: The Aid Effectiveness Agenda and Aid Relations in Colombia

This article uses an aid‐relationships perspective to explore the application of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Colombia. It argues that aid donors were subjected to an attempt to push them (back) into a technocratic corner, and that social actors' advocacy outcomes were put under threat. Both are worrying developments in a politically complex context marked by internal armed conflict and human‐rights abuses. Analysis of the Colombia case offers some useful insights into applying the Paris Declaration, and other global aid‐policy frameworks, to diverse settings.     

The Effect of Social Work Education and Self-Esteem on Students' Social Discrimination of People with Disabilities

Social work education on disability content has become more important due to political changes in the last two decades. The United States protected people with disabilities from discrimination in community and employment settings with the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. These changes have empowered people with disabilities to become more independent; however, social workers primarily fulfill roles as case managers, and often make decisions for people with disabilities. This is not consistent with the empowerment perspective embedded in the disability movement. Most social work schools have minimal courses covering disability content. Previous research and the Self-Esteem Hypothesis indicate that social work education, social proximity to people with disabilities, self-esteem and other demographic characteristics are associated with social discrimination, or attitudes, toward people with disabilities. Social work students (n = 73) participated in a survey in the last semester of their program to assess how these characteristics were associated with their attitudes towards people with disabilities. A multiple linear regression revealed that social work education preparedness to work with people with disabilities, an MSW education, self-esteem, and having a friend with a disability were significantly associated with students' social discrimination towards people with disabilities.     

西方残障身份发展理论述评及本土化思考

积极的残障身份认同对残障者本身具有重要意义,残障身份发展是残障者实现身份认同的路径,理解残障身份发展的过程也可以让残疾人工作者更好地为残障者提供教育、康复等相关服务。本文通过梳理较为典型的西方残障身份发展理论,结合国内残障身份相关研究及本土社会文化背景展开讨论。文章认为,在西方残障身份发展理论框架下,残障者形成积极身份认同的关键在于认同并融入一套在残障社区内共享的残障文化,而在我国社会文化背景下,目前并没有一套成体系的残障文化,残障者也难以体会残障的文化身份感,国内残障者的身份认同缺少本土残障文化依靠。     

Discriminative Assumptions of Utilitarian Bioethics Regarding Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

'Bioutilitarianism', which is a position presented by the well-known utilitarian philosophers Helga Kuhse, James Rachels and Peter Singer, views the potential existence of infants with intellectual disabilities as less valuable than the existence of 'normal' infants. I will argue that their arguments are based on misleading and biased information about the characteristics of individuals with intellectual disabilities and their quality of life. By ignoring the social constructionist dimension of disability the bioutilitarians make questionable moral conclusions. Also, the underlying assumption of their position is an 'intelligist' intuition, namely that intellectually 'normal' human beings are morally more valuable than human beings with intellectual disabilities. I contend that there is no reasonable basis for viewing infants with intellectual disabilities as being less entitled to life than 'normal' infants or for considering people with intellectual disabilities as less valuable than 'normal' people.     

‘Angry,when things don’t go my own way’: what it means to be gay with learning disabilities

This article presents six poems constructed by George, a gay man with learning disabilities, who took part in an arts-based project for men with learning disabilities. The poetry reflects upon George’s feelings relating to his sexual desires, his longing for a loving relationship and his frustration and anger at not having control over his life. Like other people who are gay with learning disabilities, George regularly encountered stigma because of his disability and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer status, limiting the development of meaningful relationships, and increasing the resentment and anger George felt about life. Thus, barriers remain for people with learning disabilities who are gay. With this in mind, the aim of presenting the poems in this article is to develop further understandings of what it means to be a gay person with learning disabilities using poetry in an arts-based project.     

The effect of disability on the net worth of elderly people

As demographic shifts make the Social Security program financially vulnerable, the responsibility for income security in old age will shift from the government to elderly people. In this changing environment, the accumulation of wealth will be a crucial issue because wealth holders can draw income from assets, which can supplement retirement income. Thus, wealth (or net worth) is a proximate indicator of economic well-being of the elderly. This article presents the findings of a study of the net worth of elderly people with disabilities. The major findings were that a smaller proportion of elderly people with disabilities has assets of any type compared with elderly people with no disability; the dollar value of each type of asset is smaller among elderly people with disabilities than among elderly people with no disability; and the net worth of people with disabilities is smaller than that of elderly people with no disability even after other variables were controlled.