Disability as the Basis for a Social Movement: Advocacy and the Politics of Definition

Many people with disabilities do not identify themselves as disabled or choose not to be part of a politically active community of disabled persons. This paper discusses both the barriers to the formation of a social movement of disabled people and the ways in which these barriers have been overcome. The role of public policy in the evolution of this movement is discussed, as are the current status and prospects of the disability rights movement.     

残障者的制度与生活：从“个人模式”到“普同模式”

近20年来,中国的残障者数量骤然增加,相关的专业化社会服务也随之兴起,但对残障问题的社会学研究却依然滞后。本文主要通过考察现代英美社会在残障问题上的研究历程,集中探讨残障者的制度与生活变迁,反思面向个体援助的福利框架和重视治疗的“医疗模式”,基于对残障观念从“社会模式”到“普同模式”的转变进程的理解,揭示障碍研究的主要问题。在这一演进过程中,社会模式与普同模式批判“健全者中心主义”的制度建构,逐渐确立起残障者作为生活主体的理念,并试图通过连带普通人的障碍体验为策略,汇聚成制度改革的合力。障碍研究的推进,提示了各类模式,引发了诸种思潮,试图改变制度、改造社会,并转变人观。理解这一社会历史进程可以为中国应对残障问题以及化解老龄化所带来的诸多社会问题提供重要的启示。     

Integration and Inclusion: Illusion or Progress in Services for Disabled People?

This paper analyses the meanings of "integration" and "inclusion" in the context of disability services to determine the extent to which the latter signals a change in perspective rather than simply a change in terminology. It is argued that integration implies that disabled people need to be integrated into "mainstream" society and that it is they rather than society which is required to change. The policy response which results from this approach may thus be a technical one which focuses on physical integration alone. In contrast, inclusion takes as its starting-point the fact that a just state of affairs is one in which disabled people are included in society and hence the required policy response is a broad one which includes comprehensive civil rights legislation, an analysis of the effects of present and future policy on disabled people and the participation of disabled people in the democratic decision-making process. However, as disabled people are currently excluded from many aspects of society, the potential for an inclusive approach to be dismissed as being too idealistic is noted, and a number of possible barriers to its realization are discussed. It is concluded that whilst such barriers exist they should not, in themselves, provide a reason for inaction as an understanding of the implications of inclusion for policy and practice can provide a useful starting-point from which to bring about change.     

Working‐age people with disability and labour force participation: Geographic variations in Australia

To examine geographic variation in labour force participation rate (LFPR) of working‐age people with disability in Australia and associated factors. This study uses Australian Census 2016 data at Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and engages multiple linear regression to explore the relationship between the dependent variable,= LFPR of people with disability, and diverse independent variables that reflect collective characteristics of people with disability and their non‐disabled peers within SA2. While LFPRs for people with disability varied greatly by SA2, people with disability had considerably lower LFPR than their non‐disabled peers in all areas. The LFPRs tended to be higher in SA2s with higher percentages of people with disability who had completed year 12 or gained post‐school education, with higher household income, and where a higher proportion of people with disability mainly spoke English at home. These results indicate that where people live matters. Geographic variation in LFPR for people with disability is associated with geographic variation in their educational attainment and other social and community characteristics of the areas in which they live. This study contributes towards gaining a more sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the factors that influence LFPR of people with disability in relation to their local community environment.     

‘Disability is not a word we use’: Social workers' professional judgements about support for disabled young people leaving care

Disabled young people leaving care often experience a more complex transition to adulthood than other youths. Still, policy and services can fail to recognize the intersection between a young person's care experiences and disability. Drawing on data from a qualitative interview study with 14 social workers who work with aftercare in the Norwegian child welfare services, we investigate social workers' professional judgements about support for this subgroup of the leaving care population. Our analysis uses the theoretical construct of institutional logics and shows that social workers did not include concepts of disability in their judgements about support for these young people. Instead, the social workers' considerations were guided by three other organizing principles: a ‘medical logic’, an ‘activation logic’ and an ‘aftercare logic’. We discuss these findings in light of critical disability studies and argue for a more nuanced understanding of disability in social work practice with care leavers. Highlighting disability rights and going beyond diagnosis and categorisations of disabled people can challenge a medical model approach to service provision.     

DISABILITY: A STATE OF MIND?

Many people believe that discriminatory social attitudes are the fundamental cause of disablement. In this view, attitudinal change is regarded as the key to the emancipation of disabled people from the social oppression of disability. However, historical materialists, such as Abberley (1991a) and Oliver (1990), have rejected psychological accounts of disability on the ground that they fail to recognise the socio-economic causes of disablement. This article presents an historical materialist critique of the ‘attitudinal’ explanation of disability. The argument has three parts: the first reviews the recent application of historical materialist principles to the question of disability; the second considers the importance of space as a source of disablement; and the final part of the discussion is a report on recent research that has applied the materialist viewpoint to the study of disability in past societies.     

Can welfare reform make disability disappear?

I argue here that, while welfare reform policy and the disability rights movement appear to share a common agenda based on the belief that disability is a social creation which can be remedied by way of increased access to employment and social resources, their world views and objectives could not be more at odds. By demonstrating how welfare reform policy makers have opportunistically appropriated the language which frames the disability rights movement and, in the style of Orwell's Newspeak, used it to conceal an agenda which actually aims for the reverse of what it promises, I seek to show that what is being promoted as a means for increased access to a better life for disabled people could be more aptly described as a gateway to poverty.     

A Comparative Discussion of the Gendered Implications of Cash-for-Care Schemes: Markets, Independence and Social Citizenship in Crisis?

There are moves across many countries away from state-led provision of services for disabled people towards cash-based systems, which have been welcomed by disabled people as increasing choice and control over services and support, and increasing independence and social participation. However, feminist scholars have long warned about the implications of commodifying care for women, and the possible consequences of substituting cash for services for social citizenship have remained underexplored, for both disabled people generally, disabled women and mothers more particularly, and for personal assistants/care workers. This article will attempt to address that gap by carrying out a comparative literature review and policy analysis of the role of policy development and outcomes in cash-for-care schemes, looking comparatively across policy developments in several countries, as well as developed welfare states beyond Europe to examine: (a) the impact of the tensions between various governance levels, particularly local and national government; (b) the gendered impact of such policies on (for example) gendered divisions of paid and unpaid work, citizenship and social participation; (c) the impact such policies have, or are likely to have, on different groups of men and women across the life course and across different social and economic groups; and (d) how such policies can contribute to the well-being and/or detriment of different groups of women (and men) within different social, political, economic and historical contexts.     

Disability rating system reform in Korea: focusing on improving of the service delivery system for people with disabilities

The purpose of this study is designed to explore of improving the service delivery system for people with disabilities in Korea according to the reforming disability grading system. Focus group interview was conducted with public officials involved in the pilot project. As the analysis results, The study suggested it was able to provide integrated services for people with disabilities through intergraded network for public-private partnership, to be connected case management between public-private sector, to establish a unified window for the disabled to handle complaints while using the service and to be accessibility improvement through counseling visits to the disabled. Findings from the study have both practical and policy implications for the service delivery system for people with disabilities. Future studies should include opinions from the perspective of the people with disabilities who participated in the pilot project.     

憨老家庭生存状况的个案研究

憨老家庭是指老迈家属照顾智障者的家庭。本研究对憨老家庭物质条件、精神状态、家庭内部支持和家庭外部支持四个方面的生存状况做初步的了解。研究方法：选择三个憨老家庭进行半结构的个案访谈。结果：（1）憨老家庭有居住和经济收入等基本物质保障;（2）老年监护人和残障子女之间有很好的支持;（3）憨老家庭的社会保障和福利主要来源于国家对老年人的政策;（4）社会支持系统对憨老家庭的支持还有欠缺。     

Pictures and silences: memories of sexual abuse of disabled people

The article de–individualises the debate about sexual abuse of disabled people, especially women, by showing that both the sexual and asexual identity of impaired persons are invariably fashioned within the institutional arrangement of domination and subjugation. It shows that if disabled persons are seen as asexual or if they are sexualised, they cannot escape sexual violence, which is not an aberration, but is intrinsic to the social construction of disability. The article includes personal testimonies of women with different disabilities from Slovenia, who were abused either at home or in public care and shows some responses of the professionals and caregivers who minimise the importance of abuse. It claims that ignoring the memories of sexual abuse is part of a subtle and unintentional discrimination, which reflects a continuity of prejudices and hatred toward disabled children and adults in the private realm as well as in public care. People from ethnic minorities, such as Roma, are still today more often diagnosed as mentally disabled, which shows that the disability diagnosis has to be seen as part of cultural responses towards an economically and socially marginalised group. The author uses different perspectives: historical, social work theories, cultural studies and feminist analysis.     

Advocacy for disabled children and young people: benefits and dilemmas

Recent policy has emphasized the need for advocacy services for children and young people, developments that have gone hand‐in‐hand with greater levels of participation of young people in decision‐making. Advocacy for disabled young people is especially important, as they are a particular vulnerable group and have, traditionally, been even more excluded from decisions about matters affecting their lives. This paper reports the findings, as they relate to disabled young people, from a study that investigated the role of advocacy for looked‐after children and children in need. The paper highlights some of the benefits of advocacy for disabled children, the dilemmas facing advocates between advocating and acting in someone's ‘best interests’, identifying the client and the boundaries between advocacy and social work. It argues that time given to establish a close relationship with a disabled child or young person is crucial if advocacy is to be effective and participation in decisions affecting their lives a reality.     

Distinguishing disability and incapacity

This paper discusses the distinctions between disability and incapacity for work, from both a theoretical and an operational perspective. Disability refers mainly to a functional limitation in ordinary activity; incapacity for work concerns people who are unable to work because of a medical condition. Although the terms overlap, they are conceptually distinct. People can be disabled without being unable to work, and unable to work without being disabled. Clarifying these distinctions is important for policy: social security benefits for disability are liable to be given on different principles from benefits for incapacity. The implications are considered for systems in development.     

Employment status transitions among young adults,with and without disability

Employment is a crucial avenue through which young people with disability can experience material wellbeing and social participation. While the low employment rates of young people with disability are well established, little is known about the stability of employment status – that is, the degree to which individuals remain in or move in and out of employment. This article uses longitudinal data from a large Australian national data set to investigate the transitions between full‐time, part‐time and non‐employment for young people with and without disability. Considerable mobility was found between employment states for both young people with and without disability, with young people with disability more likely than their peers without disability to transition to reduced levels of employment and less likely to transition to increased levels of employment. Social background and contextual factors predicted employment for young people with disability; however, disability represented an additional penalty even after taking these factors into account. Findings suggest a need for social policy targeted specifically towards the barriers to maintaining and increasing employment experienced by young people with disability.     

Fear of the Brown Envelope: Exploring Welfare Reform with Long‐Term Sickness Benefits Recipients

This article presents qualitative data taken from in‐depth interviews with 25 long‐term sickness benefits recipients in the north east of England, UK. A key theme emerging from the research is the importance of listening to the narratives of long‐term sick and disabled benefits recipients, particularly in relation to the formation of policy responses and in terms of practice. The findings also illustrate how stigma associated with claiming benefits can deter people from accessing the support they need, leading to under‐claiming and the risk of amplified financial strain and hardship. Further, the importance of evidence that emerges from research which focuses upon the lived experiences of sickness benefits recipients to provide evidence in the framing of disability and welfare policy is crucial. Lastly, the article discusses how the narratives presented have implications for social policy and practice, alongside the potential implications for sick and disabled people themselves.     

Evaluating social investment in disability policy

Disability policy in European countries is displaying a shift towards social investment: increasing human capital and access to the labour market. The reasoning that underlies this transition is that disabled persons would benefit from mainstream employment, but are impeded in traditional policy by deficiencies in labour supply and demand. However, the shift towards more activating policies in many countries is accompanied by a decline in social protection. It is unclear whether social investment may effectively promote the employment chances of disabled persons within this context. The present research examines this question through a quantitative, cross-sectional, multilevel analysis on microdata from 22 EU countries. Our findings suggest greater activation to predict lower employment chances, while reducing passive support shows mixed effects. Conversely, measures for facilitation in daily life predict greater employment chances, as do measures for sheltered work. These findings raise questions over the value of social investment for disabled persons—and underline the need to overcome broader barriers in the labour market and in society.     

Models of Disability, Work and Welfare in Australia

In discourse around disability there has been a shift away from a ‘medical model’, which perceives disability as an individual problem to be ‘cured’ or contained, towards a ‘social model’. The latter focuses on the relationship between people with disabilities and their social environment, locating the required interventions within the realm of social policy and institutional practice. Drawing upon a small qualitative study conducted in Melbourne, this article argues that recent plans by the Australian government to introduce mutual obligation requirements for recipients of the Disability Support Pension (DSP) sit in tension with this shift from the medical to the social models of disability. Mutual obligation is based on the assumption that income support recipients need to be taught how to be more ‘self‐reliant’, to ‘participate’ in society more fully and to become ‘active’, rather than ‘passive’, citizens. This language appears to overlap with that used to articulate a social model, which places emphasis on participation in the community and attempts a shift away from reliance on the medical profession. However, examples from interviews conducted with current and former DSP recipients demonstrate that, in practice, mutual obligation is likely to reinforce a medical model of disability, frame DSP recipients as ‘conditional’ citizens and ignore the obligations of the state and society regarding access and inclusiveness for people with disabilities.     

Violence,Negligence and Suicidal Tendency among Physically Disabled Street Children

This study was carried out among physically disabled street children (PDSC) in the city of Dhaka in Bangladesh. The aim of the study was to explore violence, negligence and suicidal tendency among PDSC. To do this, 30 PDSC (15 male and 15 female) were conveniently selected and interviewed with an interview protocol developed by a step‐by‐step process. The results of this study revealed that all the participants experienced physical violence but female children were more likely to experience sexual violence than male children. Violence against disabled children came from both family members or relatives and other people. As with violence, all the participants experienced some sort of negligence, again both from family members or relatives and other people. More importantly, this study found that more than half of the physically disabled children had suicidal tendency to some extent, i.e. some thought of committing suicide at least once in their life, while others attempted to commit suicide due to the sufferings that came with disability. This study concludes with some policy implications, particularly: providing counseling to parents and the disabled children; training of the service providers who provide services to disabled persons; and building awareness through mass media.     

Diseased, maimed, mutilated: categorizations of disability and an ugly law in late nineteenth-century Chicago

The article places Chicago's "ugly" law—an 1881 municipal ordinance that fined "any person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or in any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object" for appearing in public—within the context of late nineteenth-century imaginings of disability. Drawing on the framework of disability studies, this paper demonstrates that nineteenth-century understandings of disability had little to do with the impairments of individuals but instead were tied to the status of the person with the disability. Examining the role of disabled people as workers, as bodies and as charity recipients reveals the hierarchies of disability in late nineteenth-century Chicago and demonstrates who the ugly law intended to restrict and, just as importantly, who it did not. While the law appears to be a blanket indictment of all physically disabled people, multiple sources indicate that the public expected disabled veterans, workers, and freak show performers to occupy the public realm; they therefore cannot be the intended objects of the ordinance. Instead, Chicago's ugly law was one of many pieces of legislation enacted in the wake of the panic of 1873 that attempted to eradicate street begging in general by specifically targeting beggars with disabilities.