Disabled children,child protection systems and the Children Act 1989

It is now widely recognized that disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse but that a number of factors get in the way of protecting them. This article discusses research on the implementation of the Children Act as it applies to disabled children and the findings from in‐depth interviews with young disabled people. The research concluded that: current child protection systems are not addressing the particular needs of disabled children; the Children Act regulations on short‐term and long‐term placements are often not complied with; and disabled children and young people have little say in decisions which affect them and few opportunities to communicate their experiences. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

'Doing Motherhood': some experiences of mothers with physical disabilities

In this paper, we discuss the experiences of physically disabled mothers. We interviewed 30 women in the age group 28-49 with medical diagnoses such as: multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular diseases, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injury Becoming a mother implied for many 'capturing' a gender or 'recapturing' a lost gender. They women felt they had to go to great lengths to 'present' themselves and their children as managing 'normally' in order to be accepted as 'ordinary' mothers. Eventually, they feared that their children might be taken away from them if they did not live up to other people's expectations. One possible explanation for what they experienced as other people's scepticism might be that disabled people on the whole are primarily still looked upon as being dependent on other people's help and care. In short, they are often looked upon by professionals and lay people as receivers, and not as carers.     

Korean disabled artists’ experiences of creativity and the environmental barriers they face

This study explores the essence of disabled artists’ creative endeavours and investigates what constitutes the environmental barriers that hinder their creative activities. For the research 12 disabled artists were chosen from a list of renowned disabled artists. The study found that creativity is the same for both disabled people and non-disabled people, but for disabled people their surroundings often make it difficult for them to establish their identities. These findings clearly illustrate that the empowerment of disabled artists through art education is crucial. They also show that social attitudes toward disability need to change, since negative views regarding disability art are underpinned by negative views of disabled people. In addition, relevant policies to advance disability art should be instituted and supportive measures to solve the financial problems faced by disabled artists must be taken.     

‘A frog in a well’: the exclusion of disabled people from work in Cambodia

Based on ethnographic research conducted in north‐west Cambodia in 2000–2001, this paper examines why disabled people experience systematic marginalisation in the labour market. Although there are no official data on the relationship between disability and employment status in Cambodia, this research suggests that disabled people are more likely than their able‐bodied counterparts to be unemployed, in low status occupations, earn less or be out of the labour market altogether. Consequently, disabled people are more likely to live in poverty, experience social isolation and poor mental health. I argue that disabled people’s social status effectively shapes their work patterns through (mis)conceptions that associate ‘disability’ with ‘inability’ to work and to be employable. This paper illustrates how geographical processes fix disabled people in their socio‐spatial place, which together with ideological and structural inequalities distinguish and entrench their poverty from that of other social groups.     

The impact of involuntary job loss on those disabled by society: a pilot study to encourage effective participation

Over half of the people who become disabled whilst employed are thought to be pressured into leaving their job. This study investigates the experience of involuntary retirement/redundancy due to disability. Three researchers who had all experienced such involuntary job loss were trained to conduct the research. Semi-structured interviews were designed and conducted by disabled researchers. The training of the researchers enabled them to successfully conduct a research project. The results of the project show the impact of involuntary job loss due to disability to be considerable. This study would suggest that government reforms to create new opportunities for disabled people of a working age are well overdue. Although there were some problems experienced with the amount of training required and the lack of objectivity, training disabled researchers to conduct research proved to be a valuable experience for both the researchers and the facilitators.     

Life 'Inside the Shell': A Needs Survey of Spinal Cord-injured Wheelchair Users in a Black South African Township

The paper focuses on the experiences of a sample of black spinal cord-injured people living in Soweto. It is argued that their lives are marked by poverty and social isolation. Both are the outcome of environmental and attitudinal barriers. These barriers operate against both disabled people and black people in apartheid South Africa. Therefore black disabled people are doubly discriminated against. Both sets of constraints prevent them from developing their abilities and joining with others to lead socially productive and satisfying lives.     

Unemployment Duration and Disability: Evidence from Portugal

This paper studies the relationship between having a disability and unemployment duration by focusing on individuals registered at Portuguese job centers. Despite its relevance, because disabled people are likely to occupy disadvantaged positions in the labor market, it has received little attention in the literature. As different disabilities affect unemployment duration differently, we distinguish different types of disabilities and shed light on disability-specific support policies. We apply a discrete time hazard model with unobserved heterogeneity to microdata from the Instituto do Emprego e Formação Profissional, which are free from self-reporting problems in disability identification. We find lower reemployment probabilities for many groups of disabled people: individuals with impairment in general functions, disfiguring, speech and visual disorders, muscle-skeletal and other organ impairments experience the more disadvantaged positions. Decomposition analysis indicates that part of the disadvantage is due to differences in returns rather than to differences in characteristics. These findings suggest that the disadvantage of disabled people in the labor market is not only explained by a different distribution of characteristics but especially by the interaction of their characteristics with the work environment. Policy implications are discussed.     

Sustainable lifestyles for all? Disability equality,sustainability and the limitations of current UK policy

In recent years, various environmental threats have been highlighted in relation to disability. Growing knowledge of the effects of climate change and particular impacts on disabled people have been highlighted by a number of authors, including a recent critique of disabled people’s ‘vulnerability’ with respect to environmental hazard. This article focuses on the issue of citizen involvement with climate change mitigation – and more broadly individual and household-level efforts to reduce our impact on the environment. These more mundane aspects of climate change mitigation, for example through transitions to more sustainable lifestyles, also have significant implications for disabled people. The article argues that disability equality is a key component of sustainability. Limitations are demonstrated in policy designed to address these issues using the example of current UK policy, and it is suggested that policy approaches to sustainability should also be a concern of disability studies.     

Representing the Views of Disabled People in Community Care Planning

The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act requires social services departments in Britain to involve representatives of service users in the preparation of their annual community care plans. This paper gives a critical account of the different ways in which the views of disabled people are sought and represented in community care planning; and of the organisational and practical barriers which disabled people and their organisations are likely to encounter in representing their views to service planners. People with learning disabilities, older disabled people, people with sensory impairments and disabled people from Black and ethnic minority communities are particularly likely to be excluded from current consultation procedures. The paper concludes that present methods of representation place considerable burdens on both individual disabled people and on their organisations. Consequently, disabled people may increasingly question the effectiveness and usefulness of their involvement in community care planning, in the light of the many other issues which are important to them.     

Exposing the protected: Ghana’s disability laws and the rights of disabled people

Disabled people in Ghana continue to experience various forms of discrimination and social exclusion. These occur despite the fact that there are several anti-discriminatory laws that are meant to protect the rights of disabled people and facilitate their participation in mainstream social, political and economic activities. As it is, the laws have not completely eroded the discrimination and in some instances appear to even institutionalise the discrimination that disabled people experience. It is important that the state pays more attention to amending aspects of these laws and putting them into practice.     

Challenging the Image: the involvement of young people with disabilities in volunteering and campaigning

Much of the debate about young people with disabilities focuses on the difficulties these young people experience and their needs in terms of service provision. Rarely is there a focus on the positive contribution that disabled young people themselves make to society. The paper describes research which aimed to highlight the contribution that young people with disabilities make to their communities, by focusing on their participation in volunteering and campaigning. A national survey of disabled young people's participation was undertaken, as well as two case studies of particular projects. The paper describes the range of voluntary and campaigning activities being undertaken by young people with disabilities, highlights the effects of participation on the young people and those around them, and identifies issues for organisations wishing to enable more young people with disabilities to participate in this way.     

‘Resistance: Which Way the Future?’ A dual-screen installation related to the theme of disability and eugenics

This paper reports the part findings of an evaluation of a dual-screen installation entitled ‘Resistance: Which Way the Future?’ by the writer and director Liz Crow. Central to the installation is the experience of disabled people during the Holocaust period, the values underpinning this neglected period of history and how this relates to understanding the experiences of disabled people today. Simultaneously, this paper raises issue with a previous comment which suggested that disabled people and eugenics are a form of ‘emotive rhetoric’. On the contrary, this paper asserts that the link between eugenics and disability cannot be overstated, and is a significant moment in history where the lived experiences of disabled people – people described as having ‘learning difficulties’, surviving artefacts, and recorded testimonies – have still yet to be explored.     

The Impact of the Housing Environment upon the Ability of Disabled People to Live Independently

The independent living (IL) paradigm proposes that the presence of environmental barriers affects critically the level of independence of people with disabilities. This study refines the IL paradigm and evaluates empirically the role that the environment plays in independent living, especially the influence of home adaptations and other housing variables on disabled people and their families. The results of this research indicate that housing adaptations have a variety of impacts upon the productivity of disabled people. Other housing issues are very important to individuals with disabilities, particularly tenants. This paper concludes by presenting implications for theoretical development and recommendations for housing policies which are responsive to the needs of disabled people.     

Using participatory and creative methods to facilitate emancipatory research with people facing multiple disadvantage: a role for health and care professionals

Participatory and creative research methods are a powerful tool for enabling active engagement in the research process of marginalised people. It can be particularly hard for people living with multiple disadvantage, such as disabled people from ethnic minority backgrounds, to access research projects that are relevant to their lived experience. This article argues that creative and participatory methods facilitate the co-researchers’ engagement in the research process, which thus becomes more empowering. Exploring the congruence of these methods with their professional ethos, health and care professionals can use their skills to develop them further. Both theory and practice examples are presented.     

The Dialectics of Multiple Identities and the Disabled People's Movement

This paper explores the issue of commonality and difference in the disabled people's movement in relation to ethnicity, gender sexuality, age and class. Hitherto, disability academics have either ignored or tagged on the experience of disabled black and minority ethnic people, women, older people, and gay men and lesbians. When they are discussed, they have more often than not been discussed separately - for example, disabled black people's experience has always been discussed separately, disabled women, disabled gay men and lesbians and disabled older women. Hence it is not surprising if 'simultaneous oppression' is perceived to be the unique experience of a minority of disabled people. Here, I suggest that it is, in fact, the experience of a majority of disabled people since the majority is not a homogenous mass of disabled white heterosexual middle-class young men, but individuals from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of identities and experiences, and to accept that their only concern is disability is to fall into the same trap as the general population most of whom only see the impairment and not the person. It is imperative to note, however, that the blame does not lie with the social model of disability, as it is sometimes assumed, for that is merely a conceptual tool. The paper discusses the concept 'simultaneous oppression' as applied to the experience of black women and later disabled black people. It is suggested that this is too simplistic an analysis to capture the day to day experience of those who possess negatively labelled multiple identities. An alternative framework is suggested to link the experience of different groups of disabled people and, hence, offer a common ground for unity in the disabled people's movement.     

The Exclusion of Disabled People from Positions of Power in British Voluntary Organisations

Disabled people are excluded in various ways from a wide range of social privileges, activities and institutions. Voluntary and charitable organisations promote themselves as champions of disabled people in their struggle for access to the ordinary choices and opportunities of everyday life. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study which demonstrate that in voluntary agencies governed by able-bodied people, disabled people are excluded from positions of power and influence, and they experience the same sorts of barriers and constraints as those with which they are confronted in the wider world. Furthermore, the development of agencies governed by disabled people themselves is constrained by their lack of access to money, staff and other resources.     

Telling about something that you do not really know: blind people are talking about vision!

In Turkey, the laws which define disability have become increasingly harsh, and require disabled people to be assessed in order to determine ‘how disabled’ they are. For blind people, as for other disabled people, these assessments have real consequences. This article aims to discuss an appealing piece that arose during a project, which has bearing on how disabled people tend to answer these questions. The participants are legally blind adults. We, as sighted researchers, asked totally blind individuals to describe their vision. Interestingly, they all answered this question without hesitation. The paradoxical nature of this question was only realized during the analysis. We requested the participants to talk about something they do not really know. This might be a reflection of our over-visualized world and might be due to our subtle prejudices. This type of questioning not only has implications for research, but also for assessments of disability in Turkey.     

Inclusion or transformation? An early assessment of an empowerment project for disabled people in occupied Palestine

Can disabled people become advocates in occupied Palestine? This article presents findings from a current three-year project. It examines the environmental, attitudinal and institutional barriers faced by disabled people and the activities being undertaken to challenge social discrimination. The article considers the project in relation to liberation theory and the struggle by young disabled Palestinians to achieve social inclusion – and eventually social transformation.     

Commonality and Difference in the Movement: an 'Association of Blind Asians' in Leeds

Qualitative research with a group of blind Asian people in Leeds indicated that issues of 'difference' were perceived as more important in mobilising disabled people at a local level than the issues of 'commonality' which characterise the international disability movement. Respondents identified more strongly with their experience of specific impairment and specific cultural identity than with their common experience of disablement. It is argued that such issues are common to other social movements and that the disability movement can learn much from the histories of Black people's movements and the women's movement. In building a successful movement at a local, national and international level, disability alliances will need to challenge racist stereotypes about Black disabled people and their families. They will need to support Black-led groups which organise separately while, at the same time, creating more enabling environments for Black people to participate more fully.