Disability activism in the new media ecology: campaigning strategies in the digital era

This article examines the changing nature of disability activism through the influence of social media. As disabled people in the United Kingdom have been subjected to acute austerity, this has coincided with a new era of disability activism channelled through increased social media participation. Drawing on the analysis of one group’s online activities and a qualitative content analysis of disability protest coverage in traditional news media during the 2012 Paralympic Games, this article positions this shift in the broader framework of ‘new media ecology’. We explore how emerging structures of disability activism have begun to offer a more visible profile to challenge government policy and negative stereotypes of disabled people. This highlights the usefulness of campaigning strategies for generating favourable news coverage for disability protest.     

Activism and the academy: losing the ideological and material battles

Abstract

In this article written in the summer of 2018 Professor Michael Oliver sought to convey a sense of urgency about the need to reinvigorate the relationship between disability, the academy and activism. In his usual clear unswerving style that is both liberating and enabling in its directness he calls upon all engaged with the journal to remember that the foundations of disability studies emerged out of democratic organisations of disabled people and must remain committed to placing the experiences of disabled people at the centre of academic and activist enterprise. He places emphasis on the original purpose of the journal to build on the social model of disability in order to produce real social change expressing frustration about what he saw as an increasing ineffectualness within the academic community to confront what is really happening to disabled people. He is forthright when describing his hope that disability activists and academics will strengthen the future of disabled people, and the future of disability studies too, by working ever more closely together.     

‘A mockery of equality’: an exploratory investigation into disabled activists’ views of the Paralympic Games

This article offers an exploratory analysis of the opinions of disabled activists towards the Paralympic Games. With the use of a qualitative online survey, the work focuses on the perceptions of disabled individuals (n = 32) who are not Paralympic athletes but are affiliated to the disability rights group, the United Kingdom Disabled People’s Council. Working on the premise that the views of disabled activists have been excluded from Paralympic sports discourse to date, the results illustrate a nuanced yet negative view of the Games to contrast with an existing, yet overly positive, academic narrative. Participants were particularly cynical of the portrayal and production of the Games and its Paralympic athletes as they perceived that the wider population of disabled people is misrepresented. The overwhelming perception in this preliminary analysis suggests that the Paralympic Games can be counterproductive to disability rights beyond sport.     

From multiple barriers to a co-prosperity society: the development of a legal system for disabled people in China

Abstract

The legal system for disabled people has progressed significantly since China’s government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 10 years ago. The newly released ‘New Progress in the Legal Protection of Human Rights in China’ has attracted widespread attention because it advocates that the protection of human rights for disabled people should be reflected not only in legislative and judicial aspects but also in administrative sectors and international affairs. This article explains that the legal system involving dozens of laws and decrees in China aims to break through multiple barriers experienced by disabled persons and is beneficial to building a co-prosperity society in China. With the vigorous development of the international disability rights movement, ways to seize domestic and international opportunities to build a disabled-friendly social atmosphere deserve additional research.     

How context influences the ideologies and strategies of disabled people’s organisations: a case study from Cambodia

Abstract

Studies of disability movements have centred on exploring how movements have emerged and how their strategies have been devised to effectively advocate for the rights of the people with disabilities they represent. However, little attention has been focused on examining their organisational contexts and how they shape ideologies and choice of strategies, which have implications for the success of their advocacy endeavours. This article seeks to contribute to knowledge in this area by studying the case of a disabled people’s organisation in Cambodia. The resource dependency of disabled people’s organisations on international development partners results in their ideologies and strategies being driven by the latter. This has not only fragmented their resources, but also made their endeavours less relevant to the needs of people with disabilities. This may act to prevent such organisations from building a common ground for collective action, and from effectively pressing for social change.     

‘We do not have chiefs who are disabled’: disability,development and culture in a continuing complex emergency

In 2011 The World Health Organization declared disability an international development priority. Yet disability and disabled people are barely visible in the Millennium Development Goals. Exploring disabled people’s involvement in development processes in Binga District, Zimbabwe, this article: illuminates the impact of cultural beliefs about disability that systematically exclude disabled people from development initiatives; assesses the strengths and limitations of the capability approach for theorising disability; and considers the role of (u)buntu, a philosophy based on human relatedness and interdependence, in promoting justice for disabled people in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Being an inclusive researcher: seeking questions,raising answers

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on three incidents that occurred in my inclusive research work. As a conceptual framework, I use Bourdieu’s call for a reflexive sociology. My reflection is informed by the principles of the disabled people’s movement, especially giving primacy to the experiences and voice of disabled people. It is also informed by the strong link between the disabled people’s movement and disability studies, which requires academics (including non-disabled ones like myself) to be attentive to their activist role. Making sure that this role is carried out effectively, I argue, entails considering the various factors that make our work possible, and being attentive to the impact of our work. It also entails asking questions, of ourselves and others, and being especially attentive to questions that would go unasked unless we stop to reflect about our work, and the possible answers that these reflections can lead to.     

Talking about The Shape of Water: three women dip their toes in

Abstract

This article is about a film called The Shape of Water by Guillermo del Toro, which was released in 2017 and won the Best Picture award at the 2018 Oscars. The three authors of this article, all friends, had each enjoyed The Shape of Water, so went for a second viewing together. Our enjoyment had been somewhat at odds with criticisms of the film, mostly made by other members of the disabled people’s community/disabled academics. After seeing the film again, we found it to be a ground-breaking portrayal of a disabled woman. This article is a summary of the discussion which ensued. Our discussion of The Shape of Water is a current issue because we found ourselves disagreeing with, and questioning, a number of complaints about the representation of disability and impairment within the film. At a time when the film industry is making noises about inclusion, it is important that we know what we are asking for, and avoid demands which may be counterproductive to the cultural recognition of disabled people. This film is still being shown in cinemas in the UK and elsewhere.     

Pushing the boundaries of our understanding of disability and violence: voices from the Global South (Guyana)

Our knowledge about disabled people’s lives is largely based on research in the Global North. This article considers disability and violence in the Global South, specifically in Guyana. It aims to push conceptual and empirical boundaries of our understanding of violence and disability. Conceptually, it argues for a social model materialist theory of disability attuned to how material barriers to disabled people’s inclusion in society and space are reproduced through processes of exclusion unfolding across geographic scales ranging from the global, to the inter-personal and intra-personal. It argues that Lacanian psycho-analytic theory provides a complimentary lens for understanding why people engage in acts that construct disabled people as ‘deserving’ of violence. Empirically, the article broadens our understanding of disability and violence by focusing on poverty, violence as a cause of impairment and disability, and disabled women’s and men’s experiences of violence in a majority world context.     

Personal Independence Payments,welfare reform and the shrinking disability category

The question of who counts and how we construct just who can ‘be disabled’ is central to our concerns in disability studies. As Stone makes clear, disability is exactly what a state deems it to be; the very malleable nature of the category has been exploited to widen or more commonly to narrow just who counts as disabled. This article will apply and adapt Stone’s thesis to current plans to revise the Personal Independence Payment extra costs benefit. Using official and disabled people’s narratives, the article will make clear the force with which new definitions of disability are being put forward. This process arguably risks doing state violence to a number of disabled people. These reforms have also used the language of independence in a way that fundamentally distorts the origins and potential of the term in an enabling society.     

The exclusion of older people in disability activism and policies — A case of inadvertent ageism?

Using Sweden as a case, the article discusses the tendency within disability activism and policies to overlook elderly people. From an analysis of a major Swedish government investigation on disability it is clear that disability policies in Sweden have come to rest upon stereotyped age norms that divide the life course into set stages, and there has been a tendency to define elderly disabled people as elderly rather than disabled. It is argued that this exclusion is partly the result of a successful endeavor to provide disabled people of younger ages with rights that are typical of non-disabled citizens. Justice and equality have been defined in comparison to citizens of similar ages: children, youth and adults of “active age”. Based on the analysis of the paper it is argued that activities of movements struggling to liberate oppressed populations may contribute to ageism, and that anti-ageist research must go beyond the idea that ageism is a simple matter of attitudes towards older people.     

‘Talking about us without us?’. A response to Neil Crowther

In Volume 22 Number 7 of Disability & Society Neil Crowther of the recently formed Equality and Human Rights Commission provided his interpretation of the current situation of disability politics in the UK. Besides acknowledging the pioneering role organisations controlled and run by disabled people had played in the struggle for the eradication of disabling barriers, he suggests that the challenges facing disabled people are increasingly different from those of the early 1990s, and that despite the incorporation of a disability rights agenda into the formal mechanisms of Government many disabled people remain amongst the most economically and socially disadvantaged in Britain. This he ascribes to the disabled people's movement's ‘ideological purity’ and failure to engage in productive partnerships with other disability organisations. Here we argue that these assertions are based on a lack of clarity of meaning and a partial reading of the difficulties encountered by the disabled people's movement as a consequence of its early success and the activities of the agencies he urges the movement to engage with.     

Achievements of and challenges facing the Korean Disabled People’s Movement

Abstract

This paper provides a critical review of the development of the disabled people’s movement in South Korea since 1945, reflecting both its achievements and the obstacles it has faced. In particular, political positions and responses to the movement’s agitation against socio-cultural discrimination and inequality are discussed. Further, three key theoretical foundations of the movement are examined in order to describe the diversity inherent therein. This paper concludes that the disabled people’s movement has heavily influenced the values, norms, and systems of Korean society, but it has predominantly focused on integrating disability issues into policy and legislation, not on changing society and culture. Hence, the Korean Disabled People’s Movement is currently facing many challenges that are major threats towards its future development.     

‘Unjust,inhumane and highly inaccurate’: the impact of changes to disability benefits and services – social media as a tool in research and activism

This article details research carried out as part of an MA in Social Research at the University of Leeds (UK). The research was concerned with two key issues: documenting the impact of recent cuts in benefits and services on disabled people; and the role of disabled people’s organisations in responding to this impact. It also explored the use of social media in recruiting research participants. Working with Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability, the experiences of 95 disabled people were gathered using focus groups and an online questionnaire distributed via social media. The use of social media to gather participants is something I felt was particularly interesting in relation to disabled people, especially in light of social media’s role in current disability rights campaigns, and a method I feel should be explored further.     

‘The invisible enemy’: disability,loneliness and isolation

Abstract

The aim of this article is to quantitatively explore the relationship between disability, emotional loneliness and social isolation. The data analysis presents a number of statistically significant findings which illustrate that disabled people (N?=?250) were at increased risk of experiencing emotional loneliness and social isolation compared with the nondisabled group (N?=?355). This study identifies a number of disabling barriers which result in this overrepresentation of disabled people. The study aims to move away from a pathological explanation of linking loneliness and social isolation to disability, in order to explain this occurrence from a barrier-based approach.     

Neoliberalism,postsocialism, disability

This paper discusses the impact of neoliberalism on disability policy and activism. The paper highlights the neoliberalisation of postsocialist disability policy, as well as the convergence between the neoliberal critique of welfare-state paternalism and the advocacy of disabled people’s movement for deinstitutionalisation and direct payments (personal assistance). The discussion is supported by examples from Bulgaria and the United Kingdom. In conclusion, the paper argues that neoliberalism confronts the disabled people’s movement with two difficult tasks: to defend self-determination while criticising market-based individualism, and to defend the welfare state while criticising expert-based paternalism.     

Precarious belonging: blindness,masculinity, and work in Polish young adult literature of the 1970s and 1980s

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between disability, identity, and productivity in two Polish young adult novels published under state socialism: Jak trudno kocha? (How difficult it is to love) and Spotkania (The meetings). How Difficult it is to Love by Jerzy Szczygie? (1976) tells the story of a young blind man who, after living many years “unproductively” with his mother, decides to study and work. Published in 1986, Klementyna So?onowicz-Olbrychska’s novel The Meetings also focuses on a blind male teenager who leaves his hometown to live with other blind students at a residential school where he plans a future profession. The two works are concerned with the processes of becoming disabled and becoming a part of the blind community. Crucially, it is productivity – the main value in a socialist state – that participates in the formation of disability identity and enables disabled men to form separate communities and workshops for disabled people.     

Application of the International classification of functioning,disability and health in Taiwan: victory of the medical model

Since July 2012, eligibility for disability benefits and services in Taiwan has been assessed based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. This study examines disabled people’s experiences of this new assessment system: does it incorporate the social model or a multidimensional understanding of disability and assess the needs of disabled people adequately? In-depth interviews were employed with 24 disabled persons to answer these questions from the perspective of disabled people. The findings show that the new assessment model is still medicalised: social roles and social participation are not considered, the assessment process is dominated by professionals, users’ perspectives are not included and only those who are assessed to have a high level of disability are satisfied with the new system while many others would prefer the old assessment system. These findings have relevance for the analysis of needs assessments of disabled people in different countries.     

Digital identities – overcoming visual bias through virtual embodiment

ABSTRACT

This study sheds new light on the role of identity in virtual environments when virtual representation of self is in support of disabled individuals and the potential impact of their virtual identity on work opportunities. It is widely understood that individuals who live with disability often experience a lifetime of bullying, exclusion, marginalization and rejection. They often experience workplace bias and discrimination. Yet, when they can create an identity and experience embodiment in virtual environments, the results can be extraordinarily powerful – even life-changing. This research builds on nearly a decade of ethnographic research in 3D online immersive social virtual worlds; seven of those years working with disability communities to answer the following: RQ1: In a virtual world where one can choose any avatar form, how does that visual sense of self-representation influence one’s ability to gain access to a social network, to be a leader in that network, and to find work? RQ2: How does realism in representation influence work experiences in these digital worlds? The results reveal the importance of choice in online representation of avatars in creating work and online social engagement. Implications contribute to our understanding of visual bias in the workplace and how emerging virtual reality technologies may open new avenues for meaningful work and social interactions for people with disabilities.