Resources search

Normativity is a concept that is often misapplied in disability studies, especially in ‘postconventional’ accounts, where the concept is conflated with ‘normal’, ‘normate’, or ‘standard’. This article addresses this confusion, explores the meaning and use of ‘normativity’, and presents some analytic tools to discuss normative issues of right and wrong. The article finishes by discussing examples where conceptual confusions result in confused normative judgments focusing in particular on agency, responsibility and moral status. The article argues that disability research should carefully consider the use of theories and empirical knowledge in the light of their ethical implications as well as the lived experiences of disability.

The transition from school is an important period. All young people should be supported throughout this time to access options which allow them to meaningfully participate and contribute to our society as adults. Many young people with disability however have extremely poor post school transition experiences.

This report is based on the direct experience of young people with disability. The paper highlights key issues from current research, legislation and consultations with key stakeholders. It explores present and past school transition practices, barriers faced by students with disability and presents recommendations for improving outcomes and options for post school transition of students with disability

This booklet is the gateway for a training kit on personalised social support (PSS). The aim of this training course is to train social facilitators either in the personalised approach only, or in how to carry out a complete PSS process. The aim of this booklet is therefore to impart the methodological and educational components required to use the content of this training course to Handicap International’s (now Humanity and Inclusion) future PSS trainers. It therefore takes another look at the entire content of the PSS training course, explains the educational choices, presents the modules and other teaching tools created, and above all, provides advice/recommendations for future designers and trainers/facilitators on this theme. Throughout this booklet, internet links provide the reader with quick access to the content of training courses and other relevant resources

"The International Charter of Physical Education, Physical Activity and Sport  is a rights-based reference that orients and supports policy- and decision-making in sport. Based on the universal spirit of the original Charter, and integrating the significant evolutions in the field of sport since 1978, the revised Charter introduces universal principles such as gender equality, non-discrimination and social inclusion in and through sport. It also highlights the benefits of physical activity, the sustainability of sport, the inclusion of persons with disabilities and the protection of children"

There is strong evidence that participatory approaches to health and participatory women’s groups hold great potential to improve the health of women and children in resource poor settings. Disabled women’s participation in women’s groups and other community groups in rural Nepal was investigated. A mixed methods approach to describe attendance in groups among disabled and non-disabled women, considering different types and severities of disability was used. No significant differences were found between non-disabled and disabled women in the percentage of women attending at least one of the women’s groups. This was true for women with all severities and types of disability, except physically disabled women who were slightly less likely to have attended. Barriers such as poverty, lack of family support, lack of self-confidence prevented women from attending groups. The findings are of particular significance because disabled people’s participation in broader community groups, not focused on disability, has been little studied.

This paper seeks to develop a study protocol that can assess and improve the provision of rehabilitation services for people with disabilities across the world. The research targets a knowledge gap that exists whereby there are no indicators to reliable identify the performance of rehabilitation systems and monitoring technologies. The paper provides a detailed analysis of the issue before outlining and justifying a choice of methods for data collection and analysis, and the likely impact and use of the study results

BMC International Health and Human Rights, 15:25

This is the first Technical Report in a three part series for the two year DFAT Australian Aid funded project (2013-2015), Promoting the Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Disaster Management in Indonesia. This report details the mapping of organisations in Indonesia working in disaster risk reduction (DRR). The two year project was concerned with understanding the gaps between disability inclusive policy and practices in DRR and supporting opportunities to include people with disabilities in all phases of disaster risk management. The premise of this work was that reducing the vulnerability of people with disability during disasters is a key strategy to promote broader community resilience

The direct and practical solutions that people with disability can offer to community-level DRR activities should be a key consideration within all phases of disaster risk management. Inclusion of people with disabilities in DRR before, during, and after disasters contributes to the “whole-of-community” approach to disaster resilience advocated in contemporary policy and enacted by DRR agencies. This project was initially framed within an increasing awareness of disability inclusion in DRR globally which is now articulated in the recently issued Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (UNDISR, 2015), and within an increasingly supportive policy environment in Indonesia

An understanding of rural communities is fundamental to effective community-based rehabilitation work with persons with disabilities. By removing barriers to community participation, persons with disabilities are enabled to satisfy their fundamental human needs. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the challenges that rural community disability workers (CDWs) face in trying to realise these objectives. This qualitative interpretive study, involving in-depth interviews with 16 community disability workers in Botswana, Malawi and South Africa, revealed the complex ways in which poverty, inappropriately used power and negative attitudes of service providers and communities combine to create formidable barriers to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in families and rural communities. The paper highlights the importance of understanding and working with the concept of ‘disability’ from a social justice and development perspective. It stresses that by targeting attitudes, actions and relationships, community disability workers can bring about social change in the lives of persons with disabilities and the communities in which they live.

The representational history of disabled people can largely be characterized as one of being put on display or hidden away. Self-representations have been a powerful part of the disability rights and culture movement, but recently scholars have analysed the ways in which these run the risk of creating a ‘single story’that centres the experiences of white, western, physically disabled men. Here we introduce and theorize with Project Re•Vision, our arts-based research project that resists this singularity by creating and centring, without normalizing, repre- sentations that have previously been relegated to the margins. We draw from body becoming and new materialist theory to explore the dynamic ways in which positionality illuminates bodies of difference and open into a discussion about what is at stake when these stories are let loose into the world.