Marcia H. Rioux

Handbook of Disability: Critical Thought and Social Change in a Globalizing World Marcia H. Rioux 2024 edition

This important reference work maps the terrain of disability across the world by providing an overview of issues, concerns and developments in the domains of society, culture, medicine, law, policy, education, economics, and science and technology. Working from an interdisciplinary matrix, this book reviews historical developments, contemporary practices and policies and addresses hitherto unchartered areas in the disability discourse that will be significant in the years to come. In the modern world, the social and medical responses to disability have been of separation, segregation and incarceration of disabled people. These responses are reflected in practices of special education, building of asylums, medical classifications and sheltered employment. Current thinking on disability is based on the need to overcome such segregation through the enactment of human rights, as well as inclusive programmes, policies and laws such as inclusive education, affirmative action, reasonable accommodation, supported decision-making. This truly inclusive volume brings together perspectives from researchers, activists, professionals, service providers, international development experts and policymakers based in the global North and South, and particularly focuses on the voices of the principal stakeholders---disabled persons themselves. It explores the evolution of the concept of disability over space and time and identifies approaches to disability and debility; highlights broad trends on research in disability across the world; identifies new directions in work on disability; recognizes the emergence of a global disability movement and its etiology; discusses the intersections of disability with other demographic variables like gender, race, caste, and age; and historical and socio-economic interfaces with colonialism, globalization, and social development. Spread over 20 sections and spanning more than 100 chapters, this volume is the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference work available on the subject.
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