Resources search

This article builds upon existing critiques of Canada’s immigration system by focusing on the medical inadmissibility of young people labelled with intellectual disabilities. In considering how the Canadian state regulates applications for permanent residency, it explores discourses and practices of citizenship which invoke mutually-constituting identity markers such as disability and race. A close reading of case studies involving family applicants, demonstrates how immigration policies and legal systems frame the needs of young people labelled with intellectual or ‘profound’ disabilities as a burden to Canadian society. Individuals who were initially denied admission to Canada due to their diagnostic label, experience disability-related discrimination in different ways depending on the role of their perceived racial, gender, and class identities, among others. The individuals considered in this study navigate intersectional identities and ableist legal systems in their efforts to resist discrimination and win a review of their residency applications. This analysis will show that applicants are forced to work through the logic of medical assessment processes to favourably position their children within impairment hierarchies which rank intellectual disability as ‘too disabled’ to be admissible.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2016, Vol. 3 No. 2

This paper offers an analysis of the documentary film, Una Vida Sin Palabras [A life without words] (2011). The film follows a short period in the lives of a campesino family living in a rural area of Nicaragua as a teacher of Nicaraguan sign language, working for a local NGO, endeavours to teach three deaf siblings how to sign. Bringing together the critical practices of Disability and Subaltern studies in the specific context of contemporary Nicaragua, the paper argues: (1) that the film ultimately re-inscribes and reinforces the subalternity of the disabled subjects it sets out to portray; and (2) that the hierarchy it produces between its object – the deaf family – and its implied educated, metropolitan audience replays some influential (but, we would argue, politically limited) critiques of the failure of the first Sandinista Government (1979-1990) and other broad based radical political movements to represent the national popular. In so doing, the paper also makes a case for the political and intellectual importance of bringing a Critical Disability Studies perspective to the field of Subaltern Studies, and argues that an engagement with the problems that are presented by this film at the level of both form and content raise some important questions for both fields of enquiry.

Disability & the Global South (DGS), 2016, Vol. 3 No. 1

A webpage from the Foundation Center, which gives hyperlinked access to the funding profiles of various international causes such as disability, access to justice, and gender equality. In addition there are links to the annual Key Findings on Global Foundation Grantmaking reports published by the Center 

An introduction to the set of 6 questions devised by the Washington Group on Disability Statistics to collect statistics on disability is given. The short set of questions was designed primarily for a census. It has one question for each of 6 domains of functioning: vision, hearing, mobility, communication, self care and cognition. There are 4 categories (no difficulty-cannot do). The questions were validated by testing in various countries. 

“In England between 2010 and 2013, just over one million recipients of the main out-of-work disability benefit had their eligibility reassessed using a new functional checklist—the Work Capability Assessment. Doctors and disability rights organisations have raised concerns that this has had an adverse effect on the mental health of claimants, but there are no population level studies exploring the health effects of this or similar policies… Here the researchers used multivariable regression to investigate whether variation in the trend in reassessments in each of 149 local authorities in England was associated with differences in local trends in suicides, self-reported mental health problems and antidepressant prescribing rates, while adjusting for baseline conditions and trends in other factors known to influence mental ill-health”

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, doi:10.1136/jech-2015-206209

This is a study analyses a number of donors to explore how evidence-based information impacts decision making. The study aims to: (i) describe the current practices of a selection of donors in making decisions about resource allocation; (ii) identify the key factors that determine whether or not evidence is used; (iii) identify areas for further discussion among Good Humanitarian Donorship donors that could help strengthen evidence-based decision making. After analysing these three things, the study makes 11 recommendations for further discussion amongst donors 

This Practice Note provides guidance and tools for the collection and use of data and evidence on disability at a program level, to inform inclusive development practice and outcomes. It includes sections on why to collect information about disability; how to make mainstream data collection processes disability inclusive; planning for data collection throughout the project cycle; and methods and tools for collection of data to support disability inclusion

The document is the result of a collaboration between Plan International and the CBM Australia-Nossal Institute Partnership for Disability Inclusive Development. It was prepared in the context of growing interest among international development agencies in the disability inclusive practice, and the collection of evidence to underpin this. It draws on some of the experiences and learning arising from Plan’s work to strengthen disability inclusion within its development programs and the CBM-Nossal Partnership’s work to strengthen disability inclusion within the Australian development sector

The Out-of-School Children Initiative (OOSCI) aims to support countries in their study and analysis of out-of-school children and children who are at risk of dropping out by using innovative statistical methods to develop comprehensive profiles of excluded children, linking these profiles to the barriers that lead to exclusion, and identifying, promoting and implementing sound policies that address exclusion often from a multi-sectoral perspective. The manual aims to provide concise and powerful tools for achieving this goal. 

OOSCI studies are intended to stimulate policy changes and enable governments to target their strategies for reaching out-of-school children. By using a systematic approach to identifying out-of-school children and analysing the associated issues, the studies can guide education sector reforms that will help bring all children into school.