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Success in the workplace: From the voice of (dis)abled to the voice of enabled

MARSAY, Gloria
2014

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The intention of this article is twofold; first to encourage a shift in seeing ‘the disabled’not as people with disabilities but rather as people with unique abilities. Secondly, toexplore ways of facilitating gainful employment for these uniquely abled people. The termdisability is examined against a backdrop of definitions including the definition postulatedby the International Classification of Functioning. In this article, the life experiences of apurposive sample of people with (dis)abilities who have been successful in the world ofwork are explored. A narrative approach gives voice to their experiences. Quotes from theparticipants’ responses are used to illustrate the common themes that emerged relating totheir experiences. These themes are resonated against a backdrop of relevant literature. Ifdisabled people are enabled to recognize and use their unique abilities, as well as developvarious self-determination skills, imagine the endless possibilities which could arise for themand society in general.

Inclusive learning : children with disabilities and difficulties in learning : topic guide

HOWGEGO, Catherine
MILES, Susie
MYERS, Juliette
September 2014

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"This HEART Topic Guide brings together evidence on what works in inclusive learning for children aged 3 to 12 years with disabilities and/or difficulties in learning in low and middle income countries, and explores the role of inclusive approaches in contributing to inclusive societies and ultimately inclusive growth. The Topic Guide addresses some of the contested and debated issues around terminology, labelling, and segregated, integrated and inclusive schooling; reviews the limited evidence that exists from low and middle income countries around the outcomes of inclusive learning; and identifies future research directions"

Note: This resource is available in both pdf and online formats

Breaking the Barriers: Ghanaians’ Perspectives about the Social Model

NAAMI, A
2014

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Purpose: The social model of disability emphasises the identification and removal of barriers to the inclusion of persons with disabilities in mainstream society. The study examines issues associated with the exclusion of women with physical disabilities in Tamale, Ghana, and makes recommendations for the effective participation and inclusion of persons with disabilities, especially the women, in society.

 

Method: Data were gathered through in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit 10 women with physical disabilities for the in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was also used to recruit 14 representatives from government and civil society organisations for 2 multi-organisational focus groups. Using open coding and line-by-line analysis, themes and categories were identified. Themes that emerged from the focus groups and from the individual interviews were compared and contrasted to arrive at conclusions about the participation of women with physical disabilities in mainstream society.

 

Results: Study participants identified barriers (attitudinal, institutional, architectural, transportation, and information) and suggested methods to eradicate them and foster inclusion. At the same time they felt that it was equally important to change certain attitudes of persons with disabilities (ignorance about available resources, opportunities and potential, low levels of self-confidence, and negative reactions to societal attitudes) which contribute to their exclusion from society.

 

Conclusion: Advocacy interventions are recommended, which include public education, building relationships and mobilising the public for advocacy campaigns. Decision-makers need to be persuaded to make additional policies and/or enforce existing ones, to promote the inclusion and effective participation of persons with disabilities in society.

Belonging and connection of school students with disability

ROBINSON, Dr. Sally
TRUSCOTT, Julia
February 2014

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All students want to feel like they belong and that they are valued in their school community. School is a centrally important place to young people — not only where they learn fundamental academic knowledge, but also where skills in making and keeping friends, relating to peers, and social justice principles are learnt and practiced. What happens when young people feel like they don’t belong?

 

This paper examines a series of key issues about belonging and connection for students with disability and demonstrates research that shows:

• Feeling a sense of belonging and connection makes a positive difference to school life

•There are a number of key elements to belonging and connection — friendship, peer acceptance, capability, being valued and supportive relationships with key adults

• When belonging and connection are threatened, there are several areas in which the impact is seen. The friendships of students are limited; they are lonely; the places they can go within the school are controlled; there are tensions in negotiating support relationships; students feel and are excluded; and kid’s strengths aren’t seen by other students or adults in their school communities

• Bullying is a particularly strong threat to a felt sense of belonging and connection

Does Africa dream of androids?

OKOYE, Florence
2014

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This paper is part of a broader investigation into the intersection of disability and technology in African societies. The paper will focus specifically on Nigerian cultures, exploring the social experience of disabled persons with respect to their use of available technologies in navigating a space within their respective cultures. The paper will first deal with the technologies available to disabled people in pre-colonial West Africa as suggested by archaeological and literary evidence, go on to analyse how changes in economic and cultural systems brought about by colonialism and the post-colonial state, shifted the roles and technologies available to disabled people. The paper argues that the African cyborg has been an inspiration for new technologies, and an agent of technological and social change. Simultaneously, increased connectivity has enabled indigenous technologists to more quickly share and develop ideas. It has also empowered new generations of technologists with the potential to radically improve disabled access to areas of public life. The paper concludes that as a focus of metaphysical anxieties, the cyborg has evolved to something approximating the New African, someone who can defy boundaries to achieve an act worthy of herself and the her community – an agent of revolution and social change rather than a passive recipient of imposed technologies.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

Disability Sport in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Economic Underdevelopment to Uneven Empowerment

NOVAK, Andrew
2014

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Although athletes with disabilities have integrated into mainstream sport at a rapid rate across the world, Sub-Saharan Africa remains on the periphery of disability sport participation. Disability sport, like most modern regulated sports, has diffused from the Global North to the Global South, and continues to reproduce that process of diffusion though increasingly expensive sport prostheses, adapted equipment, and coaching techniques. The colonial underdevelopment of disability services and coexisting racial inequalities has led to the uneven diffusion of disability sport across the continent, which is reflected by South Africa’s domination of African participation in the Paralympic Games. The result is a ‘disability divide’ in international sport, where the increasing access to technology and sport assistance from the Global North largely benefits a few privileged elite disability athletes, most famously South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius. Presented from a historical perspective, the article traces the origins of the ‘disability divide,’ concluding that integration between disabled and non-disabled athletes around the world may reinforce the continent of Africa’s subordinate status in global capitalism through dependence on international sport aid and athletic migration.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

Performing the Stare in Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People

CHATTOPADHYAY, Sagarika
NAYAK, Amarjeet
2014

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This article intends to explore the materiality of disability through the notions of staring and bodies, as existing in the case of disability. The dynamic interactions that flow back and forth between the starer and the staree are inverted as the scales of who is staring and who is stared at are occasionally found to be at crossroads with the colonial or masculine gaze. This problematises the stare and its valorization within the field of disability as well as its valence with other kinds of gazes. This article shows how the ‘disabled’ person does not depend upon the able in conferring meaning upon itself in a society saturated with assumptions of ableism and that claims to own the power over the other in exercising the stare, demanding a story, and using language to assert itself. It raises questions around what disability is about and its notional creation in an able society. A slip often occurs from notional disablism to a notional ableism, with both categories being the subjects of a cultural construction. And this slip indicates the liminal space that disabled subjects often occupy while performing acts in their everyday life. The setting for this article is the powerful novel of Animal’s People and its intrepid hero Animal whose life is explored in a search of some answers to the questions raised here.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

Mendicidad y discapacidad en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires: un síntoma de nuevas formas de vulnerabilidad soci

FERRANTE, Carolina
2014

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Partiendo de una investigación cualitativa sobre mendicidad y discapacidad en la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, en este artículo, se analiza desde una perspectiva sociológica, los procesos sociales que configuran al pedido de limosna como medio de vida entre personas con discapacidad de clase baja. Recuperando críticamente los aportes del modelo social de la discapacidad, se propone el uso de la noción de vulnerabilidad social, en lugar de la de exclusión, como herramienta analítica más adecuada para analizar tales vínculos en el contexto del Sur Global. Examinamos tales procesos a la luz de las narrativas de los entrevistados; identificando los itinerarios que conducen a la mendicidad. Finalmente, elaboramos algunas reflexiones finales tendientes a analizar los desafíos para garantizar el respeto de los derechos de las personas con discapacidad en el contexto capitalista actual.

 

Disability and the Global South (DGS), 2014, Vol. 1 No. 1

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