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Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a very common physical head injury that happens in an instant. These injuries can inaugurate a wide range of long-term impairments that vary widely between those that survive them. Using a blend of social scientific and contemporary Disability Studies theory, this paper traces how moderate-to-severe TBIs become disabilities through the daily lives and interactions of survivors, those closest to them, and their wider communities. The complex, shifting, and contextually dependent nature of what they term life 'with TBI' muddies and multiplies the acronym's original construction as a simple and knowable injury. The resulting confusion inaugurates a feedback loop between survivors' bodies and socialities that ultimately constitutes the injury as a complexly embodied disability. This process helps to productively expand the definition of disability to include other more complex and invisible conditions like TBI. This research studies a distinct kind of disability ("Traumatic Brain Injury") from a social perspective that has rarely been investigated. Disabilities like Traumatic Brain Injury affect and are changed by the social contexts, lives, and interactions of the disabled with those around them. Those that survive Traumatic Brain Injuries may not share any bodily or mental impairments, but they embody and perform the same disability. Traumatic Brain Injury is different across the individual, social, and political levels. This paper presents how those who may not fit within traditional definitions of disability can still be disabled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One central aim of disability studies is to shift understandings of disability, such that disability comes to be understood as about the social disadvantage/oppression that people face when society does not cater to impairment of body/mind. Nevertheless, there remains a need for more practical tools for disability advocacy, through which to transmit disability studies' ideas of disability to the general community. Drawing on a qualitative study of the perspectives of 23 people with physical and sensory impairments, this paper proposes virtual reality as an advocacy tool to communicate the principles and beliefs of disability studies. The findings highlight that, due to the nature of the technology, participants feel virtual reality has clear potential as a disability advocacy tool that can facilitate empathy, perspective-taking and positive social change, with a particular focus on how it is the environmental barriers and social attitudes around people that disables them. More practical advocacy or informal education tools are needed that align with the principles of disability studies. This research conducted in-depth interviews with 23 people with physical and sensory impairments. The research finds that virtual reality has clear potential as a disability advocacy tool. The participants reported that virtual reality can facilitate empathy, perspective-taking and positive social change. The research finds that virtual reality focuses on how environmental barriers and social attitudes around people with disability disable them, rather than focusing on impairment experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and critically discusses a disability awareness program that was addressed to non-disabled children aged between 6-8 years old in Cyprus. The main aims were to explore how disability studies and anti-oppressive pedagogies could inform decisions on structured activities and materials to support children understand disability as condition of life, and recognize disabling practices. Artefacts from children's work and narratives are presented throughout the paper to inform decisions and choices in relation to the program. The discussion draws on international literature and critically examines: a. how disability feminists' focus on experiences of disability can have a central place in awareness raising programs, and can be further strengthened by a social model understanding of disability, b. the local context and the use of language as raised by postmodernists/poststructuralists, and c. the use of cartoons as a form of art that can help recognize and challenge dominant disability stereotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract \nPoints of interest This paper analyses the impact of disability on the social identities of siblings of young people and adults with cognitive disabilities. The main aim is to empirically support the concept of ‘disability by association’, which refers to the attribution of an associative identity due to the presence of a disabled member in the family. Evidence is drawn from a qualitative study, made up of 32 in-depth interviews and two focus groups with siblings without disabilities. The results confirmed the impact of interactive effects on the lives and behaviours of the interviewees. The internalisation of the oppression experienced by siblings, even in the absence of actual negative incidents, limits their social life experience and identity construction. Although the siblings develop non-medical representations of disability and impairment, this conceptual repertoire is not strong enough to challenge devalued images of cognitive disability. Siblings’ points of view are underdeveloped, while most studies focused on parents’ perspectives. The research found that siblings have different views on disability and impairment than parents. Siblings may experience stigma and exclusion due to their brothers and sisters’ disability. The research recommended that siblings’ difficulties and needs be taken into account when talking about the experience of disability within families. Siblings’ points of view are underdeveloped, while most studies focused on parents’ perspectives.The research found that siblings have different views on disability and impairment than parents.Siblings may experience stigma and exclusion due to their brothers and sisters’ disability.The research recommended that siblings’ difficulties and needs be taken into account when talking about the experience of disability within families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education has often been fronted as the panacea in the education of disabled children. Governments have made efforts for disabled children to access schools with their nondisabled counterparts. However, inclusive education should go beyond the mere presence of disabled children in mainstream schools to the participation and achievement of such children. This paper uses the theoretical approach of Disability Studies in Education to explore the extent that the traditional schooling system is willing to go in the pursuit of inclusive education for disabled learners. Can the schooling system change from the current cohort based model to an individual based model? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers guidelines for submissions to the student perspective section of the journal.

Information is provided on the submission criteria for the periodical's Student Perspective Section of articles on disability studies.

The article offers guidelines for student authors making submissions to the journal.

Traditionally disability has been viewed in the popular imagination as either a highly positive or highly negative phenomenon. Disability and disabled people deserve to be seen in an integrated, holistic way and to have recognised as much diversity as characterises the human condition. The recent case of Oscar Pistorius fatally shooting Reeva Steenkamp has highlighted this tendency. Before this incident, Pistorius’ disability was viewed in a predominantly positive light. He had been described as a ‘supercrip’ who had, despite his physical impairments, ‘overcome’ his mobility limitations and was consequently attributed heroic status by some. However, after this fatal incident, the portrayal of Pistorius’ disability has, perhaps inevitably, shifted. This paper will offer possible psychosocial reasons for this tendency to view disability in a binary way. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of the Appropriate Adult was established to protect the rights of suspects considered 'vulnerable' due to a number of miscarriages of justice during the 1970s. Appropriate Adult services are now a legal requirement in England and Wales for detained adults with mental health issues, learning disabilities or difficulties who have been detained in police custody. The aim of this project was to evaluate the extent and involvement of disabled adults who are or have been in police custody. The study concludes by suggesting the application of a social model approach within police custody, to meet the needs of service users and to avoid any miscarriages of justice. Appropriate Adult services are now a legal requirement in England and Wales for adults detained in police custody who have mental health issues, learning disabilities or difficulties The research explores the role of Appropriate Adult schemes across England and Wales in protecting the rights of disabled people in custody. This study examines whether disabled people's voices are embraced in Appropriate Adult Schemes to improve services and to remove disabling barriers. This study discovered that service user voices were missing from every aspect of Appropriate Adult service provision. The findings suggest that in order to develop an effective criminal justice service for disabled people in custody, service user voices must be incorporated to develop a service which protects the rights of disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the works of academic Mike Oliver at the University of Kent in England. Topics include the "Mike Oliver Memorial" event held at the University of Kent in England on October 19, 2019 to celebrate Oliver's accomplishments, the exhibition held at the university during the Disability History Month to honor Oliver, and his academic experiences and activism.

Photovoice is presented here as an emancipatory, participatory research method with the potential to put minority subjects in charge of their own representation. Drawing on research with disabled people conducted in South Africa, we argue that the meaning of images is often hostage to interpretations which reify untruths about the subject. We consider how photovoice projects may give rise to images that perpetuate the subjugation of their subjects, but could also facilitate an emancipatory politics of self-representation through photography, constituting a challenge and not only the discursive regimes and ideologies which underlie dominant aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses media representations of Lashawn Chan (dog) and Stevens Chan Kum Fai (human), who are considered the first recorded service animal–human team in Malaysia. The article reflects on the pair's public relationship as an intersectional, multi-framework that is relevant to both disability and animal justice. Following both critical animal and disability studies literature, we read media reports of Lashawn and Stevens' public encounters. These stories frame the pair as spectacle, threat, and resource. They reveal the influences of cultural and social conventions that utilise guide dogs as advocacy tools, as well as public attitudes towards guide dogs and their users in Malaysian and western contexts. The authors advocate for alternative representations based on interspecies interdependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popular culture of learning difficulties has gained increasing attention in recent years, especially autism and Asperger syndrome. As yet, the representation of dyslexia has gone unexplored. Here, the popular culture of dyslexia is analysed, using the Percy Jackson series as a point of reference. It is suggested that three key tropes characterise these popular cultures: dyslexia as gift, functional limitation and joke. Conceptually, the article seeks to explore the potential for accounts of the popular culture of disability to go beyond the positive/negative ethical binary. It does so by situating representations of dyslexia within dyslexia's broader histories and cultures, drawing on interviews with people with dyslexia from the UK Dyslexia Archive, amongst other sources. The article suggests that, in the case of dyslexia's popular culture, the positive/negative ethical binary does not always capture the full complexity of representations. This account contributes to emerging work on learning difficulties and popular culture, focusing on dyslexia in western popular culture. This account of dyslexia and popular culture focuses, in particular, on one of the most popular representations to feature a character with dyslexia: Percy Jackson. Representations of dyslexia fall into three significant tropes: dyslexia as gift and/or functional limitation and/or joke. Representations of dyslexia often exceed straightforward conceptualisations as either ethically positive or negative. This account calls for future research on the representation of disability to move beyond the positive/negative ethical binary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this process-oriented article, the authors weave short personal narratives with theoretical reflections to examine the relationship between Disability Studies scholarship and parenting children with disabilities. The authors present three findings: first, their position as parent-teacher-scholars informs their work in Disability Studies. Second, the work of Disability Studies scholars has the potential to positively influence parents' understandings of disability; consequently, Disability Studies-informed parenting can influence parent advocacy for their children. Third, parent-scholars have the potential to create research that can positively impact parents, practitioners, and the field of Disability Studies. The authors conclude by arguing that there is a need for Disability Studies scholarship for and by parents. This work is significant because it challenges divisions between theory and practice, and articulates a need and responsibility for parents to grapple with alternative understandings of disability and alternative (collective) ways to create better social conditions for their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This disability studies in education informed study unpacks effects of neoliberal reforms on students with disabilities in New York City schools. These reforms proliferated small themed schools, dismantled many large schools, and required students to apply to high school. This multi-site case study researched two high schools, one large and one small, with data from interviews and document review. Findings reveal how reforms forced large schools to accept many marginalized students with disabilities, while small schools employed tactics to avoid accepting many students with disabilities seen as having intensive needs. Finally, contextual analysis reveals how larger city politics perpetuated segregative ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides findings of a qualitative study exploring the interactions of eight Deaf participants and one hearing ally with the justice system in Northern Ireland, where the Disability Discrimination Act requires solicitors to make 'reasonable adjustments' in order to provide effective access to Deaf clients. Three thematic categories emerged: (a) barriers to accessing justice, (b) work Deaf people do for access, and (c) the need to educate solicitors about access. A central strain ran through these themes: the idea that 'reasonable adjustment' must reflect the value of sign language interpreters in facilitating effective communication access for all the parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I address how the history of intellectual disability politics is made sense of in social scientific research and popular discourse. In particular, I discuss the construction of a narrative break between a past of institutionalisation and the present policies of citizenship. By drawing on how postcolonial theorists criticise common ideas about decolonisation, I argue that this narrative impedes our appreciation of how power has transformed, rather than disappeared, after deinstitutionalisation. Instead, I propose 'postinstitutionalisation' as a name for the present era of intellectual disability politics, suggesting that we need to attend to continuities and discontinuities of how the group is governed; how paternalism lives on after deinstitutionalisation and how the goals of citizenship inclusion give rise to new technologies of government. I conclude the article by discussing the necessity and the dangers of involving people with intellectual disabilities in the analysis of post-institutional government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers submission guidelines for the current issues section of the journal.

Information is provided on the submission criteria for articles in the periodical's Current Issues section on disability studies.

This article explores the significance of disability for social justice, using Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice as a guideline. The article argues that the disability perspective is essential for understanding and promoting social justice, although it is often disregarded by critical thinkers and social activists. The article looks at three prominent strategies for achieving social justice under conditions of capitalism: economically, by decommodifying labour; culturally, by deconstructing self-sufficiency; and politically, by transnationalising democracy. The disability perspective reveals that decommodification of labour requires enhancement of disability support, deconstruction of self-sufficiency requires valorisation of disability-illuminated interdependence, and transnationalisation of democracy requires scrutiny of the transnational production of impairments. The article discusses each of these strategies in theoretical and practical terms by drawing on disability studies and Fraser’s analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article announces it will publish completed theses in the field of disability studies and provides information on how to submit such papers.

The article provides information on submission guidelines to the periodical's Current Issues section.

The article offers guidelines for submissions to the Current Issues section of the journal.

This article discusses the case of Anna Stubblefield, a US disability studies scholar and Professor of Ethics at Rutgers University who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting a disabled man. Stubblefield claimed that he consented, using facilitated communication. The article argues that facilitated communication is unscientific and unreliable, and that the support for Stubblefield from some disability studies scholars raises serious ethical concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over recent decades, poststructuralist theories have allowed critical disability scholars to challenge essentialist understandings of the human species and to contest discourses which divide humans into ‘normal’/‘impaired’ subjects with respect to a wide – and ever expanding – range of corporeal and cognitive traits. For critics, however, these theories are deeply flawed. By focusing primarily on language, poststructuralism shifts our critical attention away from the often harsh material realities of life for disabled people. This has led some to turn to critical realism and to effectively re-essentialise impairment. In this article, I wish to consider an alternative approach. I suggest that the recent ‘ontological turn’ in social theory has seen the emergence of new-materialist approaches – including Deleuze and Guattari’s ontology of assemblage and methodology of assemblage analysis – which allow us to consider disability as a material phenomenon without a return to essentialism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A rhetoric of inclusion and increased social spending within a global context of austerity cuts has dominated disability policies in Singapore today. However, there is a lack of academic works that take a critical disability studies view towards the analysis of disability in Singapore. This work aims to address this gap by adopting a critical social model-led analysis of disability policies in Singapore. The article examines the rhetoric of inclusion, how disability is defined and its implementation through various policies in Singapore. It will examine the underpinnings of disability in Singapore today and its impact on the lives of disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The following short article traces my journey towards a better understanding of disability in my personal and professional life. I argue that context, professional cultures and changing theories of disability have all intersected in my journey to this fuller understanding. In turn this provides me with a better theoretical and professional tool kit with which to grasp disability and the lives of Maltese disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mad Studies is emerging as a new force in ‘mental health’ discourse and developments. Given the way in which other would-be progressive developments associated with attempts to include experimental knowledge in this field, such as ‘recovery’ and ‘peer support’, have been subverted, this article considers whether it is possible for Mad Studies to avoid this. Drawing on developments in Disability Studies and in relation to the social model of disability, we explore what can be done in order to safeguard the distinctiveness of Mad Studies and foster its unique contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research about siblings where one has a disability has historically focused on the psychological outcomes of siblings of people with disabilities and has very rarely asked people with disabilities about their sibling relationships. This research focus represents the common individualizing approach and under-representation of people with disabilities that disability studies has argued against. Tracing the history of research about siblings and disability through de/institutionalization and towards current broader theories in disability studies, this article suggests that a range of disability studies perspectives can usefully de-individualize and expand research about siblings where one has a disability. Through examples of how materialist, feminist and inclusive perspectives can be applied to open up research about siblings and disability, the article argues that viewing siblinghood through the range of disability studies perspectives has the potential to expand this research field and represent new facets of siblings’ identities and lives together. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]