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"Activist Affordances: How Disabled People Improvise More Habitable Worlds" by Arseli Dokumaci is a highly valuable book that explores the concept of activist affordances and how disabled individuals create livable worlds for themselves. The book discusses innovative concepts such as shrinkage, the habitus of ableism, and visual ethnography, offering insights into the experiences of disabled individuals and the challenges they face. Dokumaci's scholarship is relevant to various fields, including anthropology, performance studies, occupational therapy, and sustainability studies. The book has received praise from scholars and readers alike, resonating with their own experiences and providing strategies to navigate difficult times. [Extracted from the article]

This article analyzes convergences in the ways that both deafness and autism are framed as crises that require immediate (and often expensive) professional intervention. Parents receive messages that failure to therapeutically intervene will prevent their children from living normative lives. We demonstrate how therapy techniques such as Auditory Verbal Therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis have proliferated to address these crises. We explore the development of professional organizations and training programs devoted to AVT and ABA and we consider how AVT and ABA professionals define "optimal outcomes" that are supposedly achieved when diagnosis is removed or declassified. In contrast to professional views, we argue for alternative perceptions of these therapeutic processes and their ostensible outcomes based on accounts by d/Deaf and Autistic adults. In addition, we argue that the (neutral) language of outcomes obscures the active work required and backgrounds the different kinds of labor and ideologies at play. While AVT and ABA experts argue that it is increasingly possible to achieve optimal outcomes, we question the sensory and relational costs of these outcomes and the way that they prevent other ways of being, sensing, and communicating from taking place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that text is in Easy Read format because scientific articles are difficult for most people to understand as it is important that there are simple texts for all people to learn about anti-ability and the title is not adapted to the easy-to-read format as difficult words or phrases appear in the text and these words are explained in comments in this PDF.

The article focuses on incorporating an anti-capacity perspective in research and in professional action aimed at people with disabilities. Topics include examines this perspective breaks with the process of oppression experienced by people with disabilities throughout history and incorporates the political struggle of this social group for the guarantee of human rights and social justice.

How can we practice an "anthropology of disability" that is in respectful alliance with the disabled people and disability groups we study? What does critical theory making look like within the politics of such collaborative practice? What valued expertise do anthropologists offer and what do anthropologists gain? In an age of austerity and precarity in academia and in general, disabled people and disability groups struggle for survival while secure funding for grants and programs supporting graduate students and emerging scholars is increasingly precarious. In what interdependent spaces is it possible to imagine disabled activists and scholars working together for survival into an uncertain future? These questions stand at the heart of this collaborative auto-ethnographic essay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What might deaf studies and autistic studies have in common? Why, in many cases, is deafness considered to be a norm to be analyzed through linguistic and cultural frameworks, while autism is (still) seen as pathological? Utilizing ethnographic research, participation in two conferences on autism and sign language, and an analysis of deaf peoples’ and autistic peoples’ self-(re)presentation, we attend to sensory solidarities that might exist between deaf and autistic people, communities, and studies. We argue that an analysis of the two fields side-by-side offers important insights into new ways of conceptualizing sociality, identity, and community both in the specific cases of deafness and autism, and more broadly. Additionally, attending to deaf and autistic peoples’ language and communication desires and practices opens up analytic and empirical space for considering interdependent and multimodal communicative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various articles within the issue on topics including cultural research in autism, experiences and perceptions of autistic people and professional discourse.

This study focuses upon cultural representations of intellectual disability in Brazil with attention to the historical and cross-cultural transmission of professional theory and ideology in Brazil, the USA, and Europe. The establishment of special education in Brazil is compared to the treatment of intellectual disability in the USA during the same period. In both cases the local eugenics movements greatly influenced the development of educational, vocational, and residential services. However, differing eugenics theories lead to radically different practices by professionals and consequences for disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will review the different methods used to control the sexuality and fertility of Brazilian women with cognitive disabilities throughout the twentieth century, and how practices such as eugenic sterilization, institutionalization, and other repressive measures of social control grew out of cultural notions of gender, race, class, sexuality, and disability. The article will first outline eugenics practices and the vulnerability of women with cognitive disabilities in the United States and Europe. It will then trace the historical treatment of Brazilian women with cognitive disabilities. Finally, it will describe modern cultural perceptions and practices related to the sexuality and fertility of Brazilian women with cognitive disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, women with cognitive disabilities in the United States have been portrayed as sexually and socially threatening, and in need of professional management and control. Expressions of concern over the “sexual nature” of this group are still present in medical, legal, and popular cultural discourse. This presentation considers five examples (four nonfiction and one fictional) where the sexual identities of women with cognitive disabilities received national scrutiny: the sterilization of Carrie Buck; the institutionalization of “Deborah Kallikak”; the Glen Ridge sexual assault case; the sterilization of Cindy Wasiek; and the movie “The Other Sister.” These examples reveal that implicit cultural assumptions (modern fairy tales) about the sexuality and fertility of women with cognitive disabilities are embedded in United States history, and still very much in evidence today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface mining often requires storage of topsoil in large piles for long periods of time (1–30 years). Such soil handling and storage results in physical and biogeochemical changes and may alter the soil biological integrity. Microbial activity regulates nutrient cycling and soil quality, and post-mining revegetation of most native forb species in the Northern Great Plains relies on a viable seedbank. Soil condition and biological viability influence the establishment and success of the aboveground plant community, and therefore should be considered in facilitating successful reclamation. In this study, we characterized soil biological integrity via the seed bank and microbial community structure in a topsoil stockpile (depths of 15 cm–750 cm). We measured microbial community structure using phospholipid fatty acid analysis and assessed the seed bank using the seedling emergence method under greenhouse conditions. We hypothesized with increasing depth, soil biota would decrease in abundance and perhaps exhibit a shift in community structure, and stockpiled soils would display different communities compared to an undisturbed reference site. Further, we hypothesized the soil seedbank would decrease with increasing depth and be less than the reference site. We found distinct shifts in microbial communities in terms of community structure and declines in overall abundance of organisms with increased depth using principal component analysis. Furthermore, overall microbial abundance within the top 15 cm of stockpiled soil was nearly one third less than our native undisturbed reference site, and soil at depth was increasingly depleted. Total seedling emergence from soil collected at all depths of the stockpile was lower (20 viable seeds) compared to the reference soil emergence (36 viable seeds). Our results demonstrate that stockpiling greatly affects soil microbial communities and that stockpiled topsoil is not a dependable source for forb seeds. Reclamation may require forb seeding and soil amendments to facilitate whole-system restoration. • Stockpiling soil is a common strategy used in large-scale disturbances. • Abundance and structure of the soil microbial community was affected by stockpiling. • The soil seedbank is not a reliable source of native vegetation. • Microbial processes and plant-soil relationships may be altered by stockpiling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an introduction to several articles in the Spring 2002 issue of the periodical "Sexuality and Disability". Barriers to sexuality and fertility.

Assistive technologies (AT) perform an important social role, interacting with cultural systems to produce or hinder accessibility to biosocial environments. This interaction profoundly shapes not only how an individual body can be experienced by users but also produce and hinder accessibility to biosocial environments. AT users have historically been viewed through a medical model, which deems them disabled by their impairments and by dominant ableist narratives. Therefore, this paper serves to provide an insight into the importance of ageing with and into AT. This paper aims to investigate polio survivors' and diabetic amputees' experiences of assistive technologies in order to better understand impacts upon narrative and identity. By applying an anthropological and sociological lens, a holistic view of the experiences of polio survivor and amputee AT users is developed. This paper draws on 16 in-depth interviews with polio survivors and diabetic amputees in the United States (US) and Australia, which were analysed using an experience-centered narrative approach. Both projects were approved by ethics boards. All participants provided written consent. Five themes were identified: a) disruption to biographies, which reflected AT impact on how narratives become altered; b) impacts to autonomy, which reflected the importance of regaining previous daily activities; c) re-engaging with community life, which highlighted how AT supported participation in valued activities; d) self-perceptions of assistive technologies, which act in opposition to external perspectives and challenge ableist narratives; and e) an intergenerational comparison of new and older AT users highlights the importance of temporalities. This paper offers new perspectives on ageing with assistive technologies, with a focus on identity and narrative. The importance of this paper is to contribute to the existing literature that demonstrates the cultural implications that arise through embodiment and assistive technologies. The use of assistive technology can help individuals regain function, but the individual circumstances require consideration The use of assistive technology is a complex entanglement of bodies, environments, biographies, and imagined futures. The use of assistive technology can provide participants autonomy over their narratives and assist with maintaining their identities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the importance of community-based, disability-specific exercise opportunities for people with disabilities. Health and fitness professionals must be educated and community fitness centers must be made more accessible. People with disabilities must also be educated about the types of community-based adaptive exercise opportunities available.

Fatigue and quality of life are significant concerns in adult multiple sclerosis (MS) but little is known about these factors in pediatric MS. The present investigation evaluates fatigue and quality of life in 51 pediatric MS patients to determine the rate of fatigue and reduced quality of life and assesses the relations between these variables and clinical factors. Fatigue and quality of life were assessed by self- and parent-report via the PedsQL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale and the PedsQL Quality of Life Scale. One-sample t-tests determined if scores were below published data for healthy individuals. Moreover, scores falling one standard deviation from norms were considered mildly affected, with severe difficulties being defined as scores falling two or more standard deviations from norms. Associations between self- and parent-reported difficulties and clinical factors were examined via Pearson correlation analyses. In comparison with healthy samples, pediatric MS patients reported greater difficulties with respect to fatigue, sleep, cognition, physical limitations, and academics. In addition to significant difficulties on these factors, parents reported problems with respect to emotional functioning, and tended to report greater fatigue, sleep, and cognitive difficulties than were self-reported. Expanded Disability Status Scale score was the only neurologic variable significantly related to fatigue or quality of life scores. Fatigue was significantly correlated with reports of sleep difficulties, cognitive problems, and quality of life variables. These findings suggest that fatigue and poorer quality of life is a clear concern in pediatric MS, and is related to overall physical disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]