Response to Disability

Abstract

These books touch upon many important issues within education. They also explore ground beyond education and address audiences of several kinds. I have chosen to consider their implications for my own work with experienced and student teachers, acknowledging that this necessarily limited perspective cannot do full justice to the richness and variety of the writing. The two books edited by Len Barton consist of revised papers from the International Conference on Disability, Handicap and Policy held at Bristol Polytechnic in July 1988. Barton's considerable influence in this area is also seen in his work with Sally Tomlinson and in his editorship of the journal Disability, Handicap and Society. As in any such collection of conference papers there is enormous variety in the style, complexity and approach. The authors, are in the main, academics from various disciplines (notably education, sociology and social policy) and some are themselves disabled. The papers in Disability and Dependency range widely over the concepts, attitudes and practices in relation to individuals and groups who acquire the disability label. The evidence is drawn from international sources. The overwhelming message from the papers is that the usual response to disability in any society is to aggravate the condition through a complex array of negative values, controls, dependency, poverty and helplessness. In their different ways the papers make out a case for empowerment, choice and decision making opportunities. They challenge strongly the welfare systems, the caring professions and the bureaucratic administration that are built around and owe their existence to the maintenance of the disabled identity. They highlight the perceived differences between the rhetoric of equality and the practices