Righting Educational Wrongs: Disability Studies in Law and Education. By Arlene S. Kanter and Beth A. Ferri, eds. Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 2013. 402 pp. $45.00 cloth.

Abstract

Righting Educational Wrongs: Disability Studies in Law and Education. By Arlene S. Kanter and Beth A. Ferri, eds. Syracuse: Syracuse Univ. Press, 2013. 402 pp. $45.00 cloth.This exciting new anthology edited by Arlene Kanter and Beth Ferri originates in the Disability Studies in Education Second City conference held in 2009 at Syracuse University and breaks new ground for all concerned with promoting equality and justice for people with disabilities. While there have been others who have written anthologies linking disability studies and law (see Jones & Basser Marks 1999; Pothier & Devlin 2006) and a CRN devoted to Disability Legal Studies was recently established at the Law and Society Association, this volume is unique in analyzing the contributions of disability studies specifically to the field of education and education law. Bringing together a vibrant group of American legal and educational scholars who write about disability rights issues, including Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow, Philip Ferguson and Mark Weber among others, the text broadly covers three main themes. The first four chapters analyze the intersections between law, education, and disability studies. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 explore the historical exclusion of people with disabilities in education. The remaining five chapters are focused on the experiences of people with disabilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA). While disability studies is a growing field and contains scholars with a wide variety of ideological and theoretical perspectives, a common thread is the notion that disability is largely a social construct rather than a personal tragedy (pp. 4, 7). The precise contours and interpretation of the social model have been extensively debated by disability studies scholars, but the belief that one must focus on altering structural barriers that are endemic and deeply rooted in society in areas such as education, employment, and transportation unites the contributors.The volume opens with an engaging and powerful essay by Arlene Kanter on the relationship between law and disability studies. She effectively communicates for the uninitiated differences between a medical approach to disablement and a social model approach, as well as the various nuances in social model theory. Citing the seminal work of Robert Cover (1986), she also capably illustrates the importance of using appropriate language when writing and speaking about disability to dismantle discriminatory attitudes toward people with disabilities (p. 14). She provides three compelling reasons why disability studies ought to be of value to legal scholars. First, disability is an open-ended category that can affect anyone at any time. As Kanter correctly notes, people with disabilities are the fastest growing minority group in the world (p. 28). Second, disability is too often omitted from policy discussions on diversity, on university campuses and elsewhere (p. 31). While Kanter is undoubtedly accurate in describing the American legal and political context, I should note that some countries, such as Canada, have included disability as a long established legal criterion for what is known as affirmative action in the United States and it is very much part of the conversations around diversity and inclusion in universities and employment. Finally, she suggests that disability studies shed light on the values of our legal system through narratives and jurisprudence. From veterans to circus freaks to grassroots advocates for accessibility, the stories of people with disabilities require retelling. The role of the long forgotten League of the Physically Handicapped in challenging exclusion from government relief during the Great Depression is just one illustration (p. 32). Kanter might have added that the analysis of narratives of people with disabilities, and its relationship to identity and law has become a pivotal focus of some legal scholars (Engel and Munger 2002; Malhotra and Rowe 2014). …