Disability Studies Research Articles

University's disability studies faculty research link between disability and incarceration

Faculty in the Rutgers University–Newark's disability studies program have researched the link between disability status/classifications and incarceration (https://bit.ly/48ixYXp). The researchers argue that disability and special education play a significant role in the “special ed to prison pipeline.” One researcher claimed that one in every three minors arrested in the U.S. has a disability.

Who can you trust these days?: Dealing with imposter participants during online recruitment and data collection

The use of digital technologies in qualitative research has been found to increase access and participation by minimizing geographical, scheduling, and financial barriers. However, discussions among the qualitative research community about the challenges of conducting research online and, specifically, what steps can be taken to mitigate “imposter participants” remain limited. Anchored in a critical disability studies perspective, in this field note paper, we discuss lessons learned in conducting online qualitative research and preserving data trustworthiness.

The Bio-Habitus: Using Pain Science to Reconstruct Bourdieusian Theory

Habitus is society inscribed on the body, but Bourdieu does not explore how biological processes interact with habitus, namely, how action flows from a bio-habitus. I engage pain science to illustrate this point. First, I document how dispositions—specific components of habitus—mediate pain both before and after its onset. Second, I explain how pain alters cognition and affect, an interaction I contend inhibits the habitus. Far from placing the biological over the social, my discussion illustrates how the two are inseparable, a unity underlined by the term bio-habitus. I demonstrate how this concept intervenes in Bourdieusian debates over social reproduction and how the biological inhibition of habitus compares to work on hysteresis. I end by discussing resonances with and implications for disability studies.

Factors associated with cam deformity in Japanese local residents

Femoroacetabular impingement has increasingly been recognized as a cause of primary hip osteoarthritis; however, its epidemiological indications remain unclear. We aimed to clarify the epidemiological indications and factors associated with cam deformity in a large-scale population-based cohort in Japan. Overall, 1480 participants (2960 hips) (491 men, 989 women; mean age, 65.3 years) analyzed in the third survey of the Research on Osteoarthritis/Osteoporosis Against Disability study were included. The α angle and spinopelvic parameters (lumbar lordosis, sacral slope, pelvic tilt, and pelvic incidence) were radiographically measured. Cam deformity was defined as α angle ≥ 60°. Overall, the cam deformity prevalence was 147/2960 (5.0%). Cam deformity prevalence tended to increase with age; in the univariate analysis, a higher percentage of men was observed in the group with cam deformity than in the group without it. No relationship was observed between cam deformity and hip pain. Factors associated with α angle were examined via multiple regression analysis for each gender; α angle was significantly associated with age and BMI in each gender. The α angle and PT were correlated in women. Thus, α angle and cam deformity prevalence increase with age in Japanese individuals. Accordingly, cam deformity can be considered a developmental disease.

Expanding the quality of life paradigm: Contributions from the field of disability studies

AbstractThis article considers the contributions from the field of Disability Studies to the conceptualization of Quality of Life (QOL) for people labelled with Intellectual Disability (ID). We suggest four elements from the field of Disability Studies that may be incorporated into an evolving QOL paradigm. The first element concerns the meaning of disability itself. Those working in contemporary Disability Studies identify societal obstacles and points of inaccessibility as sources of disablement while also recognizing the experience of difference. We suggest this understanding of disability as an interaction between a person and the social world/environment may be included more explicitly in QOL conceptualization. A responsive and adaptable definition of disability in the QOL paradigm is recommended. The second element is the recognition of relationality. The field of contemporary disability studies challenges the value of considering a person's disability as a solitary medical experience and questions the goals of independence, instead considering the value in interdependence and community. This could be included in the QOL paradigm by further emphasizing the importance of relationships and contributions of those labelled with ID. The third element is participatory design and epistemic justice, making space for people labelled with ID to contribute to research and direct the course of their own lives and supports. This element of self‐determination is important to QOL but an increase in participatory research, service, and support design in the field is recommended. The final element is intersectionality, the idea that the experience of disability must be understood in the context of other points of identity or marginalization such as race, gender, and sexuality. We recommend that the QOL paradigm should allow for these additional elements to be included in further design and research in the field.

A Sibling’s Sense of Self

It is commonly viewed that siblings of those with disabilities are positioned as caregivers and tasked to support their sibling with a disability. Family members of those with disabilities are particularly viewed as impacted heavily by the burden of care placed on them. However, truth be told, there are many influential and positive attributes that are acquired by one’s upbringing and living with a family member who has a disability. Typically overlooked by researchers in the field, there are dismissed perceptions of family members that should be accounted for. Further, individuals who have grown up alongside of members of their family with a disability have unique perceptions that influence their self-perceptions and ways of living. This study found that an individual with a sibling with a disability has experienced in childhood up to current time circumstantial practices relative to their family position which influence the way they currently carry and perceive themselves. Further indicated in this study is the importance of family relationships, dynamics and stability in support of the care to the sibling with a disability. Particular qualities and characteristics are highlighted in this study to showcase the intricate yet complex lives of individuals with siblings who have disabilities. Proven is the need for augmented initiatives and enhanced supports to address gaps and needs among individual family members who are related to someone with a disability. The objective of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals perceive themselves based on their experiences growing up with a family member who identifies as having a disability. The aim was to investigate the perceived experiences of these individuals and their reflections on their personal identities and sense of perception. A total of 10 individuals over the age of 18 who have siblings with disabilities from across Ontario, Canada completed virtual or in-person interviews. To reflect participants' upbringing, current experiences, and anticipated future roles within their families, themes naturally surfaced and were identified as means to represent consistent data responses. In general, the findings revealed a range of experiences that impact their sense of self and family responsibilities. Many unique and positive perceptions of self were conveyed by participants in reference to their lived experiences. This study fills gaps in disability studies by highlighting the positive outcomes of sibling relationships and the unique lived experiences of individuals who have siblings with disabilities. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing an individuals’ experiences and stories relative to having a sibling with a disability.

From Inculcation to Liberation: Pop Culture-Addled Snipers in Clint Eastwood's American Sniper and Alba Sotorra's Game Over

Clint Eastwood's American Sniper (2014) and Alba Sotorra's Game Over (2015) explore the inculcating pull of pop myths on soldiers. Eastwood's biopic focuses on Chris Kyle, American military history’s most lethal sniper. Sotorra's documentary Game Over considers Djalal, an Iranian Catalan youth who moves from being an America-idolizing gamer to a sniper in Afghanistan. Initially, they see themselves as Western cowboys and perfect soldiers. War, however, leaves them disillusioned and traumatized. Via distinct generic formats (documentary v. feature film) and nationally determined political frameworks (US v. Spain), they ask: can mythologies fueling the post-9/11 war machine empty it of its force? Mobilizing postcolonial, disability, and trauma studies, this comparative analysis theorizes how objects of soft power can both harden a soldier’s mind and liberate it from the battlefield’s thrall. Ultimately, the article reveals contrasting, potentially limited strategies subjects across cultures deploy to break the hold of American visions of power.

A Material Culture of Medieval Disability: Contextualising Norwegian Votive Offerings

In this paper, the potential for material culture studies within the history of disability is explored through a study of preserved anatomical votives from medieval Norway left in connection with miraculous healing practices. The Norwegian votives, which include wooden body parts of hands, arms, finger, feet and legs as well as mobility aids, are here related to the lived experience of the physically impaired. Anatomical votives have been interpreted as meaningful depictions of how an individual conceptualised the body part in question, which they sought healing for. Through a posthumanist approach, anatomical votives can, however, not only be seen as solely representational of a body part but as material extensions of the body. Preserved mobility aids, here identified as hand-trestles and a knee-brace, provide insight into the availability of aids for individuals with lower limb impairments in the medieval North. The study of the material culture of disability can elucidate cultural notions of disability in relation to physical impairment. While written miracle accounts have been identified as important sources for the study of medieval disability, their associated material culture is here presented as important data for the embodied experience of the physically impaired in medieval Norway.

Cocaine Cowboys: Visualizing Aging Masculinities in Galician Narco Noir

Arguably the most recognizable figure of Galician manhood on screen today is the aging drug kingpin, as the burgeoning cinematic genre of Galician narco noir exposes global audiences to Galicia’s key role as a gateway for the steady flow of cocaine into Europe. This article engages with current debates in aging, masculinities and disability studies to examine the depiction of the elderly male drug lords in two recent works pertaining to the Galician narco noir genre; Nemo Bandeira, protagonist of the series Vivir sin permiso (2018–2020), based on a short story by Manuel Rivas, and Antonio Padín from the film Quien a hierro mata (2019), a Galician-Spanish co-production directed by Paco Plaza. It is argued that the intersection of aging masculinities with illness and disability in the representation of older drug lords perpetuates but also renegotiates preconceptions about Galician manhood, reflecting broader issues relating to the representation and commodification of gender, age, illness, disability, and power in popular culture. In the context of the stereotypically “masculine” sphere of organized crime, analysis of how the older male demographic is represented in noir brings insight into the construction of Galician identities on screen more generally, signaling to perceptions of the wider societal impact of crime, corruption, and impunity in Galician society.

Blindness, Acoustic Environing and Sensing Technologies (ca. 1950-1980)

This article approaches the intersecting histories of blindness (Koestler 1967) and ultrasound by questioning the specific environments and filtering processes enacted through electronic travel aids. I propose to question ultrasound technologies as epistemic filtering techniques and environmental production frameworks situated at the crossroads of different and diverging interests of military, social, scientific and economic and cultural endeavours. Non-innocent devices such as the travel aids and related practices aim to filter physical-spatial relations, thereby transducing acoustic-spatial or visual scenarios in order to render relevant structures and objects recognizable. In the second half of the 20th century, the production of such filter-based ultrasound environments was disseminated into heterogeneous fields such as medicine, automobility, robotics as well as assistive technologies for disabled people. The article traces trajectories of ultrasound knowledges that culminated in ETA in physics (sonar), biology (bat sensing) and experimental psychology (blind(folded) echolocation). The article elaborates on and extends works in the media history of technology and critical disability studies. Scrutinizing techniques of hearing (Schillmeier, Stock and Ochsner, 2022) and the construction of acoustic environments in the context of blindness, institutional ableism and assistive technologies allows us to complement the genealogy of listening devices and hearing aids. By analyzing selected electronic travel aids as a specific hearing aid, the article sheds light on the aspects of sensory environing, disability technoscience (Hamraie and Fritsch, 2019) and the question of assistive technology design. Ultrasound devices developed from 1945–1980 never accomplished the aim of substituting orientation and mobility based on the long cane, service dogs or echolocation techniques. Hence, a historical framing of the efforts to build electronic travel aids enables a critique of the technological fixing of a bodily variation and non-visual sensory practices. I argue that blindness should be acknowledged as a mode of existence which through its rich lived experiences significantly contributes to the multi-faceted panorama of contemporary societies rather than understood as a mere sensory deficit that needs to be treated via technological means.

Seeing the human behind the research: Strengthening emerging African disability researchers.

A pre-conference workshop that investigated the experiences and needs of PhD candidates and early career researchers in disability studies in Africa was held as part of the proceedings of the African Network for Evidence to Action in Disability (AfriNEAD) 7th Conference in November 2023. To determine how the existing structures in AfriINEAD can be leveraged to support emerging African disability researchers. This article documents this event and summarises the key findings from the discussions that took place. The workshop included presentations from leading scholars in health professions education, panel discussions with PhD candidates and early career researchers, and small group discussions on what is needed to support emerging researchers. Disability studies was positioned by participants as not only an academic exercise but also a deeply personal pursuit, requiring introspection and conscientisation, with which they felt they needed support. There are also specific ethical concerns related to doing research work with persons with disabilities, which need to be prioritised in postgraduate education in disability studies. The needs identified by participants are summarised as: (1) mentorship, (2) networking, and (3) funding. We suggest that the development of African disability scholars and scholarship requires an African ethical approach, which prioritises humanity, community and reciprocity. African disability studies scholars are well-placed to disrupt ableism in academic, medical and social spheres, as well as hierarchies within academia, which limit development, mutual growth and respect.

Research And Policy: Unboxing Difference: Cultivating Inclusive Literacy Classrooms Informed by Disability Studies

This column equips teachers with key revelations from Disability Studies in an effort to inform their conscious and deliberate design of inclusive literacy instruction.

Obstacles to Inclusive Disability Hate Crime Policy Process: Targeting the Cognitively Impaired Elderly Victim Group

In England and Wales, Section 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 made disability hate crimes legal. This advocated for increased sentencing for perpetrators whose crimes were motivated by or demonstrated hate against a person with a handicap or a perceived disability. Currently, this additional sentencing provision is the only legal option for prosecuting disability hate crime perpetrators. This thesis explores the experience and aftermath of hate crimes committed against England’s cognitively challenged senior victim group. The cognitively challenged elderly victim group is far more likely to face bias and violence; they have a greater likelihood of re-victimisation and suffer significant suffering as a result of hate crimes. To date, the voices of cognitively deficient elderly victims and survivors have been mostly absent from scholarly research and hate crime policies. As a result, the purpose of this article is to look into present policy barriers and how the cognitively challenged senior victim group might best receive support, justice, and interventions following discriminatory hate crimes. There has been little examination and discussion of intersectionality in disability studies and hate crime research. Common ideas fail to adequately reflect the multifaceted, overlapping, and complex experiences of danger and victimisation. This paper builds on studies on hate crimes against the cognitively deficient elderly victim group. It noted the challenge of categorising individual encounters as one type of hate crime. Victims and their relatives recognised that they were targeted for a variety of reasons, including their inability to care for themselves and their age. The study contends that the present strand-based approach to hate crime conceals a multitude of cross-identity characteristics that, when combined, might raise the danger of victimisation while decreasing a victim’s chance of reporting their experiences. To address vulnerability, safety, and hate crime against disabled people in England and Wales’ criminal justice, health, social care, and refuge systems, barriers to including the cognitively impaired senior victim group in the policy process are presented, allowing for targeted suggestions and changes on relevant issues.

Constitutive inclusions

This article challenges conventional critiques of institutions within disability studies and activism by drawing on fieldwork with a Catholic home and a Pentecostal school for people with intellectual disabilities in Uganda. Rather than stop at thinking about the institutional spaces of these Christian organizations as segregating exclusions from wider social life, this article approaches the work these institutions do in terms of inclusion – as constitutive inclusions, referring to the ways these organizations serve to underwrite not only the basic existence but also the personhood of their residents and students. In turn, such an analysis supports rethinking conventional Global North understandings of institutions as well as distinctions between total and social institutions.

Interview with Professor Jan Valle: Disability Studies in Education

RESUMO Os Estudos da Deficiência na Educação surgiram nos Estados Unidos da América no final da década de 1990, a partir da busca por uma compreensão mais ampla da deficiência que, até aquele momento, se limitava aos aspectos médicos. Nesse sentido, este texto traz uma entrevista com a Professora Jan W. Valle, uma das representantes do grupo que propôs esse campo de estudos. Na entrevista, ela esclarece a relação entre os Estudos sobre a Deficiência na Educação e a Educação Especial, além de discutir o papel do Plano Educacional Individualizado e do Desenho Universal para a Aprendizagem na inclusão dos alunos nas escolas regulares.

Error DOI

This was submitted in Error.

Review of The Architecture of Disability Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes Beyond Access

David Gissen’s slim but packed The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access hits hard, suggesting “an entirely different relationship between the apparatus of architecture and architects in their engagement with disabled people” (139). Using original site interpretation and archival research, what he means by “different” is an epistemological transformation of foundational architectural concepts. Gissen adopts the lens of impairment and techniques of defamiliarization to upend durable architectural beliefs and position disability critique at the heart of contemporary architectural and urban debates. This is not new—the work of Elizabeth Guffey, Sun-Young Park, David Serlin, to name a few, offer penetrating takes on how disability theory can expose hidden cultural values and systems. However, unlike these scholars’ focus on designs for disability, Gissen’s reinterpretations of places for the general public suggest a more holistic rewriting of architectural history. Also, where most disability critiques of architecture emerge from other fields such as geography or disability studies, The Architecture of Disability offers the field’s first broad, serious engagement with disability. That this is JAE’s first review of a book on disability confirms architecture’s lag in treating impairment as fundamental to design discourse.

The Shifting Terrains of Disability and Gender: Investigating the Delineation of Women with Disabilities in Hindi Films

The paper engages with the portrayal of women with disabilities in Hindi cinema, considering the diverse facets of representational strategies and structures of power. Addressed in the narratives as objects of derision, pity, and care, women with disabilities are drawn to the able-bodied gaze and patriarchal chauvinism. Films such as Black (2005), Barfi (2012), and Margarita with a Straw (2014) are incorporated into the study to foreground the interactions among the ableists and non-ableists orbs. Efforts are underway to reposition the counter-discourse on disability narratives in 21st-century films, addressing the misrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in the hegemonic portrayal. Manifestations of the social model of disability would culminate in exposing the cultural tensions and reductionist ableism reinforced by normativity. To address, assess, and critique disability spectrum in films, the article moves forward to the intersectionality of disability, gender, and social reality to accentuate the lived realities of women with disabilities. By building on critical disability studies along with feminist disability studies as the theoretical base, the endeavour serves to permeate the arcs of representation, identity, and cultural synergy. Hence, the article seeks to unearth the dominant ideologies of normalcy and ableism in Hindi films while quantifying the amount of discrimination, stereotypical dissimulation interpolated and thus, counting insights into actualities in filmic narratives.

Capacitismo nas trajetórias educacionais e a produção da fadiga de acesso

ABSTRACT This article aims to examine the implications of the ableism in the production of access fatigue as it is experienced by black disabled women throughout their educational trajectories. The research is based on feminist disability studies and disability studies in education. The information was obtained through a sociodemographic form and in-depth autobiographical interviews applied to 12 participants from different regions of Brazil. The results show that ableism exists at an intersection with other oppressive systems and is associated with the neoliberal belief that striving for rights is an individual responsibility. This creates structural and interpersonal barriers to claiming the right to access within educational contexts and generates access fatigue.

Disability Studies in Education: past, present & future?

RESUMO Neste artigo oferece-se um breve panorama da gênese e do crescimento dos Estudos da Deficiência na Educação (EDE) ao longo do último quarto de século; descrevem-se as maneiras pelas quais impactaram os quatro domínios interconectados da teoria, pesquisa, prática e política, oferecendo exemplos de EDE em ação, incluindo pesquisas em sala de aula, programas de formação de professores e desdobramentos interdisciplinares; e compartilham-se tendências emergentes nos EDE que embasam esperanças para o futuro. Ao narrar a conceituação de EDE, sua subsequente trajetória e discutir questões inter-relacionadas que procuram abordar, a intenção é fornecer aos leitores um rápido panorama de suas contribuições para o pensamento educacional e a oportunidade de se envolver com eles.