Social Construction Of Disability Research Articles

The Educational Costs of Chrono-Curriculum and Academic Chrono-Politics on the Schooling of Disabled College Students in Kenya

A college education is vital because it exposes students to worldwide experiences fundamental for productive citizenship. However, it is elusive to most disabled citizens because of the clash of school time and disability and colleges’ obsession with efficiency. Guided by the historical, biological, and social construction of disability as a human flaw, this qualitative study contextualizes the findings within the frame of crip time, chrono-curriculum, and academic chrono-politics to reveal that disability is the basis of academic oppression and, therefore, the disempowerment of disabled college learners in Kenya. Education costs manifest in individual impairment/disability, lack of accommodations, inaccessible infrastructure, lost time, defensive unsupportive faculty and administrators, mythologies of disability, and poverty and insecurity. Since universities’ ableist chrono-curriculum and academic chrono-politics are educationally `costly to disabled students, the reformation of universities is needed to foster faculty disability awareness and commitment to disability rights and empowerment of disabled students.

The creation of cyborgs within a socially constructed understanding of disability and assistive activity technology use

This article illuminates how understandings of disability is negotiated through use of assistive activity technologies, when people with physical impairment use this kind of technology in their social and physical environment. A qualitative data design was adopted involving interviews with 44 adults with mobility impairments using assistive activity technology. The study was conducted in Mid-Norway. In analysing the findings, this study adopted the stepwise deductive-inductive approach with social constructivism as a theoretical basis. Furthermore, a relational understanding of disability and the cyborg metaphor are used to explain how disability and assistive activity technology are embodied, as well as social and material matters. The article shows how aspects in the social construction of disability are changed when people using assistive activity technology become subjects for new and positive interpretations.

Rumo aos estudos críticos da deficiência: engajando perspectivas teóricas latino-americanas sobre a Síndrome Congênita do Zika

Abstract Infection with the Zika virus during pregnancy can cause disability, yet disability remains under theorised in studies on Congenital Zika Syndrome (CZS). Existing studies are largely exploratory and descriptive in nature, and thus a deeper analysis is needed. Where theory has been applied, there is limited engagement with Latin American theoretical perspectives. The social construction of disability, and of caregiver identity in particular warrant further analysis. Understanding that disability is constructed through an ‘ideology of normality’ can help make sense of parents’ reactions to a diagnosis of CZS. Caregivers resistance to biomedical narratives about disability is apparent in the case of CZS and deserves further attention. Consideration has been given to the ways that social location and shared temporality in relationships of care shape caregiver identity. Here I read these together to reach a fuller understanding of how caregivers and the people they care for develop a shared embodiment. An analysis bringing together Latin American Critical Disability Studies with other critical theoretical perspectives can advance theorisations of disability and the experiences of caregivers in their social, political, economic and historical contexts.

Caring for the injured: Exploring the immediate and long-term consequences of injury in medieval Cambridge, England

ObjectiveTo combine paleopathological and biomechanical analysis to reconstruct the impact that a severe skeletal injury had on an individual’s ability to function and participate in medieval society. MaterialsThree medieval individuals from Cambridge, England with ante-mortem fractures to the lower limb were analyzed. MethodsPlain X-rays were used to determine the degree of malunion, rotation and overlap of each fracture. Cortical bone architecture of the injured individuals and 28 uninjured controls were analyzed using micro-computed tomography (µCT). Clinical and functional consequences were examined using the Bioarcheology of Care framework. ResultsThe mechanism of injury, the secondary complications, and the extent of the care received was reconstructed for each individual. Bilateral asymmetry in the cortical bone architecture revealed the long-term alterations to each individual’s gait. ConclusionEach of these individuals survived a severe injury resulting in chronic physical impairment, though not all would have been considered ‘disabled’. SignificanceThis research contributes to the discussion about medieval care provision and social constructions of disability by illustrating how an interdisciplinary approach provides insight into the experiences of those with physical impairments. The integration of µCT imaging within the Bioarcheology of Care model is a novel approach with great potential for application across the field. LimitationsBiomechanical analysis was restricted to cortical geometry. Suggestions for future researchFurther study of bilateral asymmetry in trabecular architecture could complement our understanding of altered loading modalities in past societies.

‘The person with a disability gets to define their disability’: exploring identity formation through the voices of university students

It has been increasingly acknowledged that universities need to include and support students with disabilities in order to benefit these individuals. Yet, university students with disabilities often face significant barriers that impact their ability to succeed. Traditional higher education practices and belief systems have been identified as problematic, in how they influence students’ feelings and attitudes towards disability, and their self identity construction. Our qualitative research study was thus originally designed to understand how higher education students engaged with medical and social constructions of disability. The study findings prioritise these students’ perspectives and voices through interpretative phenomenological analysis and poetic interpretations. The findings are further nuanced in terms of how several students took up positions of identity that reflect social relational and affirmative disability conceptions. Aside from individuals with disabilities, this study has implications for university staff, medical and human services professionals, and disability researchers focused on higher education. Points of interest Despite increased enrollments of students with disabilities in higher education, concerns have been raised about these students’ university achievement and completion. There is a gap in research when it comes to examining the views and experiences of university students with disabilities, from their own perspectives and voices. Research was carried out with university students with different disabilities in order to gauge the impact of the social and medical models on their perspectives. The research found that there was no single model that dominated their individual identities, as various life experiences resulted in complex and multifaceted understandings of disability. This research is important not only for the service providers who work with individuals with disabilities, but also family members, researchers, and other university staff.

Enabling counsellors: the social construction of disability among Maltese counsellors

ABSTRACT Counselling is generally recognised by persons with disability as a valuable service. However, persons with disability tend to be a particular client group which is often avoided by counsellors. In this study I investigated the social construction of disability among six Maltese counsellors. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Findings showed that the social construction of disability among Maltese counsellors is influenced by three main forces, namely by the international and national politics of disability, by the Maltese social and cultural context, and by the counsellors’ professional training and cultures of practice. Findings of this research indicate the need for further training among Maltese counsellors about persons with disability and disability issues.

Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability by Genevieve Love

Reviewed by: Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability by Genevieve Love Lauren Coker Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability. By Genevieve Love. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2019. Cloth $110.00, Paper $29.95. 212 pages. Genevieve Love's Early Modern Theatre and the Figure of Disability offers a timely contribution to burgeoning conversations in early modern literary disability studies. Love acknowledges recent work on early modern disability, citing, for instance, Allison P. Hobgood and David Houston Wood's 2013 collection Recovering Disability in Early Modern England. However, her book departs from these works insofar as she is less concerned with the social construction of disability and more focused on disabled characters serving as meta-representational figures for theatricality, competing play texts, and historical movements. In this vein, Love's opening, "Introduction: Disability and/as theatricality," outlines a two-fold structure for the book instead of establishing an argument. The initial two chapters explore theatrical representation, while the latter two highlight issues of theatrical interpretation from text to the stage via depictions of physical disability, which Love deems a type of "theatrical meaning-making" (10). At first blush, the book's scope may seem ambitious; yet its four chapters and brief afterword posit how the prosthetic body can be interpreted—through metaphor and staged embodiment—in the early modern English theatre. The first chapter, "The Work of Standing and of Standing-For: Disability, Movement, Theatrical Personation in The Fair Maid of the Exchange," offers a compelling close reading of the anonymous play's central character, Cripple, and his reliance on crutches as prosthetic devices. In this chapter, Love calls readers' attention to the vexed verbs attached to Cripple—such as "stand" and "mount"—in that they ironically enable a character who epitomizes disability. Love teases out Cripple's character further, arguing that he becomes a meta-reflection of the play itself, and claiming, "Cripple is in the play because the play is a cripple" (55). In other words, for Love, the character embodies the play itself. Love also contends that an attempt to perform disability on stage extends to a larger problem of theatricality when an actor confronts a role, and Cripple's character elucidates this "refusal of likeness" in the impossibility of exact imitation (58). Indeed, theatre history and performance studies scholars may show particular interest in this chapter's consideration of staged attempts to embody Cripple, who demonstrates "prosthetic disabled embodiment" and thereby shows no discomfort with his crutches (68). Disability studies scholars and advocates frequently criticize stage and screen performances of disability in which actors and characters treat prostheses as burdensome accessories; Cripple, Love intimates, appropriates his crutches with ease. Chapter 2, "The Sound of Prosthetic Movement: Transnational and Temporal Analogy in A Larum for London," turns its focus toward the anonymously-authored [End Page 162] play's amputee soldier Stump, who relies on a wooden leg prosthetic. This chapter builds on existing scholarship that reads the play through historical and national lenses while emphasizing Stump's disabled identity. Love claims that Stump's name and prosthesis work as a symbolic link on stage between past and present and between geographic locations. Specifically, Love reads Stump's physicality as the metaphorical representation of the fluid relationship between the English and Dutch. This claim is fleshed out through another close reading—this time of the play's use of sound and motion, as well as thoughtful examination of the various denotations of "stump." The penultimate chapter, "'Faustus Has His Legge Again': Truncation and Prosthesis, Theatricality, and Bibliography in Doctor Faustus," addresses competing textual versions of Christopher Marlowe's play, underscoring scenes featuring decapitation and amputation discrepancies. Love proposes another meta-connection between the Doctor Faustus scenes and differing versions of the play text, claiming, "the recapitulation of theatrical figures of disability in biographical and critical discourse" are analogous (104). Indeed, conflicting moments of "dismemberment" in various versions of the play serve as metaphors for textual fragmentation in bibliographic studies. Love's final and arguably strongest chapter, "Richard's 'Giddy Footing': Degree of Difference and Cyclical Movement in Shakespeare's Richard III," offers a refreshing take on the much-studied historical-figure-turned-Shakespeare-villain with ambiguous...

Remembering and Debating Harlan Lane.

Remembering and Debating Harlan Lane Peter V. Paul Our scholarly world lost another giant on July 13, 2019, with the passing of Harlan Lane. A range of tributes to Lane can be found in several online sources, such as the websites of Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Lane), the New York Times obituary section (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/28/obituaries/harlan-lane-dead.html), Gallaudet University (https://my.gallaudet.edu/intranet/announcements-archive/passing-of-dr-harlan-lane), The Hearing Review (http://www.hearingreview.com/2019/07/passingsharlan-lane-psychologist-linguist-advocate-deaf/), and The Deaf Report (https://thedeafreport.com/home/2019/7/14/harlan-lane-dies-at-83). The Gallaudet website opened its tribute with this line: "Today, we mourn the passing of Dr. Harlan Lane, a prolific author and a visionary in the evolution of the worldwide Deaf community." Harlan Lane and I crossed paths in the mid-1990s. I cannot remember the event that we both attended, but I do recall some tidbits from that first and only face-to-face meeting. It was actually quite awkward. He signed to me, but he did not appear comfortable—for some reason. I responded by speaking hesitantly, but I had to ask initially if he needed me to sign. Lane knew that I had a bilateral profound hearing loss and he was aware of some of my writings. On the other hand, I did not know much about the personal side of Lane. I was only vaguely aware of his professional works; I was somewhat familiar with The Wild Boy of Aveyron (1976) and When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (1984). Later, honored by an invitation prior to its publication, I would write a few words of praise for his book A Journey Into the DEAF-WORLD (Lane, Hoffmeister, & Bahan, 1996). This was a provocative piece of work, certainly worthy of the encomium "visionary in the evolution of the worldwide Deaf community." Cognizant that Lane seemed to relish his controversial status—he had a few volatile academic debates with a few other giants in our field—I mustered the courage to inquire if he would be willing to engage in a debate with me on the topic of psychology of deafness. I had just digested his debate-generating article in Exceptional Children (Lane, 1988). I suspected that Lane would be irked by the phrase psychology of deafness, which was related to his anathema: psychology of the deaf. In fact, I had coauthored a book titled Toward a Psychology of Deafness (Paul & Jackson, 1993). Little did I know what I was getting into. Before highlighting the salient points of our debate, I should provide some background on this remarkable scholar (also see any of the online sources presented previously, especially the New York Times obituary). Lane was a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston. He received bachelor's and master of science degrees in psychology from Columbia University and a PhD in psychology from Harvard. To add to the impressive list of his achievements, which includes several [End Page 525] awards, Lane was also the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship—and donated his prize money to a deaf school in the Republic of Burundi (https://my.gallau-det.edu/intranet/announcements-archive/passing-of-dr-harlan-lane). Lane was a staunch defender of Deaf culture and its signed language and was an extremely vocal critic of cochlear implants. He certainly highlighted one of the most controversial phrases in disability studies or in the philosophy of disability (Paul, 2018): the social construction of disability. As stated in Gallaudet University's website tribute, He was concerned about the impact of cochlear implants, arguing in H-Dirksen Bauman's Open Your Eyes: Deaf Studies Talking (2007) that "unless Deaf people challenge the culturally determined meanings of deaf and disability with at least as much vigor as the technologies of normalization seek to institutionalize those meanings, the day will continue to recede in which Deaf children and adults live the fullest lives and make the fullest contribution to our diverse society." Specifically, Lane railed against what can be labeled as the clinical or medical...

The social construction of disability and the capabilities approach: Implications for nursing.

Improving the health and well-being of people with disabilities (PWD) should be included https://plato.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/encyclopedia/archinfo.cgi?entry=justice-distributivein any strategies aimed at eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity in the United States. However, practitioners and policymakers often overlook disability when considering health equity. This is problematic because structural injustices including social and environmental barriers frequently worsen health for PWD. A commitment to social justice, however, dictates that everyone should have equitable opportunities to participate in chosen aspects of life to the best of their abilities and desires. We use a critical commentary to provide suggestions for the nursing discipline. Specifically, we 1) position the disparities in health and well-being experienced by PWD as matters of equity and social justice, 2) describe Amartya Sen's capabilities approach, and 3) provide suggestions for incorporating tenets of the capabilities approach into nursing practice, research, and policy. The capabilities approach can provide a useful framework to guide nursing practice, research, and policy in order to advance social justice for PWD.

From Criminalisation to Individual Choice: Policy Responses to Changing Constructions of Intellectual Disability in Western Australia

This article uses an historical perspective to explore how constructions of disability influenced policy and services for people with intellectual disabilities in Western Australia (WA) from the time of British colonisation until the present day. The authors approach the discussion from a critical disability perspective in the analysis of disability constructs, political responses and social change, incorporating the Foucauldian concept of biopower to explain the physical infrastructure, classification and dividing practices that produced ‘docile subjects’. The authors argue that changing social constructions of disability since the 18th century affected the lives of people with disability in WA and continue, through their embodiment in infrastructure, to influence present-day practices, even after policy has changed. This approach illuminates the interplay between metaphorical and literal constructions of disability and allows the legacy of past assumptions to be examined.

Estudo sobre mudanças de atitudes sociais: contribuições a partir de cursos de capacitação

para refletir sobre a construção social da deficiência, é necessário compreender as atitudes sociais que são sentimentos duradouros pró ou contra objetos sociais. A partir dessa confirmação, este estudo, teve por escopo modificar as atitudes sociais de pedagogos em relação à inclusão. Para isso, participaram da pesquisa quatro estudantes do curso de Pedagogia e uma professora da rede municipal de uma cidade do interior de São Paulo. Inicialmente, todos os participantes responderam a uma versão da Escala Likert de Atitudes Sociais em relação à Inclusão, após isso, participaram de um curso de capacitação tendo como objetivo a aplicação de um conjunto de ações baseadas em técnicas de modificações de atitudes sociais. Por fim, os participantes responderam a uma segunda versão da escala mencionada. Os resultados obtidos com as escalas, sugerem mudanças significativas nas atitudes dos participantes, permitindo que suas práticas se tornem mais favoráveis à inclusão de alunos com deficiência.

Lessons in suffering: Greek tragedy’s teachings on disability through Sophocles’ Philoctetes

Political theory often sees disability through the negative language of abnormality and inability, which perceives disability as a deficiency that deviates from the able-bodied. However, critical disability studies strives to transform the disabling language of political theory into an enabling project that sees the ability, unique perspectives, capacities, and contributions of people with disabilities. Through Sophocles’ Philoctetes, this article examines the negative ways in which disability is conceptualized, socially constructed, and (dis)valued, as well as the possibilities for a positive and enabling theory of disability. The character of Philoctetes exposes the negative social construction of disability as well as the extraordinary ability of those who live with chronic impairments. The Philoctetes meditates on the status of the disabled who are unfairly isolated from human community and who are often unfairly seen in an instrumental fashion that fails to recognize their fundamental status as human beings who are capable, valuable, and essential for the success of human endeavors and community. For political theory, the Philoctetes demonstrates the ability in disability, and shines brightly on the essential contributions that people with disabilities make in our societies. Philoctetes shows that the lives of people who live daily with chronic impairments need not be seen as necessarily tragic. Instead, these modes of being speak to human diversity, ingenuity, and triumph.

Olympic Effort

Disability scholars have long argued that the hegemonic constructions of “normal” bodies segregate, regulate, and demean people whose bodies are deemed disabled. Given that athletic competition stands as a public measure of ability, situations like those embedded in the 2012 London Olympic Games could create spaces to question the social construction of disability. This monograph asks, “Does the athletic competition within the 2012 London Olympic Games provide space to successfully challenge hegemonic constructions of disability?” To help answer that question, this work engages in a critical, cultural, and rhetorical analysis of the mediated messages of the Summer Games through the coverage of athletes involved in Olympic qualification and competition, as well as media reports and commercials aired during and after the Games. The case studies selected focus on athletes whose representation is based on their non-normative bodies during athletic competition as compared with those with normative bodies. Using three case studies that examine mediated representations of the body in sport, how disability is framed by traditional media will be examined.

Pedagogic Trifecta

This article explores how the experience of being a caregiver and service provider informs teaching disability studies to students who are also frontline workers in service agencies. I discuss my own history as a service provider and stepparent of an adult with disabilities who has a long history as a service recipient. The history of the City University of New York (CUNY) disability studies program and target student population is reviewed, enabling readers to understand that the approach CUNY takes may be different from that of other programs in the country. The article also describes frustrations students encounter as course readings emphasizing the social construction of disability and the importance of self-determination collide with students’ lived experiences of program structures and processes required by regulations and funding sources. Additional sources of tension for students who are frontline workers are the expectations of self-advocates and their parents, and the conflicts in values that may surface when serving a multicultural population in a large urban area. Disability studies courses provide a safe place for students to raise and examine these conflicts in the context of larger disability theory. I utilize my multiple roles and the perspectives they allow to deepen class discussions and offer a more nuanced reflection of disability theory as it is expressed in service praxis.

Disability and Latin American Cultural Studies: A Critique of Corporeal Difference, Identity and Social Exclusion

This essay explores th e shift from a social model to social-constructivist model in the burgeoning field of disability studies within Latin American cultural studies. It does so by examining Latin American literature and culture beginning in the 1980s and its increasing focus on theories of exclusion within the particular framework of human rights. The first part of this essay centers on the experience of the disabled body, and corporeal difference more broadly, in Susan Antebi ’ ' s Carnal Inscriptions (2009), the first text in Latin American cultural studies dedicated solely to disability. The second part of this essay looks at Argentina ’ ' s Disability Rights Network (REDI, Red por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad ), which defines disability primarily through disabled people's exclusion from the workforce. Both of these conversations, I argue, ultimately fold into each other by reconceptualizing disability as an issue of human rights exclusion, and not necessarily one of class exploitation. In this way, this essay suggests that this focus on the human rights model obfuscates a clearer reading of the intersection between disability and exploitation in Latin America. The last part of the essay points to some potential directions the field might take with respect to Latin America in order to overcome the limitations of this human rights model, limitations that include not only the increasing emphasis on the social construction of disability but also the widespread disregard for challenging a system that produces economic exploitation for disabled and able-bodied alike.

The Inaccessible Road to Motherhood — The Tragic Consequence of not having Reproductive Policies for Israelis with Disabilities

INTRODUCTION The desire of an individual to become a parent can be very strong, especially in child-centric societies, where the idea of having children and raising a family is highly valued. In those societies, the prominent pro-natal nature translates into policies and laws regulating reproduction. The Jewish-Israeli society is a prime example of such a society where the use of state-funded Assisted Reproduction Technologies (ARTs) is the highest in the world--eight times higher than the international average. (1) However, the road to becoming a parent is not as smooth for all members of Israeli society. A recent case that went all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court proved how the current Israeli reproductive policies, particularly surrounding third-party reproduction methods such as adoption or surrogacy, are inaccessible to people with disabilities (among other minority groups) who share the same great desire to become parents. (2) The Ora Mor Yosef case revolves around a Jewish-Israeli woman with muscular dystrophy who could not bear a child because of her impairment. Her dream of becoming a mother was so powerful that after exhausting all of her other options, she used a surrogate, sperm donation, and egg donation to bring a baby into the world. However, the lack of genetic-biological connection to the baby led the courts to decide not to recognize Ora as the mother, meaning that she never had the chance to even see the baby. This Article will examine the exceptional case of Ora Mor Yosef in a broad context and from a Legal perspective. It will compare Israeli socio-legal treatment of what I refer to as the right to become a parent with the United States legal system and will show how Israeli law makes it more difficult for women with disabilities to have children. It will continue with a discussion on the concept of disabled motherhood from a comparative Israeli-American perspective. This discussion will illuminate that there are still universal struggles and hardships for people with disabilities, specifically women, as they endeavor to become mothers and in raising their children. By using a Disability Legal Studies framework and a socio-legal analysis, this interdisciplinary Article will bring to the foreground issues and ramifications that were not found in the original reasoning of the Israeli courts' rulings on the Ora Mor Yosef case and will demonstrate the crucial role legal institutions play in the social construction of disability and its treatment by society. It is my hope that this paper will therefore help bring more attention to the issue of disabled parents and prevent tragic instances like the one standing in the heart of this paper from recurring. It is important to conduct a comparative analysis of the American and Israeli legal systems on this issue since the Israeli legal treatment of people with disabilities has been influenced by American disability rights academia, legislation, and activism. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was used as the model for the Equal Rights for People with Disabilities Law, which is the main Israeli legislation governing this population, and American legal scholars were even involved in its enactment. (3) Furthermore, the work of Bizchut--the Human Rights Center for People with Disabilities, the leading organization on promoting the rights of Israelis with disabilities--was influenced by the work of American civil rights organizations. (4) The two systems differ, however, as Israel has signed and ratified (5) the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD), (6) while the United States has declined to do so. (7) This is the first time that such a comparative analysis has been conducted on the issue of parents living with disabilities, and it helps shed light on the broader relationship between disability and law. Part I introduces the socio-legal landscape regarding access to reproduction in Israel and the United States. …

Scoping review on instruments measuring attitudes towards disability and persons with disability

Background: People with disabilities (PWDs) still face difficulties in achieving full social participation. Negative attitudes towards disability have caused difficulties in integrating PWDs in mainstream life, including in education, employment, leisure and exercise, which are all considered essential in the promotion of good health. Purpose: The aim of the study is to synthesize published information, including evidences on psychometric properties and overall utility, of instruments that measure attitudes towards disability and persons with disability. Methods: The researchers performed 2 search phases. The first was to search for studies that measured attitudes towards disability. Researchers recorded the instruments used in these studies. The second phase was to search for articles describing the development and/or validation of the obtained instruments. The CanChild Outcome Measures Rating Form was used in appraising the instruments and determining their overall utility. Overall utility was based on the clinical utility, availability, reliability, and validity of the instrument. Results of the appraisal were synthesized using a self-constructed data extraction form. Results: The search process yielded 84 instruments. Several were excluded because full text of articles describing their development and psychometric properties failed to be retrieved.A total of 27 instrumentswere included in the study. Fourmeasured attitudes toward communication disability, 11 were towards intellectual disability, and 12 were towards disability in general. Target respondents ranged from children to adults, and included respondents from different occupations and cultures. Seven were found to have excellent overall utility, 16 have adequate overall utility, and 4 have poor overall utility. Conclusion(s): There are several instruments available in literature. Most of the included instruments were on measuring attitudes towards intellectual disability and disability in general. All instruments may be used for their intended purposes as long as their limitations are considered. Many of the instruments included here still require further validation studies to ascertain their psychometric properties and responsiveness to change. Implications:Awareness about the social constructions of disability may aid in explaining the marginalization and discrimination of PWDs, and in drawing attention to the process that should be taken to eliminate negative attitudes. Instruments that measure attitudes of people toward disability or PWDs may help in building this awareness.

Contemporary representations of disability and interpersonal relationships of disabled women in south-western Nigeria

abstractAmid the sociocultural fluidity of modernisation, disability has risen to prominence in development debates. Disability has increasingly been viewed as neglect and sociocultural obstruction. The existence of these social realities has created a segregated society with respect to disability that both stems from and perpetuates cultural stereotypes of disability. In addition, the foregoing debate seemingly excludes analysis of oppression of women with disability from Nigeria's social-cultural discourse. This article examines the nature of the contemporary social construction of disability, and looks at the ways in which these constructions affect the interpersonal relationships of disabled women. For this article 40 young disabled adult women in south-western Nigeria provided information about their views of disabilities, and how these views continue to influence their interpersonal relationships. Findings from this study show that continued negative representations of women with disabilities as helpless, incompetent, asexual and intellectually challenged continue to affect the lives of disabled women in contemporary societies. In addition, the reproduction of disability stereotypes and gender serves to reinforce male and able-bodied hegemony in intimate relationships. In the face of contemporary socio-economic contraditions the article suggests that disability and social policy require a parallel renegotiation, because the experience of women with disabilities is an integral part of a society characterised by fundamental ideologies and social inequalities which misrepresent and destroy disabled peoples’ lives, and divide people against each other.

Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things: Disability in <em>Game of Thrones</em>

Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things: Disability in <em>Game of Thrones</em>

Social construction of disability and its potential impacts to welfare practice in Vietnamese contexts.

From the survey responses and the policy analysis, the initial findings on this paper present some aspects of knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on disability which are presented as following: Firstly, there is a significant changes in legal documents and social policies related to disability in Vietnam, especially from 2006, in terms of its name and contents for improving the life of PWD with inclusive approach, however the meaning of disability is not clear in policies. Secondly, the understanding on disability is mainly based on medical/individual model which focuses on the disability’s causes in words of health or individual problem rather than viewing the social causes in aspects of the social barriers and restriction, in addition almost policies focus on the problems of PWD rather than the social aspects. Thirdly, social attitude toward disability and PWD seems to be very empathetic, however it is less regard to CWD’s ability as well as there are more attitudes on charity giving and supporting than helping them to be independent in their life. Finally, in spite of positive knowledge and attitudes on disability, there is still limitation on practical activities towards CWD/PWD from society in daily life.