Indigenous Disability Studies

This book provides a comprehensive approach to the perspectives, lived experiences, and socio-cultural beliefs of Indigenous scholars regarding disabilities through a distinctions-based approach. Indigenous people demonstrate considerable knowledge in a multitude of capacities in spite of legal, monetary, social, economic, health, and political inequalities that they experience within from administrative authorities whether health, education, or governments. By including various knowledge systems related to social-cultural, traditional governance, spirituality, educational, and self-representation within a communal understanding, the knowledge brought forth will be a combination of information from within/communal and outwards/infusion by Indigenous teachers, scholars, academics, and professionals who aim to combat the negative effects of disability labels and policies that have regulated Indigenous peoples. Comprised of five sections: The power, wisdom, knowledge, and lived experiences of Elders Reframing the narrative – Navigating self-representation Learning from within – Including traditional knowledge Challenging colonial authority – Infusing regional ideals and concepts Interpretations, narratives, and lived experiences of grassroots teachers and social service providers It will be an asset to those who seek out a deeper understanding of the complexity of Indigenous people and their knowledge, including anyone who deals with predominantly non-Indigenous mindsets and barriers to education. Courses on disability studies, Indigenous studies, social work, health, education, and development studies will all benefit from this book.

The first book to cover the entirety of disability history, from pre-1492 to the present Disability is not just the story of someone we love or the story of whom we may become; rather it is undoubtedly the story of our nation. Covering the entirety of US history from pre-1492 to the present, A Disability History of the United States is the first book to place the experiences of people with disabilities at the center of the American narrative. In many ways, it’s a familiar telling. In other ways, however, it is a radical repositioning of US history. By doing so, the book casts new light on familiar stories, such as slavery and immigration, while breaking ground about the ties between nativism and oralism in the late nineteenth century and the role of ableism in the development of democracy. A Disability History of the United States pulls from primary-source documents and social histories to retell American history through the eyes, words, and impressions of the people who lived it. As historian and disability scholar Nielsen argues, to understand disability history isn’t to narrowly focus on a series of individual triumphs but rather to examine mass movements and pivotal daily events through the lens of varied experiences. Throughout the book, Nielsen deftly illustrates how concepts of disability have deeply shaped the American experience—from deciding who was allowed to immigrate to establishing labor laws and justifying slavery and gender discrimination. Included are absorbing—at times horrific—narratives of blinded slaves being thrown overboard and women being involuntarily sterilized, as well as triumphant accounts of disabled miners organizing strikes and disability rights activists picketing Washington. Engrossing and profound, A Disability History of the United States fundamentally reinterprets how we view our nation’s past: from a stifling master narrative to a shared history that encompasses us all.

This edited collection uses a critical theory perspective and draws on expertise from a range of contemporary policy and practice areas. Contributors include people with disabilities, family members, researchers, academics and practitioners. This book is an ideal text for students of social work, human services, child and youth care and disability studies. Chapters include first-person accounts from persons with disabilities, perspectives of families and historical perspectives, as well as a critical exploration of demographics, human rights issues, disability legislation and policy in Canada, theoretical approaches to disability, intersectionality and disability, Aboriginal people and disability, mental health disability, principles of anti-ableist practice, advocacy and strategies for change. This book offers as a fresh Canadian perspective on disability from a critical lens, challenging and inspiring students and practitioners alike to think outside the box and to examine their own attitudes and values toward disability, ensuring that they do not inadvertently impose ableist and oppressive practices on one of Canada’s most marginalized populations.

The mapping, control and subjugation of the human body and mind were core features of the colonial conquest. This book draws together a rich collection of diverse, yet rigorous, papers that aim to expose the presence and significance of disability within colonialism, and how disability remains present in the establishment, maintenance and continuation of colonial structures of power. Disability as a site of historical analysis has become critically important to understanding colonial relations of power and the ways in which gender and identity are defined through colonial categorisations of the body. Thus, there is a growing prominence of disability within the historical literature. Yet, there are few international anthologies that traverse a critical level of depth on the subject domain. This book fills a critical gap in the historical literature and is likely to become a core reader for post graduate studies within disability studies, postcolonial studies and more broadly across the humanities. The chapters in this book were originally published as articles in Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture.

Although scholars in the environmental humanities have been exploring the dichotomy between "wild" and "built" environments for several years, few have focused on the field of disability studies, a discipline that enlists the contingency between environments and bodies as a foundation of its scholarship. On the other hand, scholars in disability studies have demonstrated the ways in which the built environment privileges some bodies and minds over others, yet they have rarely examined the ways in which toxic environments engender chronic illness and disability or how environmental illnesses disrupt dominant paradigms for scrutinizing "disability." Designed as a reader for undergraduate and graduate courses, Disability Studies and the Environmental Humanities employs interdisciplinary perspectives to examine such issues as slow violence, imperialism, race, toxicity, eco-sickness, the body in environmental justice, ableism, and other topics. With a historical scope spanning the seventeenth century to the present, this collection not only presents the foundational documents informing this intersection of fields but also showcases the most current work, making it an indispensable reference.

This long-awaited reader explores the history of Canadian people with disabilities from Confederation to current day. This edited collection focuses on Canadians with mental, physical, and cognitive disabilities, and discusses their lives, work, and influence on public policy. Organized by time period, the 23 chapters in this collection are authored by a diverse group of scholars who discuss the untold histories of Canadians with disabilities―Canadians who influenced science and technology, law, education, healthcare, and social justice. Selected chapters discuss disabilities among Indigenous women; the importance of community inclusion; the ubiquity of stairs in the Montreal metro; and the ethics of disability research. This volume is a terrific resource for students and anyone interested in disability studies, history, sociology, social work, geography, and education. Untold Stories: A Canadian Disability History Reader offers an exceptional presentation of influential people with various disabilities who brought about social change and helped to make Canada more accessible.

This book explores the concept of "occupation" in disability well beyond traditional clinical formulations of disability: it considers disability not in terms of pathology or impairment, but as a range of unique social identities and experiences that are shaped by visible or invisible diagnoses/impairments, socio-cultural perceptions and environmental barriers and offers innovative ideas on how to apply theoretical training to real world contexts. Inspired by disability justice and “Disability Occupy Wall Street / Decolonize Disability” movements in the US and related movements abroad, this book builds on politically engaged critical approaches to disability that intersect occupational therapy, disability studies and anthropology. "Occupying Disability" will provide a discursive space where the concepts of disability, culture and occupation meet critical theory, activism and the creative arts. The concept of “occupation” is intentionally a moving target in this book. Some chapters discuss occupying spaces as a form of protest or alternatively, protesting against territorial occupations. Others present occupations as framed or problematized within the fields of occupational therapy and occupational science and anthropology as engagement in meaningful activities. The contributing authors come from a variety of professional, academic and activist backgrounds to include perspectives from theory, practice and experiences of disability. Emergent themes include: all the permutations of the concept of "occupy," disability justice/decolonization, marginalization and minoritization, technology, struggle, creativity and change. This book will engage clinicians, social scientists, activists and artists in dialogues about disability as a theoretical construct and lived experience.