Equity: What Model Should We Use When We Talk About Autism?

In the Canadian disability rights movement, with regards to autism specifically, there has been a shift towards recognizing what is called a social model of disability. Through this movement, there has been a desire to incorporate that model into practice in governments, institutions, and healthcare. This desire also stems from advocate-centric and first-voice communities, where disabilities like autism are not viewed through a deficit-based lens. This article aims to discuss the often polarizing social and medical models of disability, comparing their uses in the disability world while weighing their respective benefits. Finally, an alternative model of disability that intersects these models is discussed as an alternative. This model is called the International Classification of Functioning, which recognizes three levels that impair a disabled person: the body, the person, and the environment. It is from this focus that policy can be developed to answer the calls of the pan-disability movement; to provide equitable changes across services and domains that are rightly deserved for Autistic and disabled people.

Designation speed of movement by language units in Russian and Persian languages

В статье анализируются языковые единицы, обозначающие темп движения в русском и персидском языках. Информация о темпе присутствует у большинства глаголов со значением движения. Анализ показывает, что языковые единицы в явном или скрытом виде обозначают перемещение субъекта и объекта с нормальным, быстрым и медленным темпом. В семантике глаголов, обозначающих перемещение с нормальным темпом, выделяется информация о стандартном положении в пространстве, отсутствии или наличии средств перемещения, добровольном перемещении, характеристике шагов (размеренность, выделенность) и т.д. Глаголы, обозначающие перемещение с медленным темпом, передают информацию о перемещении с трудом, о физическом недостатке, перемещении относительно опоры и т.д. Глаголы, обозначающие быстрый темп движения, сообщают о перемещении в направлении удаления от субъекта и о среде перемещения, намерении попасть в цель, скорости, принудительном перемещении, о намеренном погружении в жидкость, о полном отрыве от поверхности двух ног одновременно и т.д. In this work, the linguistic units denoting the pace of movement in Russian and Persian languages are subject to analysis. Information on the pace of movement is present in most verbs denoting movement. The analysis shows that linguistic units in explicit or latent form indicate the movement of the subject and the object with a normal, fast and slow pace. In the semantics of the verbs denoting moving at a normal pace, information is highlighted about the standard position in space, the absence of means of movement, the availability of means of movement, voluntary movement, characteristic steps (dimensionality, emphasis), etc. Verbs indicating movement at a slow pace transmit information about movement with difficulty, physical disability, movement relative to a support, etc. Verbs indicating a fast pace of movement report movement in the direction of moving away from the subject and the environment of movement, the intention to hit the target, speed, forced movement, intentional immersion in a liquid, complete separation from the surface of two legs at the same time, etc.

Challenging norms of crisis communication and preparedness by listening to voices from the (dis)ability movement in Sweden

This paper presents the result of a survey study where representing members of the disability movement in Sweden have shared their experiences of living and acting during the first year of the Covid-19-pandemic. The aim was to identify crisis communication challenges and where additional communication material and methods are needed for supporting people in going from knowledge to taking action for achieving a higher level of crisis preparedness. The paper also includes a brief summary of a literature review of previous international research on disabilities and the Covid-19 pandemic. Three categories of crisis communication challenges were identified displaying a vulnerability in society and pointing towards several important knowledge gaps that ought to be addressed in order to achieve crisis preparedness among all people. The results indicate that there is a need for additional communication materials and methods that can be appropriated to individual needs, and dialogue methods between authorities and people in order to counteract normative assumptions in crisis communication aimed at different target groups.

Rethinking Citizenship, Self-Help, and Disability in Local Context: Solidaridad as disability citizenship in Nicaragua

The concept of citizenship was instrumental to the formation of the disability movement in the West by recasting disability as the denial of equal citizenship of persons with impairments. The disability movement expanded notions of citizenship by not only focusing on nondiscrimination and the protection of civil and political rights, but also the necessity of self-directed, but state-provided, social rights as prerequisite for substantive equality. With the passage of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Western approaches to disability citizenship as state protected rights have globalized. Critical disability scholars are increasingly arguing that Western theories of disability, citizenship, and rights are inappropriate in local contexts in the Global South where weak welfare states are the reality. In such cases, self-help and mutual support are more determinative in the lives of disabled persons than formal rights. I extend these arguments by analyzing three grassroots disability associations in Nicaragua that assist their members achieve citizenship through self-help, service and solidaridad with the community.

From Charity to Welfare: Disability Movement, Institutional Change and Social Transformation in Post-Dictatorial Greece, 1974–81

This article studies the role of the blind movement in the legislative achievements regarding the disabled people, and in the formation of blind identities and broader perceptions of disability in post-dictatorial Greece. By highlighting the institutional impact of the 1976 occupation of the Home of the Blind, this paper shows how a grassroots movement contributed to democratization, and it challenges the dichotomy between institutional and societal accounts of democratic transitions, thus touching upon themes, such as citizenship and empowerment. In doing so, this article seeks to explain the paradigm shift from charity to welfare with respect to disability as part of the broader dynamics of social transformation in Greece in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Affirming Radical Equality in the Context of COVID-19: Human Rights of Older People and People with Disabilities

This paper discusses the impact of COVID-19 on older people and people with disabilities. It draws attention to the violations of their human rights in the context of COVID-19 which in turn reveal the hierarchical social order of our society. Although statistics show higher deaths of older people in regard to COVID-19, these numbers co-exist with rampant discrimination towards these groups with underlying messaging that their lives are dispensable. The paper highlights violations at different levels—discursive, ethical, and everyday—and shows how they are underpinned by ageism and disablism which stereotype older people and people with disabilities with prejudicial messaging and actions by states and societal actors. At the same time, the paper also highlights the value of human rights discourses and instruments which are mobilized by the disability movement and groups upholding the rights of older people, to question these rights infringements in the context of COVID-19. The politics of these groups which call for principled equality and inclusion of older people and people with disabilities in times of COVID-19 exhibit a much-needed disruption of our social order, an undertaking that needs to be continued in COVID-19 times and after.

Tracking the Deadlock of the Struggle on Inclusive Citizenship Study of the Disability Movement in DIY Province

Inclusive citizenship is currently being fought for by groups that care about vulnerable groups. In Indonesia the ideals of inclusive citizenship are also fought for persons with disabilities. So far, persons with disabilities have become excluded social groups. The disability movement is intensely voicing inclusive citizenship through the struggle to form regulations that can bring changes to the lives of persons with disabilities, starting from the CRPD Convention, the Disability Persons Act, then local regulation of Disabilities. This paper will use the concept of structuration Giddens and confronting the disability movement in fighting for inclusive citizenship with efforts from the government to capture the issue of inclusive citizenship. The Disability Movement in Yogyakarta Province is a model of the movement that has succeeded in fighting for regional regulations for persons with disabilities. This movement was considered successful when the national movement struggled for the Law on Persons with Disabilities experiencing a deadlock, but in the process the disability movement has not been able to process the issue of inclusive citizenship in its struggle, and the local government as if it does not understand what the disability movement is trying to achieve. Instead of make realize the ideals of inclusive citizenship, the Disability Movement is trapped in an exclusive movement model. The Movement Model in DIY Province is an example in the struggle for inclusive citizenship which was initially considered successful but later suffered a deadlock.