How Persons with Intellectual Disabilities Are Fighting for Decision-Making Rights

Paternalistic attitudes about what is in the interests of a person with an intellectual disability have long led to abuses, and are embedded in the guardianship laws still in place in most countries. Self-advocates, who identify as people with intellectual or other disabilities and are committed to demanding their rights and educating others about them, are calling for a new approach. They have found support for reforms in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted by the United Nations in 2006 and since acceded to by 182 countries. By supporting the fundamental right of those with disabilities to make decisions, it has enabled disability rights advocates to successfully challenge legal capacity restrictions and push for “supported decision-making.”

Disability as a Social Justice Imperative

Educators in the United States have the legal obligation to ensure that students with disabilities are given equitable access to an education. Under the Individuals with Education Act (2004), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (1973), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), individuals with disabilities cannot be discriminated against based on their disability and must be provided the same educational opportunities as their non-disabled counterparts. While most teacher preparation programs as well as educators in higher education are knowledgeable of these laws, there is a striking absence of learning about the historical implication of segregation, abuse, and maltreatment of individuals with disabilities that led to these laws being enacted. Most teacher preparation programs do not teach future educators about the history regarding disability rights and the social construct of disability. This chapter will present the major theoretical and historical movements in the disability rights movement, as well as the practical implications for educators today.

Menyoal Kesenjangan dan Diskriminisi Publik Terhadap Penyandang Disabilitas

Disabilitas menjadi topik permasalahan yang serius periode belakangan ini, hal tersebut dikarenakan penyandang disabilitas rawan akan berbagai tindakan diskriminasi secara fisik maupun mental, bahkan difabel rentan menjadi korban pelecehan seksual dalam ruang lingkup keluarga ataupun non difabel. Para disabilitas menghadapi berbagai problematika dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Penyandang disabilitas seringkali di tolak dengan alasan keterbatasan mereka, bahkan ada beberapa yang menjadikan sehat jasmani dan rohani sebagai syarat utama untuk bisa mangakses bidang-bidang tertentu. Bahkan pelanggaran Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) terhadap penyandang disabilitas masih dijumpai di lokasi sekitar. Kesenjangan yang diterima oleh penyandang disabilitas menjadi tekanan tersendiri bagi para difabel untuk memenuhi segala aspek kebutuhannya. Pemenuhan hak-hak disabilitas masih kurang diperhatikan, baik dalam sarana bangunan atau infastruktur, maupun fasilitas-fasilitas di tempat umum. Ketidaksetaraan juga terjadi dalam sektor pendidikan, lapangan pekerjaan, politik, dan aksesibilitas terhadap transportasi. Hal tersebut menunjukkan adanya perlakuan yang berbeda yang diterima oleh penyandang disabilitas terhadap layanan publik yang ramah bagi penyandang disabilitas.Disability has become a serious problem topic in recent times, this is because people with disabilities are prone to various acts of discrimination physically and mentally, even people with disabilities are vulnerable to being victims of sexual harassment within the family or non-disabled spheres. People with disabilities face various problems in their daily life. Persons with disabilities are often rejected on the grounds of their limitations, there are even some who make physically and mentally healthy as the main requirement to be able to access certain fields. Even human rights violations against persons with disabilities are still found in nearby locations. The gap that is accepted by people with disabilities is a separate pressure for people with disabilities to meet all aspects of their needs. Fulfillment of disability rights is still lacking in attention, both in building facilities or infrastructure, as well as facilities in public places. Inequality also exists in the sectors of education, employment, politics, and accessibility to transportation. This shows that there is a different treatment received by persons with disabilities towards public services that are friendly to persons with disabilities.

“I can read, I just can't see”: a disability rights-based perspective on reading by listening

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to create a greater understanding of how people who are blind or vision impaired describe their use of audio-based reading technologies, with a particular focus on how they reason about whether the use of these technologies can be understood in terms of reading.Design/methodology/approachThe study is part of the emerging research area Critical Studies of Reading and draws theoretical inspiration from Document Theory, New Literacy Studies and Critical Disability Studies. The article presents a discourse analysis of how 16 university students in Australia who are blind or vision impaired and use audio-based reading technologies describe this use in semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe participants relate to a division between ‘real' reading and reading by listening, where the latter is constructed as an exception and is connected to the subject position of being blind or vision impaired. However, resistance is also noticeable, where reading by listening is constructed as something that is normal, and as a right.Originality/valueThe article is a theoretical and empirical contribution to the ongoing discussion on the use of audio-based reading technologies. It presents perspectives from the users of these technologies and argues why a specific understanding of this use is important.

The Disability Rights Movement

This chapter provides an overview of the social movement advocating for disability rights, including its origins, goals, strategies, structure, and impact. The chapter’s primary focus is on the movement in the United States, although developments in other nations are also discussed. The chapter reviews the origins of the disability rights movement in the 20th century in response to stigma and discrimination associated with disabilities and the medical model of disability; addresses the movement’s advocacy strategies, as well as the social model of disability that provided the conceptual underpinning for its goals and activities; and describes how the major components of the movement, including cross-disability organization, were brought together through collaboration and the common experiences of disability culture.

Aging Into Disability: A Conceptual Challenge for Gerontology

One of the most fraught subjects facing a fast growing aging population is the subject of aging into disability. This paper examines the processes of aging into disability as a distinct challenge for not only older persons, but also for the field of gerontology, and public policy-makers. Disability in youth and in middle age has largely defined the disability rights agenda, and elders aging into disability have not been the subject of much attention from scholars in the field of disability. Surprisingly, however, scholars and policy-makers in gerontology have also by and large avoided the subject of older persons aging into disability—a complex process that involves impairment, environmental disablement, and changes in social relationships. This process accelerates with advancing age, and disproportionately affects women. Moreover, when older adults develop mobility limitations, experience falls, become hard of hearing, or experience other such impairments of age related disability, they do not think of themselves as aging into disability, or being disabled. This lack of disability identity may protect them from stigma and from low self-esteem. At the same time, it stands in the way of seeking accommodations and from developing a bond with other older adults who are aging into disability. This paper explores the dynamics of disability avoidance as an ideal that can harm older adults and their caregivers. It aims to bring disability more fully into the normal life-course, and to suggest lines of inquiry for gerontological research, to broaden the field, and to make service communities more inclusive .