Providing both a theoretical framework and practical strategies, this resource will help teachers, counselors, and related service providers develop understanding and empathy to improve outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. The text features narrative portraits of six immigrant families and their children with disabilities, including their cultural histories and personal perspectives regarding assessment, diagnosis, Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, and other instances in which families engaged with the special education process. Using guiding questions for reflection and “Talk Back” comments from preservice students throughout the text, readers are encouraged to reflect on their own positionality and to develop nuanced and dynamic understandings of CLD children, youth, and families—countering persistent and stereotypical deficit views. “A long-overdue textbook that proactively contributes to preparing teacher candidates to know more about and better understand the diverse students they will teach.” —From the Foreword by Maria de Lourdes B. Serpa, professor emerita, Lesley University “Accessible and innovative. It will be valuable to students, teachers, and family members.” —Philip Ferguson, professor emeritus, Chapman University “This powerful and much-needed book highlights the cultural misunderstandings and systemic inequities that can occur when disability intersects with race.” —Maya Kalyanpur, University of San Diego

Providing both a theoretical framework and practical strategies, this resource will help teachers, counselors, and related service providers develop understanding and empathy to improve outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with disabilities. The text features narrative portraits of six immigrant families and their children with disabilities, including their cultural histories and personal perspectives regarding assessment, diagnosis, Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings, and other instances in which families engaged with the special education process. Using guiding questions for reflection and “Talk Back” comments from preservice students throughout the text, readers are encouraged to reflect on their own positionality and to develop nuanced and dynamic understandings of CLD children, youth, and families—countering persistent and stereotypical deficit views. Book Features: In-depth descriptions of immigrant family ecologies. Strategies for challenging a system that has been implicated in the over-representation of minorities in special education. Artwork, photographs, and other materials from students and families. “Talk Back” sections featuring personal reflections and feedback on the portrait narratives from preservice teachers. Questions at the end of each portrait narrative chapter to facilitate meaningful classroom discussions. A personal action plan framework to guide improvements in cultural competence and inclusive special education practices.

Disability Rhetoric is the first book to view rhetorical theory and history through the lens of disability studies. Traditionally, the body has been seen as, at best, a rhetorical distraction; at worst, those whose bodies do not conform to a narrow range of norms are disqualified from speaking. Yet, Dolmage argues that communication has always been obsessed with the meaning of the body and that bodily difference is always highly rhetorical. Following from this rewriting of rhetorical history, he outlines the development of a new theory, affirming the ideas that all communication is embodied, that the body plays a central role in all expression, and that greater attention to a range of bodies is therefore essential to a better understanding of rhetorical histories, theories, and possibilities.

A comprehensive assessment of the field of Disability Studies that presents beyond the medical to dig into the meaning From public transportation and education to adequate access to buildings, the social impact of disability has been felt everywhere since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. And a remarkable groundswell of activism and critical literature has followed in this wake. Claiming Disability is the first comprehensive examination of Disability Studies as a field of inquiry. Disability Studies is not simply about the variations that exist in human behavior, appearance, functioning, sensory acuity, and cognitive processing but the meaning we make of those variations. With vivid imagery and numerous examples, Simi Linton explores the divisions society creates—the normal versus the pathological, the competent citizen versus the ward of the state. Map and manifesto, Claiming Disability overturns medicalized versions of disability and establishes disabled people and their allies as the rightful claimants to this territory.

“Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It's an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again.” —Chicago Tribune One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent—but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, From Harriet McBryde Johnson’s account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond: this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love.

Clinicians outside of rehabilitation psychology do not receive training on how to work with clients with disabilities. Nonetheless, given that people with disabilities comprise over 15% of the population, virtually all clinicians will have clients with disabilities in their practice. Without education or training in disability, clinicians are prone to make errors in estimating the role of disability in the presenting problems and the case formulation. Disability-Affirmative Therapy (D-AT) helps clinicians put the disability of a client into proper focus, without making one of the usual mistakes associated with cross-cultural therapy: overinflating the role of the disability, or underestimating its profound effects. D-AT provides a template for evaluation - nine areas to be discussed with the client - that allows understanding of the client's lifetime experiences with disability. The template is not a theory of therapy, but an overlay onto the therapist's own approach, thus having broad appeal and utility. D-AT is a positive and affirming approach to therapy with clients with disabilities, regardless of the theory of therapy used. The book contains many vignettes to illustrate key points and an extended case example to which the D-AT template is applied. Grounded in social and clinical psychology research, this book will be an important and unique guide to all clinicians working with clients with disabilities and their families.

The first book to attempt to provide a framework for analyzing disability through the ages, Henri-Jacques Stiker's now classic A History of Disability traces the history of western cultural responses to disability, from ancient times to the present. The sweep of the volume is broad; from a rereading and reinterpretation of the Oedipus myth to legislation regarding disability, Stiker proposes an analytical history that demonstrates how societies reveal themselves through their attitudes towards disability in unexpected ways. Through this history, Stiker examines a fundamental issue in contemporary Western discourse on disability: the cultural assumption that equality/sameness/similarity is always desired by those in society. He highlights the consequences of such a mindset, illustrating the intolerance of diversity and individualism that arises from placing such importance on equality. Working against this thinking, Stiker argues that difference is not only acceptable, but that it is desirable, and necessary. This new edition of the classic volume features a new foreword by David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder that assesses the impact of Stiker’s history on Disability Studies and beyond, twenty years after the book’s translation into English. The book will be of interest to scholars of disability, historians, social scientists, cultural anthropologists, and those who are intrigued by the role that culture plays in the development of language and thought surrounding people with disabilities.