Disability and the Life Course, first published in 2001, explores the global experience of disability using a novel life course approach. The book explores how disabling societies impact on disabled people's life experiences, and highlights the ways in which disabled people have acted to take more control over their own lives. It provides a unique combination of analysis, policy issues and autobiography, offering the reader a rare opportunity to make links between the theoretical, the political and the personal in a single volume. The material is set in a truly international context, with contributions from thirteen different countries bringing together established and emerging writers, both disabled and non-disabled. The book bridges some important gaps in the existing disability literature by including issues relevant to disabled people of all ages and with different kinds of impairments and also by offering a unique analysis of the relationship between disability and generation in a changing world.

The SAGE Reference Series on Disability is a cross-disciplinary and issues-based series incorporating links from varied fields that make up Disability Studies. This volume tackles issues relating to disability through the life course.

Disability: a Life Course Approach provides students and teachers with easy access to many of the most important current disability issues and debates. It provides a clearly focused account, and bridges some important gaps in the existing disability literature by including issues relevant to disabled people of all ages. If offers a unique approach to understanding disabling societies in a systematic way, using a novel life course approach. This book examines how contemporary societies organise and control generational boundaries and progression through the life course for disabled people. There are specific chapters on birthrights and eugenics, childhood, youth transitions, interdependence and adulthood, old age and death and dying. The emphasis is on contemporary policy and politics (located within a broader sociological and cultural context) including the claims and struggles of the disabled people's movement. The discussion is framed within a social model approach and draws extensively on contemporary international debates about the citizenship and human rights of disabled people. The book functions both as a resource guide and as a tool for learning. The various chapters include reviews of existing literature and theoretical debates, alongside specific examples of disabling policies and practices in different countries. There are also case studies illustrating key issues, together with relevant discussion and teaching points, and suggestions for further research and reading. The book addresses an international readership and will be of particular interest to students and teachers of disability studies, sociology, human development, social policy; to professionals and students within rehabilitation and social work; and to disabled people and lay readers with an interest in contemporary disability issues and debates.

This is the first book to address the issue of ageing after a long life with disability. It breaks new ground through its particular life course perspective, examining what it means to age with a physical or mental disability and what the implications are of 'becoming old' for people who have had extensive disabilities for many years. These people may have had to leave the labour market early, and the book looks at available care resources, both formal and informal. Ageing with disability challenges set ideas about successful ageing, as well as some of those about disabilities. The life course approach that is used unfolds important insights about the impact of multiple disabilities over time and on the phases of life. The book highlights the meaning of care in unexplored contexts, such as where ageing parents are caregivers or regarding mutual care in disabled couples. These are areas of knowledge which have, to date, been totally neglected.

Over the last three decades, a number of reforms have taken place in European social policy with an impact on the opportunities for persons with disabilities to be full and active members of society. The policy reforms have aimed to change the balance between citizens’ rights and duties and the opportunities to enjoy choice and autonomy, live in the community and participate in political decision-making processes of importance for one’s life. How do the reforms influence the opportunities to exercise Active Citizenship? This volume presents the findings from the first cross-national comparison of how persons with disabilities reflexively make their way through the world, pursuing their own interests and values. The volume considers how their experiences, views and aspirations regarding participation vary across Europe. Based on retrospective life-course interviews, the volume examines the scope for agency on the part of persons with disabilities, i.e. the extent to which men and women with disabilities are able to make choices and pursue lives they have reasons to value. Drawing on structuration theory and the capability approach, the volume investigates the opportunities for exercising Active Citizenship among men and women in nine European countries. The volume identifies the policy implications of a process-oriented and multi-dimensional approach to Active Citizenship in European disability policy. It will appeal to policymakers and policy officials, as well as to researchers and students of disability studies, comparative social policy, international disability law and qualitative research methods.

This path-breaking international handbook of disability studies signals the emergence of a vital new area of scholarship, social policy and activism. Drawing on the insights of disability scholars around the world and the creative advice of an international editorial board, the book engages the reader in the critical issues and debates framing disability studies and places them in an historical and cultural context. Five years in the making, this one volume summarizes the ongoing discourse ranging across continents and traditional academic disciplines. To provide insight and perspective, the volume is divided into three sections: The shaping of disability studies as a field; experiencing disability; and, disability in context. Each section, written by world class figures, consists of original chapters designed to map the field and explore the key conceptual, theoretical, methodological, practice and policy issues that constitute the field. Each chapter provides a critical review of an area, positions and literature and an agenda for future research and practice. The handbook answers the need expressed by the disability community for a thought provoking, interdisciplinary, international examination of the vibrant field of disability studies. The book will be of interest to disabled people, scholars, policy makers and activists alike. The book aims to define the existing field, stimulate future debate, encourage respectful discourse between different interest groups and move the field a step forward.

Many practitioners within health and social care come into contact with people with intellectual disabilities and want to work in ways that are beneficial to them by making reasonable adjustments in order to meet clients’ needs and expectations. Yet the health and wellbeing of people with learning disabilities continues to be a neglected area, where unnecessary suffering and premature deaths continue to prevail. This text provides a comprehensive insight into intellectual disability healthcare. It is aimed at those who are training in the field of intellectual disability nursing and also untrained practitioners who work in both health and social care settings. Divided into five sections, it explores how a wide range of biological, health, psychological and social barriers impact upon people with learning disability, and includes: Six guiding principles used to adjust, plan and develop meaningful and accessible health and social services Assessment, screening and diagnosis of intellectual disability across the life course Addressing lifelong health needs Psychological and psychotherapeutic issues, including sexuality, behavioural and mental health needs, bereavement, and ethical concerns. The changing professional roles and models of meeting the needs of people with intellectual and learning disabilities. Intellectual Disability in Health and Social Care provides a wide-ranging overview of what learning disability professionals’ roles are and provides insight into what health and social care practitioners might do to assist someone with intellectual disabilities when specific needs arise.