SHSU Common Reader 2022: Sitting Pretty

This book's mission is to integrate knowledge and practice from the fields of disability studiesand special education. Parts I & II focus on the broad, foundational topics that comprise disability studies (culture, language, and history) and Parts III & IV move into practical topics (curriculum, co-teaching, collaboration, classroom organization, disability-specific teaching strategies, etc.) associated with inclusive education. This organization conforms to the belief that least restrictive environments(the goal of inclusive education) necessarily emerges from least restrictive attitudes(the goal of disability studies). Discussions throughout the book attempt to illustrate the intersection of theory and practice.

The United Nations adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) constituted a paradigm shift in attitudes and approaches to disability rights, marking the first time in law-making history that persons with disabilities participated as civil society representatives and contributed to the drafting of an international treaty. On the way, they brought a new kind of diplomacy forward: empowering nongovernmental stakeholders, including persons with disabilities, within human rights discourse. This landmark treaty provides an opportunity to consider what it means to involve members of a global civil society in UN-level negotiations. Human Rights and Disability Advocacy brings together perspectives from individual representatives of the Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), indigenous peoples' organizations, states, and national institutions that played leading roles in the Convention's drafting process. The contributors provide vivid and personal accounts of the paths to victory, including stumbling blocks--not all of which were overcome--and offer a unique look into the politics of civil society organizations both from within and in its interaction with governments. Each essay describes the nonnegotiable key issues for which they advocated; the extent of success in reaching their goals; and insights into the limitations they faced. Through the plurality of voices and insider perspectives, Human Rights and Disability Advocacy presents fresh perspectives on the shift toward a new diplomacy and explores the implication of this model for human rights advocacy more generally. Contributors: Andrew Byrnes, Heidi Forrest, Phillip French, Lex Grandia, Huhana Hickey, Markku Jokinen, Liisa Kauppinen, Mi Yeon Kim, Gerison Lansdown, Connie Laurin-Bowie, Tirza Leibowitz, Don MacKay, Anna MacQuarrie, Ronald C. McCallum AO, Tara J. Melish, Pamela Molina Toledo, Maya Sabatello, Marianne Schulze, Belinda Shaw.

Compelling first-person accounts of the struggle to secure equal rights for Americans with disabilities.

More than 1 billion people worldwide have a disability, and they are all affected by politics. This two-volume work explores key topics at the heart of disability policy, such as voting, race, gender, age, health care, social security, transportation, abuse, and the environment. Disability policy is no longer an area that can be adequately addressed within major areas of public policy such as welfare, health, labor, and education. Disability has become widely acknowledged in recent decades, partly because of the increasing number of disabled citizens across all demographic populations. Advocates argue that diversity of all kinds deserves recognition and accommodation. This set examines policies targeting disability to provide a multifaceted description of the political participation of people with disabilities as well as disability policy development in the United States. The first volume focuses on political participation and voting issues, and the second volume covers disability public policy. In these two volumes, numerous scholars and experts in the social sciences and humanities explore timely topics that are key to disability policy questions, including activism, voting, race, gender, age, health care, social security, civil rights, abuse, the environment, and even death. Readers will better understand the challenges that policymakers face in grappling with controversies over issues of social engineering and public policy, often attempting to reconcile majority experience with minority rights.

In this updated edition, Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames expand their encyclopedic history of the struggle for disability rights in the United States, to include the past ten years of disability rights activism.The book includes a new chapter on the evolving impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the continuing struggle for cross-disability civil and human rights, and the changing perceptions of disability. The authors provide a probing analysis of such topics as deinstitutionalization, housing, health care, assisted suicide, employment, education, new technologies, disabled veterans, and disability culture. Based on interviews with over one hundred activists, The Disability Rights Movement tells a complex and compelling story of an ongoing movement that seeks to create an equitable and diverse society, inclusive of people with disabilities.

This wide-ranging book shows why Paul Longmore is one of the most respected figures in disability studies today. Understanding disability as a major variety of human experience, he urges us to establish it as a category of social, political, and historical analysis in much the same way that race, gender, and class already have been. The essays here search for the often hidden pattern of systemic prejudice and probe into the institutionalized discrimination that affects the one in five Americans with disabilities.Whether writing about the social critic Randolph Bourne, contemporary political activists, or media representations of people with disabilities, Longmore demonstrates that the search for heroes is a key part of the continuing struggle of disabled people to gain a voice and to shape their destinies. His essays on bioethics and public policy examine the conflict of agendas between disability rights activists and non-disabled policy makers, healthcare professionals, euthanasia advocates, and corporate medical bureaucracies. The title essay, which concludes the book, demonstrates the necessity of activism for any disabled person who wants access to the American dream.