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Making it count: The power of youth advocates in the disability movement

WILM, Suzanne
LEONARD CHESHIRE
HANKS, Phil
May 2019

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The 2030 and Counting pilot project sought to give youth with disabilities a seat at the table on the SDGs – providing them with the tools and confidence they need to become their own agents of change. This report provides an overview of the project, together with learnings and recommendations for the future.

In its pilot year, 2030 and Counting brought together young women and men with disabilities and DPOs from Kenya, the Philippines and Zambia to report on and advocate for their rights through the framework of the SDGs

The project had three consecutive phases: Training, Story gathering (data collection) and Influencing. 

In total, 332 reports were collected between June and September 2018. The highest number of reports were submitted under the theme of Education (44%), followed by Work (33%), and Health (14%). The category of Other, which almost entirely focused on discrimination in daily life, accounted for 8%. 80% of reporters had smartphones, offering the potential to increase the use of this feature in future.
 

A world without Down’s syndrome? Online resistance on Twitter: #worldwithoutdowns and #justaboutcoping

BURCH, Leah
2017

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Presented by actress and comedian Sally Phillips, A World Without Down’s Syndrome has brought important ethical debates regarding prenatal screening into the public domain. By talking to people with Down’s syndrome, family members, and professionals, Sally has presented a nuanced and thorough examination of the type of world we are living in. Following the documentary, Twitter users have continued to engage with debates and have created a resilient platform for challenging public attitudes. This paper explores the ways in which Twitter hashtags have provided a space for such important and long overdue conversations. While it would not be possible to provide a full overview of the topical conversations that the two hashtags have provoked, I aim to focus on some of the most prominent topics. The following, then, will explore the potential of alternative narratives that resist, and disrupt, normative notions of the human using the hashtags #worldwithoutdowns and #justaboutcoping.

Project Re•Vision: disability at the edges of representation

RICE, Carla
CHANDLER, Eliza
HARRISON, Elisabeth
LIDDIARD, Kirsty
FERRARI, Manuela
2015

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The representational history of disabled people can largely be characterized as one of being put on display or hidden away. Self-representations have been a powerful part of the disability rights and culture movement, but recently scholars have analysed the ways in which these run the risk of creating a ‘single story’that centres the experiences of white, western, physically disabled men. Here we introduce and theorize with Project Re•Vision, our arts-based research project that resists this singularity by creating and centring, without normalizing, repre- sentations that have previously been relegated to the margins. We draw from body becoming and new materialist theory to explore the dynamic ways in which positionality illuminates bodies of difference and open into a discussion about what is at stake when these stories are let loose into the world.

Freedom to read: A personal account of the ‘book famine’

WATERMEYE, Brian
2014

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Even in the digital age, access to literature and other information for people with print impairments remains extremely poor, especially in the developing world. Reading access holds cascading implications for education, economic empowerment, social participation and self-worth. In June 2013 member states of WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization)concluded a landmark treaty to reduce copyright impediments to the dissemination of literature to print impaired people. Its effectiveness is not yet clear. Meanwhile, critics hold that disability studies’ analyses have too often lacked insight into the personal and psychological ramifications of exclusion. This article provides an account of the ‘book famine’ from the perspective of a print impaired South African disability researcher, arguing that thorough investigation of the impressions of exclusion is necessary for change. The account highlights the personal, even malignant psychological reverberations of deprivations such as the ‘bookfamine’, which may carry traumatic effects which cement the status quo.

Telemedicine and knowledge between medical and development discourses

MISCIONE, Gianluca
2005

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This paper explores the implication of health care development through ICT on local norms of participation, and local accountabilities. Drawing on an example from the Amazon, the author notes the interplay between a telemedicine system and local knowledge. He suggests that ICT is an 'accountable structure' for a model of development based on linear transmition of knowledge rather than dialogue and participation

Male, female or disabled : barriers to expression of sexuality

DEEPAK, Sunil
2002

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"This research is based in social model of disability and emancipatory research paradigm, and it explores barriers to the expression of sexuality in a small group of disabled persons in Italy. It has been carried out exclusively through Emails, Newsgroups and Internet, and it also explores the role of internet-based information technologies in participatory and emancipatory research"

Adaptech research network

ADAPTECH RESEARCH NETWORK

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Adaptech research network consists of a team of academics, students and consumers who conduct research involving college and university students with a variety of disabilities in Canada. Their goal is to provide empirically based information to assist and inform decision making that ensures that new policies and new information and communication technologies reflect the needs and concerns of a variety of stakeholders. Specifically their areas of focus are use and accessibility of information and communication technologies in postsecondary education, facilitators and barriers to academic success, and free or inexpensive software useful to students with various disabilities. The network’s website presents general information about the network and team, their research and related publications, and a database of free or inexpensive software and hardware for Windows, Mac, and Apple

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