Disability, Divers-Ability and Legal Change

This text ventures into the area where law and disability intersect. Drawing on developments in the emerging field of disability studies and on a new-found human rights perspective on disability, the contributions traverse topics as wide-ranging as citizenship, feminism, eugenics, euthanasia, and sexual abuse of people with disabilities, and analyze disability law at both a domestic and international level. Informed by the social model of disability, this work brings together academics and disability activists from Australia, Europe and North America. The book is interdisciplinary in nature, with contributors coming from sociology, education, law, geography, philosophy, and cultural studies.

Acknowledgments. Preface. Foreword. About the Authors. Part 1: Life: The Social Recognition & Definition of Disability. 1. Law and the Social Construction of Disability; M. Jones, L.A. Basser Marks. 2. What Is a Disabled Person? T. Shakespeare. 3. The Rule of Normalcy: Politics and Disability in the United States of Ability; L. Davis. 4. Reflections on a Journey: Geographical Perspectives on Disability; G. Smith. 5. Riding with the Man on the Escalator: Citizenship and Disability; L. Davis. 6. Double Consciousness, Triple Difference: Disability, Race, Gender and the Politics of Recognition; A. Silvers. 7. Minority Rights or Universal Participation: The Politics of Disablement; J. Bickenbach. Part 2: Law: Legal Responses; Legislation, Constitutional Issues. 8.The Standard Rules: A Weak Instrument and a Strong Commitment; D. Michailakis. 9. The Office of the Disability Ombudsman in Sweden; I. Claesson Wastberg. 10. The European Community's Response to Disability; L. Waddington. 11. From Social (In)Security to Equal Employment Opportunity - A Report from the Netherlands; A. Hendriks. 12. The Canadian Framework for Disability Equality Rights; M. Rioux, C. Frazee. 13. Disability, Rights and Law in Australia; M. Jones, L.A. Basser Marks. 14. From Welfare to Rights?: Disability and Legal Change in the United Kingdom in the Late 1990's; B. Doyle. 15. Toward Equality: The ADA's Accommodation of Differences; A. Kanter. Part 3: Life in Law: Specific Application of Law and Disability. 16. From Healthism to Social Well-Being: Health-Related Human Rights of People with Disabilities; K. Tomasevski. 17. Bioethics, Disability and Death: Uncovering Cultural Bias in the Euthanasia Debate; J. Fitzgerald. 18. Peeking through the Eyes of the Body: Regulating the Bodies of Women with Disabilities; I. Karpin. 19. A Long Road to Justice: Serial Abuse of People with Disabilities; L. Chenoweth. 20. People with an Intellectual Disability in the Criminal Justice System; L. Byrnes. 21. Struggling with the Fabric of Disablement: Picking up the Threads of the Law and Education; S. Cook, R. Slee. 22. Advocacy; R. Banks. References.