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People subjectively engage in the production and reproduction of what constitutes “feeling normal.” Objective standards of normalcy for the able-bodied are created and maintained by institutions (e.g., medicine, the state, business, the mass media, and family), and these standards are learned by individuals who socialize the next generation in a continuous cycle. Having a disability does not exempt a person from standards and values of “able-bodied normalcy,” nor does it prevent her/him from reproducing these standards for future generations. Thus, it is possible, if not probable, that persons with disabilities live in and reproduce the able-bodied lifeworld, sustaining, what is for the person with a physical disability, an unattainable standard of normalcy. Approximating and ultimately achieving “normalcy” in this situation or at least the presentation of “normalcy” (Goffman, 1959, 1963) may occupy a sizeable portion of everyday life. More importantly here, “feeling normal” emerges when the social constructions of reality allows the person with a physical disability to be part of a generation and everyday life. There is, in other words, a “frame” for defining normality, and physical disability is a key to changing this frame (Goffman, 1974).

A person’s value in terms of physical and mental abilities, talents and skills is not simply located in degrees of her/his body’s ability to function. Efforts to achieve social and workplace equality for people with a physical/body or psychological/mental disability have grown to a transnational social movement. The community of people with a disability may be among the largest, most diverse group of people. By examining disability through lenses of cultural, economic, and political contexts, Chapter 10 underscores the importance of understanding how and why experiences and issues associated with social identity shaped by these dimensions has captured the attention of policymakers and employers around the world.

A person’s identity is socially constructed and impacted by government policy, cultural values, and organizational decision making. The field of disability studies is dedicated to advancing greater understanding of experiences of people with a disability and empowering them to pursue happy and fulfilling lives. Institutionalized manifestations of stigma, ableism, discrimination, and bias diminish these pursuits, however. People everywhere and the organizations staffed and managed by them are urged to consider the positive outcomes of fully embracing people with a disability for their ability to perform responsibilities and to bring unique perspectives on organizational practices and exchanges with key stakeholders. Chapter 10 examines subthemes central to the study of social identity among people with a disability: paradigm shift and policy making about disability, legislation and policy, people working with a disability in organizations, language and naming debates, and disability and other social identity intersectionalities.

Previous research has shown that individuals with disabilities are likely to be less satisfied with their jobs as compared to the able‐bodied. None of them explain the reasons for this difference. The purpose of this paper is to contend that this might be due to certain factors such as discrimination, harassment, or other conditions at the workplace. It might also be due to lower relative incomes.

The paper uses nationally representative Canadian data and attempts to account for the low levels of job satisfaction among Canadians with disabilities.

The results show that when certain workplace characteristics are introduced into the model, individuals with a mobility disability are no longer likely to be less satisfied as compared to individuals without disabilities. However, the negative effect for certain other types of disabilities remains, though the magnitude decreases. It is concluded that absence of assistive technology or employer accommodations might be the reason for the remaining satisfaction difference between those with disabilities and the able‐bodied.

This paper adds to the existing literature on job satisfaction by studying the relationship between disability, workplace characteristics and job satisfaction.

This study aims to investigate the behaviour of building users and how this impacts upon building energy performance. Specifically, the work examines the behavioural traits of able-bodied users of a large higher education building who erroneously access and egress the building using doorways intended for disabled users.

An inductive methodological approach is adopted that uses grounded theory to devise new insights into building users’ access and egress habits. Structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data from 68 building users of a large educational building over a four-week period. Responses to questions posed provide the basis for a tabularisation of behavioural traits.

Reasons for able-bodied building users’ preferences to using disabled access are identified and discussed; these are thematically grouped under the headings of apathy, convenience, emergency, ergonomics, ignorance and phobia. Building upon these findings, the research then offers insights into the approaches that could be adopted to change the erroneous behaviours. These approaches include education of building users on the impact their behaviour has upon building performance and environmental pollution, more stringent regulation to penalise repeat offenders and changes to building entrance design using obtrusive (i.e. radio frequency identification tags) and unobstrusive control measures (i.e. a second entrance doorway or slower opening mechanism).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the rationale for able-bodied building users erroneously using disabled persons’ access and egress doorways within a building, which as a consequence, inadvertently reduces the building’s environmental performance.

The paper seeks to explore sexual behaviours and reproductive health knowledge among in‐school young people with disabilities (PWD) in Ibadan, Nigeria.

In the paper a structured questionnaire was administered to 103 randomly selected PWD, aged ten to 25, from four integrated secondary schools in Ibadan. The data were collected through face‐to‐face interview. Five categories of disability included were hearing and speech, sight, speech, intellectual, and physical disabilities.

The paper finds that 57 percent of the sample were females and 43 percent were males. Of the 36 (35 percent) respondents who were sexually active, 17 did not give a definite reason for their sexual initiation, nine were influenced by peers, five were “experimenting” with sex, four were raped, while one person began sexual activity for monetary gains. A total of 17 percent of the respondents had either procured abortion or been involved in the procurement of abortion for a sexual partner. In total 28 percent of the sample reported ever being raped. In total, 43 percent had been fondled, kissed, or caressed, against their wishes. Knowledge of contraceptives was reported by 40 percent. A total of 23 percent had never used condoms, while 6 percent were consistent condom users. Half of the respondents had heard about HIV/AIDS, 9 percent had tested for HIV, while 16 percent reported previous episodes of sexually transmitted infections. In total, 70 percent did not know where they could access reproductive health services.

The paper shows that there is an urgent need to develop specific programs for young people with disabilities, especially for those in schools, to address knowledge and behaviour issues regarding reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.

The purpose of this paper is to complement and extend accounting studies on gender and post-colonialism by examining the interrelationship between accounting, gender and sexuality within an imperial context.

Archival materials enable the construction of an accounting knowledge of how ideas of masculinity and sexuality shaped both female and male participation in distant British colonies.

By exploring the manner in which accounting may be implicated in micro-practices through which gendered/sexualized relations are produced in societies the paper finds that empire’s colonial project on Indian indentured workers, the constitution of their identities, and the translation of abstract policies into practice were facilitated by accounting instruments for management and control.

Original research based on archival studies of British colonial documents.

The system of government-run poor relief in England, dating from the sixteenth century, was not replicated in Europe until the mid- to late 1800s. In order to understand why, poor relief must be placed within the socio-economic framework of capitalism, a system of surplus appropriation which originated in the novel class relations of English agriculture. The English way of dealing with poverty was distinctive and this distinctiveness was rooted in the unparalleled expansion of capitalism in that country in the early modern era. Assistance to the poor in England emerged alongside a qualitative social change, wherein an economy rooted in custom was transformed into one based on the competitive social relations of capitalism. The main conclusion of this article is that the welfare state was not a product of industrialization but of the class structure of agrarian capitalism.

This phenomenological study aims to explore how media promote and should promote wheelchair rugby.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 athletes at National Wheelchair Rugby Championship. In using a reflective thematical analysis approach, three themes were identified – media coverage: the promise of an unknown quantity; the battle of inspiration and athleticism; and leverage marketing and promote the “wow”.

Lacking fair representation from media resulting in the perception and reception gap between the general public and spectators was identified and explained by most of the athletes. Besides urging increased coverage with a shifting focus on athleticism, the important role of marketing was highlighted.

In short, the “wow” factor of the sport is its aggressiveness which can be its bestselling feature and used by stakeholders for maximum impact when marketing wheelchair rugby.

The purpose of this paper is to design an adaptation algorithm to facilitate pointing in electronic interfaces by users with motor impairment.

First, the algorithm was optimized using a simulator, then the algorithm was validated through a user study involving seven motor‐impaired and six able‐bodied users and three different pointing devices.

The algorithm significantly reduces pointing time overall and most participants pointed quicker with the gravity well than without it.

The adaptation algorithm can significantly reduce pointing time for both motor and situational impairment.