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A shift from a medical model to a social model of including learners with disabilities has occurred over the past 25 years (Stella, Forlin, & Lan, 2007). This shift has impacted both preservice teacher preparation and in-service teacher professional development. This chapter utilizes a conceptual framework built on the work of Forlin and colleagues (Forlin, Loreman, Sharma, & Earle, 2009; Sharma, Forlin, Loreman, & Earle, 2006; Stella et al., 2007) to guide teacher preparation and professional development. This conceptual framework provides a model for (1) addressing attitudes and perceptions; (2) increasing knowledge of disability policies, laws, and evidence-based practices for providing instruction in inclusive settings; (3) and increasing experiences with individuals with disabilities, including experiences within inclusive settings. In addition, the framework incorporates aspects of the context within which inclusion is to occur. Implications include recommendations for teacher training and professional development to improve inclusive education for learners with LID.

This report provides information on the cultural environment of professionals concerned with disability, and the implications of that environment for the inclusion and participation of disabled persons in society. We place that environment within an historical context sensitive to the role of power and the constructed nature of the social world to illustrate the importance of cultural environments for understanding factors shaping inclusion of disabled persons.

We use data from coding terms used in the Review of Educational Research for nearly 80 years to examine the cultural environment of professionals concerned with disabilities and suggest such an environment may characterize many professions and the social sciences generally. We examine 23 terms used in academic discourse to refer to disabled populations, tracking change in use of the terms over 80 years.

There has been increased attention to disability from the 1930s to the early 2000s. The increase has been accompanied by a decline in use of terms undermining the dignity and capability of disabled persons, and an increase in terms providing a context for dignity and capability. Such changes suggest a cultural environment propitious for inclusion and participation of disabled and disadvantaged persons.

Implications are considered through a model noting the role of a positive cultural environment in shaping inclusion and participation of disabled populations. The model suggests the power and limitations of cultural environments, while at the same time noting the role of countervailing processes hindering greater inclusion and participation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between (1) employed parents' work–family conflict (WFC), (2) their children with disabilities' support needs, (3) their children's age, and (4) those parents' levels of school engagement.

Data were collected from 193 US parents of children with disabilities who completed a survey regarding work and family strain as well as school engagement. Descriptive statistical and correlational analyses were used, followed by moderated regression analysis.

Results indicate that higher levels of WFC have a negative impact on parents' school engagement. Similarly, children with disabilities' increased needs for parental support have a negative impact on school engagement. Moreover, the age of children with disabilities holds a moderating role in the relationship between support needs and school engagement.

Human resource managers can acquire information regarding employed parents of children with disabilities' increased support needs and formalize flexible policies leading to supportive workplace cultures. School personnel can instigate a range of options that facilitate parents' school engagement, such as maximizing use of technology via virtual meetings and activities.

These innovative findings contribute to theoretical underpinnings in work and family strain research as well as conservation of resources theory, given the lack of previous empirical work specific to children with disabilities and their employed parents.

It is a common feature of both the English and the US legal systems that any person injured through the fault of another can claim monetary compensation, in the form of damages, for the injuries sustained.¹ The objective and measure of such damages is also the same across the jurisdictions, namely to restore the individual, in financial terms and in as far as it is possible to do so, to their pre-injury position. However, the approaches adopted in the two countries towards determining the level of damages are very different. In the United States, courts make extensive use of economists (called forensic economists), economic data and econometric methods to quantify damages, particularly in the calculation of those which relate to future losses. The courts in Britain do not, favouring instead the routine application of a simplified formula which is populated by figures chosen by judges, albeit with increasing reference to published actuarial averages. There has been a long-standing antipathy on the part of the judiciary towards evidence from financial experts. This has been justified on the grounds that predicting the future is nothing more than crystal ball gazing for which a judge is as well suited as any other profession.²

Two strands of the literature are combined, namely the modeling of disability insurance and the design, valuation and discussion of insurance-linked securities.

This paper provides a discussion regarding the advantages and detriments of disability-linked securities in comparison with mortality-linked bonds and swaps as well as regarding potential disability-linked indices and the potential use. The discussion is followed by an introduction of a potential design and a corresponding valuation of disability bonds and swaps.

This securitization will provide useful tools for the risk management of disability risk in a risk-based regulatory framework.

No disability-linked securities have been defined and discussed so far.

In this chapter, we explore the role of disability-based employee resource groups (ERG) in implementing large organizations' disability inclusion strategies and how pandemic responses shaped the workplace treatment and inclusion of disabled employees.

We conducted semi-structured interviews with disability-based ERG members and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals in large corporate settings. Then, we analyzed how pandemic-induced changes in the workplace impacted disability inclusion efforts and experiences of disabled employees.

Results from our study revealed that workplace disability inclusion responsibilities shifted to disability-based ERGs during the onset of the pandemic. Participants detailed how organizational disability inclusion practices and policies expanded through increased awareness among some employee bases and were de-prioritized to the point of erasure in other situations. Within the context of the pandemic, members of disability-based ERGs played an integral part in both enhancing visibility of disability and responding to instances of ableism in their respective organizations.

Findings provide context as to how shifting organizational contexts, such as pandemic related workplace policies, becomes disabling, and in turn illustrate the fluid nature of disability. By framing disability as an evolving (fluid) identity category and prioritizing the awareness of disabled perspectives, organizations can better support disabled employees in their future, overarching DEI strategies and approaches to workplace inclusion post-pandemic.

We propose that institutional actors do not just ceremonially comply with the cultural values in their environment, as institutional theorists have suggested. Instead, we argue that institutional actors can use conflicting cultural values as tools to further their interests and, in doing so, affect significant social problems and cause unanticipated changes in their core goals and policies. To present support for that proposition, we describe an epidemic of work disability that occurred in the Netherlands between 1967 and 1988. The epidemic is examined in light of conflicting Dutch cultural conceptions of the meaning of work and the meaning of economic security in the welfare state. The behavior of key institutional actors, including the government, medical institutions, employers, and labor unions, is examined to identify their roles in the epidemic. We assert that, by pursuing its own interests while upholding Dutch cultural values, each institutional actor produced conditions in which the work disability epidemic could occur.

The purpose of this study is to describe knowledge, awareness and experience of different employees in a Swedish municipality (City of Gothenburg) concerning the disability perspective, accessibility and universal design in practice.

This study is based on an online survey. A total of 119 different employees responded to the survey. The data was analyzed from a mixed-method approach, using descriptive statistics and textual analysis. The study also included personal interviews with 19 employees in the City of Gothenburg.

A total of 521 employees in the City of Gothenburg participated in disability awareness exercises (DAE) at the Disability Awareness Arena to gain greater knowledge and insight on disability perspectives in different environments and services. Of these, 119 people representing different professions in soft and hard services and companies participated in the survey; and 19 people participated in personal interviews. The study showed that a vast majority of them were very satisfied and they have developed and practiced their new knowledge and attitude toward disability and accessibility.

One limitation in this study is that it has investigated the experiences and effects of the DAE 6–12 months after its implementation. Therefore, it is not possible to analyze long-term effects that the DAE can have in practice.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no prior study of these issues has been conducted in Sweden. This study is deemed to have significant social benefit because of the steadily increasing demand for disability simulations, awareness of disability perspective and accessibility in municipality settings. No other study has addressed the importance of the DAE in these perspectives. DAE is defined in this article as a unique concept for promoting the usage of the disability perspective in the everyday workplace.

This chapter provides a comprehensive description of special education in Bangladesh. It begins with the early origins of special education and then proceeds with definitions of and prevalence of current disabilities in Bangladesh. This section is followed by governmental policies and legislation related to the right to education for all students with disabilities. Next, educational intervention methods are delineated along with a description of governmental special schools and teacher training and preparation of special educational professions. Early intervention practices and working with families is also discussed. The chapter ends with the progress that Bangladesh has made and the challenges that remain.

The National Health Interview Survey Supplement on Disability (NHIS-D) represents an extraordinary accomplishment to which many people have contributed. The breadth of items collected from a nationally representative sample of persons with disabilities, of all ages, enables us to undertake many analyses that were not previously possible. Several examples of recently conducted analyses that were stimulated by federal policies and programs are discussed. The paper presents suggestions for facilitating additional analyses. Strategies and options for collecting data on persons with disabilities in the future are also discussed.