Search results

As a “fictitious commodity” (Polanyi), that cannot be separated from the human being who is its owner, labor has a special moral significance. However, this moral quality is not a given but must be asserted in struggles over the value of labor. With the example of disabled workers in Switzerland, this chapter examines the moralization of labor as a means to revalue a category of workers who range far down the labor queue. Moralization mediates the tension between the normative societal goal of inclusion for disabled people and the freedom of employers to select the most “productive” workers. Drawing on the theoretical approach of the Economics of Convention the chapter analyzes the valuation frames proposed by economic and welfare state actors in political debates over the establishment of the Swiss disability insurance and the role of employers regarding occupational integration. A core concept used in negotiations of the value of disabled labor in the public arena and within individual businesses is the “social responsibility” of employers. Historically, employers’ associations successfully promoted the liberal principle of voluntary responsibility to prevent state interference in the labor market. In contrast, disability insurance argues predominantly within the market and the industrial convention to “sell” its clientele in the context of employer campaigns and case-related interactions with employers. Only recently, both sides started to reframe the employment of disabled people as a win–win affair, which would reconcile economic self-interest and the common good.

This chapter offers a critical evaluation of the disability scholarship of Michael Oliver, a leading developer of the British social model of disability, and Peter Singer, a philosopher whose utilitarian ethics excludes some persons with intellectual disabilities from full moral status. Through a critique of the simplified accounts of disability employed by these two very different scholars, this chapter explores the ontology and the moral significance of disability. The importance of the ontology of disability in relation to inclusion is also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to present the unreported phenomenon of migrants with sight loss who experience unsupportive behaviour and attitudes from their own ethnic community due to their disability. In presenting specific case studies from a wider PhD study which investigated the previously undocumented experiences of migrants with sight loss in Ireland, the intention is to raise awareness among service providers of the additional vulnerability of this minority group.

Migrants representing diverse ethnicities (Angolan, Algerian Nigerian, Zambian, Polish, Czech Republic, Malaysia Bangladeshi) described their experiences accessing disability services Ireland and discussed comparative attitudes towards disability in their home and host country. Service providers from the national organization working with people with sight loss were interviewed to gain an understanding of their attitudes and views on access and provision for migrants. By adopting a qualitative method following a constructivist grounded theory approach, migrants' own perceptions, beliefs, views and experiences of the sensitive subject of adjusting to sight loss while away from home were prioritised. Analysis of data was facilitated through qualitative software Atlas.ti and three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. The focus for this paper draws most significantly from the second category, support networks, most specifically the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for the migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home.

From grounded theory data analysis, three core interrelated categories emerged most prominently. They are: cultural perceptions of disability; support networks; and cultural barriers. This paper focuses most directly from findings related to support networks specifically highlighting two migrant case studies to report the impact of absence or withdrawal of support for migrant at the most vulnerable time of sight loss away from home. Service providers interviewed report inadequate information about migrants with sight loss. Evidence of stigma related to cultural perception of disability in the home community as trigger for discrimination from migrant's own network is reported by service providers. Findings are examined within an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, combining intercultural studies theories with disability models to facilitate a holistic understanding of the migrants' experience.

The challenge of coping with disability for a migrant whose ethnic community network is absent, or withdraws its support owing to an individual's disability, have implications for alerting service providers to increased vulnerability of migrant service users. Consequently, this study has implications for programs and policies and can inform the development of culturally sensitive and appropriate services.

This study raises awareness of the compounded challenge for migrants with sight loss who are unsupported by their own ethnic group while living in a host country.

This study reveals the previously unreported case of migrants who experience unsupportive behaviour from their own ethnic community following acquired disability. Evidence from migrants and their service providers demonstrates the impact of cultural perceptions of disability to influence the level of ethnic community support offered.

Despite the legacies of many talented artists with disabilities, art programs for people with disabilities are consistently framed as important because of their “therapeutic” value. Such framing is a well-established way for organizations to garner support from publics drawn to images of disabled people as tragic victims and such programs as heroic in offering help. Some non-profit art programs, however, resist this narrative.

Data come from the organizational web-site of a community-based non-profit disability centered arts education organization that takes active steps to challenge traditional tragedy narratives. Data show how the organizational narrative does this by affirming the value of disabled artists and by casting as villains the stigma, discrimination, and misinformation surrounding people with disabilities.

While this organization constructs a narrative that portrays society and art spaces as victims in that they miss out on the contributions to art that people with disabilities can produce, the organization nonetheless must also offer to community stakeholders and potential donors reasons for its existence.

This examination highlights the ways in which this organization navigates the competing demands of fund raising and disability advocacy by constructing organizational narratives that affirm people with disabilities while still articulating the value of the organization to the wider community. This suggests the complex work narratives do and the tensions that can arise when narratives serve multiple purposes for multiple audiences.

There is dearth of research pertaining to how persons with disability (PWDs) view their career and the issues they face in career development; past studies highlight either the organizational initiatives or individual factors in this regard. The present study bridges this gap by studying the PWDs' experiences and perceptions on challenges in their career development.

An exploratory study through interview of professionally qualified PWDs in India, who have a permanent employment.

PWDs experience that affirmative action has a negative fallout as it leads to positive discrimination and hence, adversely affects their confidence and development.

The present study throws up new themes in the organizational climate that the PWDs face in career development, future studies can understand the aspirations of PWDs toward career and focus on the how the PWDs engage in shaping their career. Researchers can explore strategies that PWDs plan/adopt in creating a sustainable career for themselves. Scholars can also map the issues raised by PWDs with the career outcomes.

The Rights of Persons with Disability Act, 2016, of Government of India introduces a social model of disability in India. This paper deploys the social model of disability to enhance our understanding of the disability climate in India from a new lens.

This study introduces new themes that depict the environmental factors and are related to the organizational climate rather than self-focused issues of PWDs. The paper introduces two new subjective criteria, voiced by PWDs, for career development – a well-crafted capability-based career path and role of inspirational platforms. It introduces hitherto undiscovered issues toward career development, faced by PWDs who have a secure employment and a professional career. This is the first exclusive study of PWDs employed in public sector and thus, brings uniqueness in the context.

The United States (US) system of special education committed three original sins that perpetuate inequities between children with disabilities and their peers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the history of the US system, contrast this history against international disability law and identify opportunities for leaders to transform policy and practice for inclusive education.

This paper explores the development of the three sins in US special education law: (1) weaving throughout it a medical model of disability, (2) failing to mandate inclusion and (3) hampering meaningful enforcement. The paper contrasts the US system with the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), an international law adopted by 180 nations that requires inclusion of people with disabilities at all levels of systems.

This paper finds that the United States has not embraced inclusion in education, but has permitted a continuum of segregation and integration. After a discussion of the three sins and the CRPD, the authors describe opportunities for international and US leaders to learn from the original sins of the United States and develop a system of true inclusion for all students through the transformation of policy and practice.

This paper contributes to the literature on policy development and implementation, with implications for future amendments to US education law and international public administration of education.

There has been a growing number, though still modest, of organizations in Vietnam context that hire employees with disabilities and build disability inclusive management practices and disability diversity climate for them to engage in their work roles. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how disability inclusive HR practices contribute to work engagement of employees with disabilities working in Vietnam-based information technology (IT) industry.

The research model was tested through the data collected from employees with disabilities and their direct supervisors from IT companies based in Vietnam.

The data analysis revealed that disability inclusive HR practices influenced employees with disabilities to engage in their work activities through organizational identification as a mediator. Moral leadership exhibited a positive interactive effect with disability inclusive HR practices in promoting organizational identification of employees with disabilities and, in turn, their work engagement. In addition, employees’ idiosyncratic deals were found to serve as an individual enhancer for the link between their organizational identification and work engagement.

This research sets a milestone for more empirical inquiries on disability-oriented antecedents at both organizational and individual levels that can foster work engagement of employees with disabilities.

Researchers examine the new landscape of higher education, which is changing and evolving in the twenty-first century, as many non-traditional students, especially learners with physical disabilities, are “knocking on the door of higher education” (Harbour and Madaus, 2011, p. 1). Students with physical disabilities must decide how they desire to become engaged (or not) in campus life. This study also provides a theoretical lens of the moral responsibility of the multicultural academic community. Thus, the purpose of this study is to present findings that indicate gaining insight into the isolation, stigma and advocacy of these students’ lived experiences will require openness for inclusive practices to uplift all students with goals of graduation and employment.

This research investigation includes the process of discovery being analyzed and interpreted through participants’ narratives as a rigorous act of coding, imagination and logic to aggregate findings. To elicit the findings most effectively, transcendental phenomenology is the specific qualitative approach chosen for this study.

This study includes critical findings that indicate gaining insight into the isolation, stigma and advocacy of these students’ lived educative experiences. Concerns regarding communication and support are emphasized through the participants in the findings.

A core limitation would be that this study takes places without regard for historical lived experiences.

Implications exist for this new landscape of Higher Education, as we work beyond the gates of higher education for real-change and social progress. We need to learn about others (non-traditional students) while working toward multicultural competence that should be modeled in academic spaces to impart this knowledge to students to impart into broad society. Let us remember the growth that happens when social support exists, because each person has a value and role in society so that we live together and support each other in lessons of self-empowerment

This is an original study about learners with physical disabilities and the moral issues of how to create an inclusive, multicultural environment in higher education.

This chapter explores the process through which one's moral career proceeds as one acquires a physical disability later in life. The author, who acquired a disability later in life, explores Goffman's notion of “moral career” as a process constructed from one's experience with both physical access and social access to the environment in which everyday interaction takes place. Using the extant literature and his personal experience, the author argues that one's identity as a person with a disability is always in a state of evolution. Rather than stable and fixed, it is unstable, although the rate of change is quite variable.

Change is not synonymous with improvement. Improvement of special education requires better instruction of individuals with disabilities. Although LRE and inclusion are important issues, they are not the primary legal or practical issues in improving special education. Federal law (IDEA) requires a continuum of alternative placements, not placement in general education in all cases. To make actual progress in education of students with disabilities, a single and strict principle of equality or/and antidiscriminatory legal instruments, such as the CRPD, is not enough. Social justice as a multifaceted principle can serve the education of the whole spectrum of special educational needs in national and international contexts. Responsible inclusion demands attention to the individual instructional needs of individuals with disabilities and consideration of the practical realities involved in teaching. If inclusive education is to move forward, it must involve placing students with disabilities in general education only if that is the environment in which they seem most likely to learn the skills that will be most important for their futures.