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The introduction presents the pandemic context as the new sanitary surveillance regime that has even more affected persons with disabilities. This book focuses on welfare disability policy, services and practices for and with people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic time, examining the period between Winter 2020 and Spring 2022. A pandemic is a time when changes are accelerated, forcing the emergence of new solutions. The pandemic has called for innovation and reform in all disability welfare policies to overcome increasing and changing social needs. Despite the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the European Strategy 2021–2030, the impact of the pandemic has been different in each country according to the features of each national policy framework and local responses. Nevertheless, the European policy framework is the context and the benchmarking reference for the analysis carried out in this work. This book develops a sociological analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on policies, services and practices in several European contexts adopting a public sociology perspective. Moreover, the book looks at supportive and self-help activities implemented during the pandemic to answer the needs of the persons with disabilities. By collecting these data, the book outlines and develops the concept of a community of practices as a group of people that share a concern for something they do and learn how to do it better by interacting with each other on a regular basis. Then the structure and the methodological choices of the book are presented.

How can a qualitative life course approach inform the analysis of the impact of disability policy on individual lives? This contribution puts forward the concept of policy reception in an effort to apply the key principles of a life course perspective to the study of policy impact, a perspective which is of particular relevance in the case of disability policy. Drawing on a broader qualitative study of the reception of disability policy in France, the paper, focusing on the in-depth analysis of two life stories, makes two main contributions. The first is theoretical, putting forward the concept of policy reception to address the missing link between “the state and the life course,” as pointed out by Mayer and Schoepflin (1989). The second is methodological, detailing how biographical interviews, following this life course approach, can be used to operationalize this concept of policy reception. These contributions are illustrated by study results focusing on the reception of disability-related educational policies.

Welfare policies for persons with disabilities have been strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and this introductory chapter provides the theoretical background to the book. Definition, data and main European policies about disabilities are outlined. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is the key pillar of disability policies in European countries. In line with a Disability Studies perspective, COVID-19 health surveillance regime has been a challenge in the implementation process of the UNCRPD, highlighting the role of lay knowledge and community of practices in managing everyday challenges for persons with disabilities and their families, and therefore their potential role in becoming part of epistemic communities to support the policy making and implementation process of the UNCRPD.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, disability rights found a place on the U.S. policy agenda. However, it did not do so because social movement groups pressured political elites or because politicians were responding to changes in public preferences. Drawing from recent work in neo-institutionalism and social movements, namely the theory of strategic action fields, I posit that exogenous shocks in the 1960s caused a disability policy monopoly to collapse giving way to a new policy community. Using original longitudinal data on congressional committees, hearings, bills, and laws, as well as data from the Policy Agendas Project, I demonstrate the ways in which entrepreneurs pursued a new policy image of rights within a context of increasing committee involvement, issue complexity, and space on the policy agenda, and the consequences this had on policy.

Library association policies and guidelines are important to study because they reflect consensus values of the profession. As such, they can shape the association, itself, and set the tone for the values of its individual members in their professional practice. From the titles alone, these documents proclaim themselves to be guides for the development of individual library policy. Additionally, as library and information science (LIS) graduate education programs are accredited by national associations, LIS schools pay attention to association policies and guidelines to help shape professional and continuing education. In these ways, they have a role in shaping professional ideology around a topic. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The services to persons with disabilities policies from three national-level LIS organizations were analyzed through a thematic analysis.

The guidelines speak to a shared understanding of disability and accessibility around the themes of library staff, library policies and library resources and services. While not surprising, additional themes around disability context and legislation show a shared understanding of accessibility that is much broader than what the legislation requires.

An analysis of guidelines on services to persons with disabilities from the American Library Association (ALA), Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) is of interest because of the ways these organizations intersect. The ALA and ALIA have reciprocal agreements so that students in LIS education programs are recognized as equivalents. Second, the ALA accredits library education programs in Canada. Given these intersecting relationships, the guidelines-shared notions of accessibility become of high interest.

This paper aims to critically examine the discourse on the disability workforce in Australian tourism policy and planning documents.

This research draws on a database of 490 Australian tourism policy and planning documents, across national, state, regional and local levels of governments, destination management organisations and peak industry bodies, to systematically examine the issues pertaining to disability workforce over the ten-year policy cycle (2013–2023), through critical discourse analysis.

Analysis revealed 20 of the existing 490 documents had mentions of the inclusion of people with disability (PWD) in the tourism workforce. Through critical discourse analysis, the nuances of political attitudes are evident. Tourism policies tend to exert a cautious approach towards the inclusion of PWD employment. PWD do not have a strong voice when it comes to the formation of tourism policy, especially not as members of the tourism workforce.

This research underscores an emerging call for the government’s commitment to considering the underrepresented social group of PWD in the tourism workforce. By shedding light on critical discourse analysis of the disability workforce, tourism scholars and practitioners understand the current challenges and explore opportunities to implement tangible actions for an inclusive work environment for all.

The research is novel and innovative as it critically examines the discourse of the disability workforce in the tourism sector through an institutional theory perspective. The limited emphasis of government policies on the disability workforce may result in missed opportunities to encourage meaningful employment engagement of PWD in tourism organisations. Consequently, this research contributes a tripartite model of policy recommendations that explicitly articulates the mechanisms for change that are tailored to tourism workforce and advocates for the active voices of PWD community in the policy formation process.

本研究旨在对澳大利亚旅游政策和规划文件中有关残疾人劳动力的讨论进行批判性话语分析。

本研究采用了490份澳大利亚旅游政策和规划文件, 涵盖了国家、州、地区和地方政府、目的地管理组织和行业峰会机构的文件, 系统地分析了 2013 年至 2023 年的10年政策周期内有关残疾人劳动力的讨论。

分析显示, 在现有的 490 份文件中, 有20份提到了在旅游业中的残疾和工作包容性。通过批判性话语分析, 可以看出政治态度的细微差别。旅游政策在雇佣残疾人时往往采取谨慎的态度。在关于旅游业工作政策的制定过程中, 残疾人的声音略显薄弱。

本研究强调了政府应致力于考虑残疾人这一少数社会群体在旅游劳动力中的参与度。通过揭示残疾人工作的批判性话语分析, 旅游学者和从业者能够了解当前面临的挑战, 并采取切实可行的措施来创造更具包容性的工作环境。

本研究具有新颖性和创新性。它从制度理论的角度批判性地审视了旅游业中残疾人工作的讨论。政府政策对残疾人工作的重视不足可能导致错失在旅游相关公司促进残疾人有意义的就业参与机会。因此, 本研究提出了一个三方政策建议模型, 明确阐述了针对旅游业工作的变革机制, 并倡导在政策制定过程中积极听取残疾人社区的建议。

Este artículo tiene como objetivo examinar en profundidad el tema del personal discapacitado en los documentos de política y planificación turística en Australia.

Esta investigación parte de una base de datos de 490 documentos de política y planificación del turismo australiano del gobierno a nivel nacional, estatal, regional y local, de las organizaciones de gestión de destinos y de los organismos del sector turístico, para examinar sistemáticamente las cuestiones relativas al personal con discapacidad a lo largo del ciclo político de 10 años (2013–2023).

El análisis reveló que 20 de los 490 documentos existentes mencionaban la inclusión de personas con discapacidad (PcD) en el empleo turístico. El análisis crítico del discurso pone de manifiesto los matices de las actitudes políticas. Las políticas turísticas tienden a adoptar un enfoque cauteloso hacia la inclusión laboral de las PcD. Las PcD no presentan una voz fuerte cuando se trata de la formación de la política turística, especialmente como miembros del empleo turístico.

Esta investigación destaca la necesidad emergente de un compromiso gubernamental para considerar al grupo social subrepresentado de personas con discapacidad en el empleo turístico. Al arrojar luz sobre el análisis del discurso crítico del empleo turístico con PcD, los investigadores y profesionales del turismo comprende los retos actuales y exploran las oportunidades de poner en práctica acciones tangibles para un entorno laboral inclusivo para todos.

La investigación es novedosa e innovadora, ya que examina en profundidad el personal con discapacidad en el sector turístico bajo un enfoque de la teoría institucional. El limitado énfasis de las políticas gubernamentales del personal con discapacidad puede hacer que se pierdan oportunidades de fomentar una participación laboral significativa de las PcD en las organizaciones turísticas. En consecuencia, esta investigación aporta un modelo tripartito de recomendaciones políticas que articula explícitamente los mecanismos de cambio adaptados a los trabajadores del sector turístico y aboga por la participación de la comunidad de PcD en el proceso de formulación de políticas.

The chapter presents the similarities and the differences between the different case studies reported in the book and suggests some conclusion on the impact of COVID-19 on policies and practices devoted to persons with cognitive disabilities from a macro, meso and micro point of view. The COVID-19 surveillance regime has made people with disabilities, and particularly with intellectual ones, even more invisible, since their rights have been consistently under-represented in the different national contexts. Persons with intellectual disabilities have been considered objects of protection and this overprotective stance turns into an increasing process of institutionalisation, segregation and familiarisation of care. The COVID-19 surveillance regime has brought into light the limits of the implementation of the UN Convention and of the EU Strategy, but the book and the emerging epistemic community, in the framework of public sociology, contribute to support the rights of all persons, with or without disabilities, in public welfare policies in Europe.

Neurodiverse conditions, or developmental disorders, are neither well-known nor understood by the general population in Trinidad and Tobago. Awareness of, or sensitivity toward, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in particular, is lacking in Trinidad and Tobago. Generation A is those persons who will reach adulthood in the next decade or so and be seeking employment opportunities. Given the current challenges faced by persons with ASD in securing and maintaining employment and the fact that this is a generally underexplored area of research, focusing on Generation A provides an opportunity to explore what provisions are in place for individuals with ASD to assist with future transitions into the workplace in Trinidad and Tobago. This chapter focuses on the existing policy, legal, and institutional framework in Trinidad and Tobago for ASD in the workplace, with particular reference to Generation A, to determine how it is currently addressed and what accommodations are being made to facilitate this demographic. A review of ASD-related data and select, relevant policy, law and institutions in Trinidad and Tobago has revealed that very few preparations, if any, are being made to facilitate Generation A individuals' entry into the workplace. The most relevant sector for addressing ASD needs falls to the NGO movement, but these organizations do not focus on employment preparation. Several recommendations for the key stakeholders in this process have been made that can assist in this regard.

This chapter provides an overview of the inclusive education policies in Ghana and how these policies were developed toward fulfilling the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal Number 4. We start the chapter by introducing Ghana's demographics and awareness in disability, as well as the historical background in inclusive education. Next, we address the current state of Ghana's inclusive education by sharing the current policies and infrastructure that transforms special education schools into resource centers, promotes a learner-friendly environment, and serves as the legal foundation for private and public schools to implement inclusive education for all children. We further discuss the challenges imposed by the recent wave of the COVID pandemic on inclusive education, and the initiatives Ghana leadership enacted to provide a continuum of inclusive services for all children. We then conclude the chapter with implications and recommendations to stakeholders.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear and replicable methodology for conducting a policy archaeology. This paper articulates the steps in policy archaeology and the process is applied to a study of Discourses of disability in special education policy in Ontario, 1965-1978.

The metaphor of field archaeology guided the process of locating relevant texts through backward and lateral mapping and locating and interpreting artefacts. The artefacts were discursive representations of complex policy problem of disability in stakeholder texts. The Discourses were compared chronologically, within and across stakeholder texts. An explanatory narrative relates the Discourses to the socio-historical context.

There were significant contradictions in the discursive construction of disability. The texts of the Council for Exceptional Children presumed agreement that disability was an intrinsic, permanent deficit within the student with disabilities. In contrast, the other stakeholders stated that disability was the result of socially and educationally constructed barriers.

This paper makes no claim of universal truth. The interpretations and conclusions reached are influenced by the researcher’s knowledge and experience. Other scholars may reach other conclusions.

Scholars have a clear and replicable methodology for conducting a policy archaeology. This methodology is currently the most “true” to the metaphor of archaeology and uses Discourse analysis, interpretation and the creation of a narrative situated in a socio-historical context.

The study shows that the Discourses of disability in special education policy in special education policy in Ontario place children with disabilities at a serious educational disadvantage.