Unesco's International Day of Persons with disabilities is December third

 

December 3rd is UNESCO's International Day of Persons with Disabilities, but we're celebrating all month, featuring -books that mobilize support for critical issues relating to the inclusion of persons with disabilities, promote awareness-raising about disability issues and draw attention to the benefits of an inclusive and accessible society for all.


Explore all our E-Books on Issues Related to People with Disabilities

or

Browse a few recent & featured titles:
 

Cover Art for Rhetorics of overcoming : rewriting narratives of disability and accessibility in writing studiesRhetorics of overcoming : rewriting narratives of disability and accessibility in writing studies
by Allison Harper Hitt
ISBN: 9780814100080
Publication Date: 2022-08-20
Rhetorics of Overcoming addresses the in/accessibility of writing classroom and writing center practices for disabled and nondisabled student writers, exploring how rhetorics of overcoming-the idea that disabled students must overcome their disabilities in order to be successful-manifest in writing studies scholarship and practices. Allison Harper Hitt argues that rewriting rhetorics of overcoming as narratives of "coming over" is one way to overcome ableist pedagogical standards. Whereas rhetorics of overcoming rely on medical-model processes of diagnosis, disclosure, cure, and overcoming for individual students, coming over involves valuing disability and difference and challenging systemic issues of physical and pedagogical inaccessibility. Hitt calls for developing understandings of disability and difference that move beyond accommodation models in which students are diagnosed and remediated, instead working collaboratively-with instructors, administrators, consultants, and students themselves-to craft multimodal, universally designed writing pedagogies that meet students' access needs. CCCC Studies in Writing & Rhetoric (SWR) Series.
 
Cover ArtSelf-Efficacy and Success: Narratives of Adults with Disabilities
by Erez C. Miller; Efrat Kass
ISBN: 9783031149641
Publication Date: 2023-04-10
Based on the analysis of eighteen authentic and inspiring personal stories, this book illustrates how people with severe childhood disabilities achieved extraordinary career success. Growing up, the people surrounding them and environmental conditions helped them develop their self-efficacy.  The book is divided into four parts. It begins by discussing the elusive essence of success, especially for people with disabilities. The authors then discuss self efficacy, and how it pertains to occupations of people with disabilities. Part two (school years) and part three (higher education) address some of the challenges experienced by students with disabilities. It shows how parents and educational figures helped them enhance their self-efficacy. Part two also discusses current and future trends in inclusive education, and recommendations for practitioners. Part three pays attention to some of the unique traits that helped them overcome obstacles. Finally, the authors focus on employment of people with disabilities and explore some of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in light of this. It includes messages of hope to parents, professionals and individuals with disabilities.
Cover ArtDisability Dialogues: Advocacy, Science, and Prestige in Postwar Clinical Professions
by Andrew J. Hogan
ISBN: 9781421445342
Publication Date: 2022-11-29
A historical look at how activists influenced the adoption of more positive, inclusive, and sociopolitical views of disability. Disability activism has fundamentally changed American society for the better--and along with it, the views and practices of many clinical professionals. After 1945, disability self-advocates and family advocates pushed for the inclusion of more positive, inclusive, and sociopolitical perspectives on disability in clinical research, training, and practice. In Disability Dialogues, Andrew J. Hogan highlights the contributions of disabled people--along with their family members and other allies--in changing clinical understandings and approaches to disability. Hogan examines the evolving medical, social, and political engagement of three postwar professions--clinical psychology, pediatrics, and genetic counseling--with disability and disability-related advocacy. Professionals in these fields historically resisted adopting a more inclusive and accepting perspective on people with disabilities primarily due to concerns about professional role, identity, and prestige. In response to the work of disability activists, however, these attitudes gradually began to change. Disability Dialogues provides an important contribution to historical, sociological, and bioethical accounts of disability and clinical professionalization. Moving beyond advocacy alone, Hogan makes the case for why present-day clinical professional fields need to better recruit and support disabled practitioners. Disabled clinicians are uniquely positioned to combine biomedical expertise with their lived experiences of disability and encourage greater tolerance for disabilities among their colleagues, students, and institutions.
 
Cover ArtResearch for inclusive quality education : leveraging belonging, inclusion, and equity
by Christopher Boyle (Editor); Kelly-Ann Allen (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811659072
Publication Date: 2022-11-11
This book explores contemporary perspectives and research on inclusion, providing a platform for discussing inclusion at an international level and its intersections with belonging and equity. How inclusion is defined and applied between schools, districts, and even countries can vary markedly; thus, an international understanding of inclusion is urgently needed. Experts from several countries in different regions present the latest research in the field of inclusion and provide practices and strategies guided by empirical research to address some of these issues. Schools are contextual organisations that represent the broader society, culture, and values in which they reside. Thus, how inclusion is practised at the society level has an implication on schools. The way we think about inclusion has shifted dramatically in the last decade - we now recognise that inclusion represents a broad spectrum of racial, ethnic, cultural, and sexual diversity that is seen in  almost all modern schools. This book presents international perspectives and research on inclusion, belonging and equity to work towards a more consistent, collaborative, and global understanding.  
 
Cover ArtBeyond accessibility compliance : building the next generation of inclusive products
by Sukriti Chadha
ISBN: 1484279476
Publication Date: 2022-12-01
Take a deep look at accessibility as it applies to mobile and wearables. This book covers topics within the accessibility domain that are rarely covered or understood, despite the fact that nearly half of the world's population uses smartphones. Moreover, by 2025, 72% of smartphone users are expected to only use smartphones to access the internet. And yet, accessibility is often an afterthought instead of a core principle of product development. This book changes that. You will begin by exploring the current landscape and policy frameworks, looking at the software product lifecycle and how to embed inclusion from the start.  You'll learn the nuances of mobile accessibility as it applies to mobile devices, wearables, and IoT. From there you'll move onto automated testing, accessibility and inclusion, and the next frontiers of emerging technology including AR and VR. There will be notes at the end of programming examples to help those in orthogonal roles, such as project management, understand the basics and the language to  better communicate with their engineering counterparts. Over 1 billion people in the world live with some form of disability so it's imperative you devise a comprehensive game plan to make your digital products accessible for all. Beyond Accessibility Compliance is your guide to understanding the current landscape of assistive technology and how emerging techniques are changing the way we think about personalization and accessibility. What You'll Learn See how people with the most common forms of disabilities use digital products Review the basics of the product development lifecycle and how to embed accessibility Explore tangible answers as to how accessibility pertains to unique roles Understand the difference between compliance and usability Make data visualizations accessible for blind users Implement code-level changes to address gaps in accessibility Build a campus programs and course material inclusive for people with disabilities.
Who This Book Is For:  Current developers, designers, and others building technology products with basic knowledge of front-end development.  This book is also suitable for students in computer science, engineering, HCI,  and related fields. Sections that are not engineering-specific are applicable to design, user research, communication, and business students who are looking to pursue careers in technology. 
 
Cover ArtPrenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice
by Amber Knight; Joshua Miller
ISBN: 9780192870957
Publication Date: 2023-06-23
The routinization of non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) raises urgent questions about disability rights and reproductive justice. Supporters defend NIPT on the grounds that genetic information about the fetus helps would-be parents make better family planning choices. Prenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice challenges that assessment by exploring how NIPT can actually constrain pregnant women's options. Prospective parents must balance a complicated array of factors, including the familial, social, and financial support they can reasonably expect to receive if they choose to carry a disabled fetus to term and raise after birth, causing many pregnant women to "choose" termination. Focusing on the US, the book explores the intent and effects of prenatal screening in connection to women's bodily autonomy and disability rights, addressing themes at the intersection of genetic medicine, policymaking, critical disabilities studies, and political theory. Knight and Miller shift debates about reprogenetics from bioethics to political practice, as well as thoroughly critiquing the neoliberal state and the eugenic technologies that support it. Providing concrete suggestions for reforming medical practice, welfare policy, and cultural norms surrounding disability, this book highlights sites of necessary reform to envision how prospective parents can make truly free choices about prenatal genetic testing and selection abortion.
 
Cover ArtDisability in the workplace : a Caribbean perspective
by Jacqueline H. Stephenson; Natalie Persadie
ISBN: 9783031193392
Publication Date: 2022-12-14
This work critically examines diversity, discrimination, and inclusion in the English-speaking Caribbean nations, with a specific emphasis on persons with disabilities. The chapters include an evaluative analysis on the extant theoretical and empirical literature on persons with disabilities in employment, exploring the nature of their disability, the role of information technology in gaining and retaining employment, and an analysis of the laws and relevant policies which prohibit the discrimination against persons with disabilities in the Caribbean region.   Though the enactment of legislation outlawing the discrimination of persons with disabilities is not widespread in the Caribbean, a few select territories have taken positive steps towards recognition of the need to achieve inclusion of persons with disabilities and accept the diversity of the Caribbean populace. After exploring the general state of disability and discrimination in the Caribbean region, the authors analyze workplace accommodations provided to persons with disability, particularly as relations to IT and assistive devices, before focusing on workplace stigmas related to mental health disability and employment law. In addition to literature-based analyses, the book includes qualitative case studies, with the goal of providing benchmarks in organizational responses to employees with disabilities. Further, the authors highlight lessons to be learned from other countries in addressing inequality in the workplace for disabled persons. With its analysis of employment as well as socio-economic and legal issues, this interdisciplinary text will serve as a useful resource in not only understanding the organizational challenges faced by persons with disabilities in the region but also the necessary legislation needed to address discriminatory practices on a wider scale.
 
Cover ArtLearning Disorders Across the Lifespan
by Amy E. Margolis (Editor); Jessica Broitman (Editor)
ISBN: 9783031217715
Publication Date: 2023-01-18
This book addresses the need to view specific learning disorders (SLDs) within a mental health framework, as supported by their placement alongside autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). It describes how policy and practice point to a different perspective - specifically that SLDs are often treated as educational rather than psychological problems - and examines the implications of this dichotomy. The book reviews empirical research that suggests children need access to treatment for clinical components of SLDs that may respond to psychological intervention separately from, and in addition to, educational interventions. It provides a theoretical framework for organizing research findings and clinical perspectives that support understanding the clinical components of SLDs and addresses the need for a mental health framework within which to approach theory, treatment, and assessment of SLDs. Key areas of coverage include: Examining different theoretical orientations to learning disorders (e.g., cognitive, behavioral, neuropsychoeducational, psychoanalytic). Adapting evidence-based therapeutic techniques for use with children and adolescents who have learning disorders. The need for accurate and well characterized assessment of SLDs. How incorporating a cognitive neuroscience perspective into assessment can move LD treatment and research forward. Learning Disorders Across the Lifespan is an essential reference for clinicians, therapists, and other professionals as well as researchers, professors, and graduate students in school and clinical child psychology, special education, speech-language therapy, developmental psychology, pediatrics, social work as well as all interrelated disciplines.
Cover Art for Early childhood special education programs and practicesEarly childhood special education programs and practices
by
ed., Kate Zimmer; Karin Fisher
ISBN: 9781630917029
Publication Date: 2022-08-25
Early Childhood Special Education Programs and Practices is a special education textbook that prepares pre- and in-service teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to deliver evidence-based instruction to promote positive academic and behavioral outcomes for young children (prekindergarten through second grade) with development delays and/or disabilities. Early Childhood Special Education Programs and Practices intertwines inclusive early childhood practices by using real-life anecdotes to illustrate evidence-based practices (EBPs) and procedures. The authors, experts in their fields, emphasize high-leverage practices, EBPs, and culturally sustaining pedagogy and align them with the practices, skills, and competencies recommended by the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Early Childhood. Families, administrators, and teacher educators of pre- and in-service early childhood special education and general early childhood education programs alike will find this book useful. Included in Early Childhood Special Education Programs and Practices are: An overview of early childhood and development of children ages 4 to 8 Strategies for relationship building with students, families, communities, and school personnel Tips on creating a caring and positive classroom environment Chapters devoted to evidence-based instruction in core subjects of reading and writing, mathematics, science, and social studies for students with disabilities in pre-K to second grade More than 80 images, photos, tables, graphs, and case studies to illustrate recommended Practices Also included with the text are online supplemental materials for faculty use in the classroom, consisting of an Instructor's Manual and PowerPoint slides. Created with the needs of early childhood special educators in mind, Early Childhood Special Education Programs and Practices provides pre- and in-service teachers with the skills and practices they need to serve young children, their families, and communities across settings.
 
Cover ArtThe Palgrave handbook of disability sport in Europe : policies, structures and participation edited by Caroline van Lindert, Jeroen Scheerder, Ian Brittain by Caroline van Lindert (Editor); Jeroen Scheerder (Editor); Ian Brittain (Editor)
ISBN: 9783031217586
Publication Date: 2023-06-29
This handbook explores the various ways in which disability sport is governed and organised across Europe, as well as examining the extent to which persons with a disability participate in sport at the grassroots level. Based upon a solid theoretical framework and up-to-date data, the 19 country-specific chapters in this handbook give a comparative overview of the structuring, steering and supporting elements of disability sport policy and sport participation levels amongst persons with a disability, as well as the extent to which countries adopt policies to promote inclusion in sport in this population. A multitude of authors also identify the various methods and challenges in collecting sport participation data with regard to persons with a disability. This handbook will be a valuable resource for academic study across a range of sport and disability related programs, as well as a point of reference for researchers and policymakers working in this area.