Understanding Disability Policies

ISBN-13: 9780333724279 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 256 str.

Robert F. Drake

Opis

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the development and consequences of disability policies, contrasting policies grounded in medical definitions of disability with a 'social model' of disability supported by disability rights campaigners in their pursuit of anti-discrimination legislation. British policies are set in comparative context, and the impacts of policy on disabled people according to their class, gender, age and ethnicity are explored.

Spis treści

Acknowledgements.- Introduction: The Structure of the Book.- PART ONE: THE MEANING OF DISABILITY Theoretical Understandings of Disability.- PART TWO: DISABILITY POLICY, MODELS AND DEVELOPMENT Models of Disability Policy.- The Development of Disability Policies in Britain; Contemporary Disability Policies in Britain; Contemporary British Policy in the International Context.- PART THREE: POLICY OUTCOMES AND DISABLED PEOPLE'S RESPONSES Social Class and Disability; Gender and Disability; Minority Ethnic Communities and Disability; Age and Disability Policies; Disabled People and the Policy Process.- Conclusions.- Bibliography.- Index.

O autorze

ROBERT DRAKE is Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Wales, Swansea, and an associate lecturer with the Open University. He has published research on equal opportunity policies (with Ken Blakemore), disability policy, and the role of the voluntary sector in Britain. Currently, he is researching disability policies within the broader context of the European Union.

Blurb

Understanding Disability Policies provides a comprehensive analysis of the development and consequences of disability policies in Britain from Victorian times to the present day. Written in clear and jargon-free English, it is essential reading for students and practitioners in disability studies, sociology, social policy, public administration, health and the voluntary sector.

There are three main sections. First, policies drawn from medical definitions of disability (which have led to the social exclusion of disabled people), are contrasted with a newer 'social model' of disability, which explains the disadvantages faced by disabled people not in terms of their physical or mental impairment, but as resulting from social and environmental barriers.

The second part of the volume evaluates British policies within an international context. In particular, comparisons are made with the civil rights approach adopted in America and Australia, and the welfare-orientated stance of countries like Sweden. Finally, the book traces the impacts of policy on disabled people according to their class, gender, age and ethnicity. The book ends with an assessment of the disability movement and the campaign by disabled people for the introduction of anti-discrimination legislation.