Disability community
- 12 Aug 2011
If we consider that disability is a social construction being located in environmental barriers to active community participation, then it follows that disability is a breach of our right to full community participation (a fundamental human right according to the UN Charter). Read more »
- 02 Nov 2010
Reviews of two post-World War Two movies on rehabilitation and community reintegration after acquired disabilities: The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) and The Men (1950). Read more »
With the support of the Todd Foundation, Diversityworks Trust has begun a six month project that aims to design a flexible, multi-faceted and sustainable peer-based coaching model to support disabled people, especially young people and whanau/families, to better manage their disability support needs. The project seeks to design a model that gives information, educates and demonstrates techniques for the management of disability support workers, providers and services. Read more »
Over the last five or six years it has become increasingly apparent to me that as a health professional I have had too little education in the history of the disability rights movement. So it was with interest that I took the opportunity to view ‘The Music Within' on DVD this week - a movie about the life of Richard Pimentel, the man attributed with pushing the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990. Read more »
- 01 Oct 2008
In August I attended the APA Conference in Boston. This was my first trip to the US and I was excited to be travelling to that great mythical place to see it in reality. I was mostly excited about travelling to the home of the American With Disabilities Act; had the land of the free really become the land of access and inclusion? How would it compare to the land of the Human Rights Act where access and inclusion are tolerated so long as they are reasonable? Read more »
- 08 Sep 2008
Claire Freeman ponders the reclaimation of derogatory terms about disability, by people with disability, and speculates on the extent to which she herself identifies with language associated with disability - particularly the language that is used in the current health science literature. Read more »
- 02 Jul 2008
The 'Stay Up Late Campaign' is a social movement to put a halt to people with learning disabilities having to leave clubs and music gigs early because their staff finish their shifts at 10pm! Read about the movement and its main champions, "Heavy Load", a UK punk band consisting of musicians both with and without intellectual disability. Read more »
- 20 Jul 2007
Wahington et al. (2007) set about developing and testing a measure of community participation for children and teenagers (aged 8-20) with disabilities. This is an interesting endeavour: there is already considerable information about the impact of disability during childhood on levels of social participation – but can this be measured in any meaningful way? What does ‘community participation’ mean for children anyway? Read more »
- 17 Jul 2007
Diversityworks Trust has announced it plans to host a major international Symposium in the world-wide calendar of Disability Arts festivals. This is Momentum'09 - a showcasing of the best disabled artists and performers from around the world. Read more »
- 10 Dec 2005
Directed by Henry Rubin and Dana Shapiro, "Murderball" is a documentary about the lives and exploits of the players in two wheelchair rugby teams - one from the Canada; the other from the USA - in the lead up 2004 Athens games. Read more »
Claire Freeman
