Handbook of Disability

This important reference work maps the terrain of disability across the world by providing an overview of issues, concerns and developments in the domains of society, culture, medicine, law, policy, education, economics, and science and technology. Working from an interdisciplinary matrix, this book reviews historical developments, contemporary practices and policies. It addresses hitherto unchartered areas in the disability discourse that will be significant in the years to come. In the modern world, the social and medical responses to disability have separated, segregated and incarcerated disabled people. These responses are reflected in practices of special education, the building of asylums, medical classifications and sheltered employment. Current thinking on disability is based on the need to overcome such segregation through the enactment of human rights and inclusive programmes, policies and laws such as inclusive education, affirmative action, reasonable accommodation, and supported decision-making. This truly inclusive volume brings together perspectives from researchers, activists, professionals, service providers, international development experts and policymakers based in the global North and South. It mainly focuses on the voices of the principal stakeholders---disabled persons. It explores the evolution of the concept of disability over space and time and identifies approaches to disability and debility; highlights broad trends in research in disability across the world; identifies new directions in work on disability; recognizes the emergence of a global disability movement and its etiology; discusses the intersections of disability with other demographic variables like gender, race, caste, and age; and historical and socio-economic interfaces with colonialism, globalization, and social development. Spread over 20 sections and spanning more than 100 chapters, this volume is the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference work available on the subject.

Marcia Rioux, (1947 – September 20, 2021) PhD, was a legal scholar with extensive experience in community-based participatory research in the areas of human rights, health and social justice, particularly around international disability rights. Dr. Rioux was a Distinguished Research Professor in the School of Health Policy and Management and teaches graduate courses in Critical Disability Studies and Health Policy and Equity at York University in Toronto, Canada. With Bengt Lindqvist, she was the co-Director of Disability Rights Promotion International, a project - funded by among others, Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Development (Global Affairs Canada). IDRC, SSHRC, Handicap International---is a multi-year project to monitor disability rights nationally and internationally. Dr. Rioux has lectured throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. She has been an advisor to federal and provincial commissions, parliamentary committees, and international NGO's as well as United Nations agencies. She has edited a number of collected volumes and more than 70 book chapters and articles on disability rights. Her latest books are:  Disability, Rights Monitoring and Social Change: Building Power out of Evidence, Eds. M.H. Rioux, P.Pinto, G. Parekh (2015, Canadian Scholars Press); and Critical Perspectives on Human Rights and Disability Law, Eds. M. H. Rioux, L. Basser, M. Jones (2011, Martinus Nijhoff). She has put out a paper on Indicators under the CRPD (2017). She has also been a visiting scholar and professor at several international institutions.  She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2014.

Jose Viera has more than 18 years of experience working nationally and internationally in the field of human rights and inclusive development. As a person with a disability, Mr. Viera has a personal commitment to improving the lives of persons with disabilities and advocating for their human rights. 

 Mr. Viera is the Chief Executive Officer for the World Blind Union (WBU), a global organization with broad international membership of over 300 organizations at the sub-national and regional levels in over 196 countries. Mr. Viera is also the Global Disability Summit Secretariat Senior Manager. The Global Disability Summit is a world-leading and pioneering event that unites the global effort for momentum towards inclusion of the world’s poorest and most neglected people. In addition, Mr. Viera is the Permanent Representative of the UN Stakeholder Group of Persons with Disabilities for Sustainable Development, also an Independent Board Member of CBM Global Disability Inclusion, as well as the former President of the Federation of the Blind of Argentina

Before joining WBU, Mr. Viera was director of the Latin American Regional Center for Disability Rights Promotion International, which is a global monitoring rights system where he led regional and global initiatives to promote the ratification and implementation of the UN CRPD and the agenda 2030. In addition, Mr. Viera, has more than 10 years of experience as associate professor at the international studies department of Siglo 21 University in Argentina, lecturing on issues related to sustainable development and international cooperation.

Mr. Viera holds a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and a master’s degree in Management of Development. Mr. Viera has contributed to various publications and research projects on disability and development with a special focus on the Global South. 

Alexis Buettgen is an experienced community-engaged scholar with an interdisciplinary academic background in community psychology and critical disability studies. Dr. Buettgen has over 15 years of experience in community-based participatory research and evaluation as a Senior Researcher at several community-based research organizations and organizations of people with disabilities (OPDs). Prior to this, Dr. Buettgen worked in a variety of community settings providing direct support to individuals with various experiences of oppression and marginalization, including people with various disabilities. These community experiences have informed her research program to critically examine various ways of knowing, subjective well-being, and intersectional approaches to promote equity, and social and environmental justice. Dr. Buettgen holds academic appointments in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, the Social Justice and Community Engagement Program at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Critical Disability Studies program at York University. Her scholarship aims to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and community action using a critical theoretical and human rights approach. She is dedicated to participatory and collaborative research examining the influence of economic and political environments on the progressive realization of disability rights. Her work connects the local with the global through fieldwork carried out at local, national, regional and international levels. Her record of publications includes journal articles, invited book chapters, a monograph and numerous reports commissioned by international, national, and local government agencies, OPDs, other disability organizations, and NGOs. Her scholarly publications have appeared in leading international peer-reviewed journals in the field of disability studies, health sciences, human rights, and the social economy. Dr. Buettgen has been an invited speaker, guest lecturer and course instructor on the topics of human rights, intersectionality, and research for social justice at numerous universities and community organizations.

Ezra Zubrow was educated at Harvard and the University of Arizona.  He is an Anthropologist presently holding positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Buffalo, and Toronto as well as previously teaching at Stanford.  He has been a fellow at various Institutes for Advanced Research in Europe and Australia. He has a broad range of interests focusing on the demographic, ecological, and spatial aspects of social and physical environments as well as disability. He has written or edited 10+ books,150+ articles as well as receiving 20+ million dollars of grants.   Among his writings are two co-written books- The Atlas of Literacy and Disability and The Landscape of Literacy and Disability.

Over the last two decades he has been the vice president and president of a labor union as well as the chair of a faculty senate.  During these tenures he actively made changes to promote human rights and he has served on various International Commissions on Law and Environment. An internationalist, he has done over 50 field work expeditions in North America, South America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.  Most recently he is focusing on the circumpolar region.