Disability
Theory and models Disability theory Ableism / Disablism Medical model Social model
Education Mainstreaming Individualized Education Program (IEP) Special needs Special school Special education Learning disability
Therapy Physical therapy Occupational therapy Speech therapy
Societal implications Disability rights movement inclusion People-first language Pejorative terms
Personal / physical assistance Personal care assistant Activities of daily living Orthotics and braces Prosthetics Assistive technology Mobility aid Physical accessibility Universal design Web accessibility
Socioeconomic assistance Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Ticket to Work Disability Living Allowance (DLA) Disabled students allowance Disabled Persons Railcard Freedom Pass
Groups and organizations Society for Disability Studies Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) Visitability
Disabled sports Special Olympics Paralympics Deaflympics Extremity Games
Culture Disability in the arts Disability Art Disability in the media
Disability portal category lists
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International Symbol of Access

A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.

Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations. Thus disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.

—World Health Organization^[1]

An individual may also qualify as disabled if he/she has had an impairment in the past or is seen as disabled based on a personal or group standard or norm. Such impairments may include physical, sensory, and cognitive or developmental disabilities. Mental disorders (also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability) and various types of chronic disease may also qualify as disabilities.

Some advocates object to describing certain conditions (notably deafness and autism) as "disabilities", arguing that it is more appropriate to consider them developmental differences that have been unfairly stigmatized by society.^[2]

A disability may occur during a person's lifetime or may be present from birth.

Types of disability[link]

Disability is caused by impairments to various subsystems of the body - these can be broadly sorted into the following categories.

Physical disability[link]

Any impairment which limits the physical function of limbs or fine or gross motor ability is a physical disability. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as severe sleep apnea.

A man with an above the knee amputation exercises while wearing a prosthetic leg

Sensory disability[link]

Sensory disability is impairment of one of the senses. The term is used primarily to refer to vision and hearing impairment, but other senses can be impaired.

Visual impairment[link]

Visual impairment (or vision impairment) is vision loss (of a person) to such a degree as to qualify as an additional support need through a significant limitation of visual capability resulting from either disease, trauma, or congenital or degenerative conditions that cannot be corrected by conventional means, such as refractive correction, medication, or surgery.^[3][4][5] This functional loss of vision is typically defined to manifest with

1. best corrected visual acuity of less than 20/60, or significant central field defect,
2. significant peripheral field defect including homonymous or heteronymous bilateral visual, field defect or generalized contraction or constriction of field, or
3. reduced peak contrast sensitivity with either of the above conditions.^[3][4][5][6]

Hearing impairment[link]

Hearing impairment or hard of hearing or deafness refers to conditions in which individuals are fully or partially unable to detect or perceive at least some frequencies of sound which can typically be heard by most people. Mild hearing loss may sometimes not be considered a disability.

Olfactory and gustatory impairment[link]

Impairment of the sense of smell and taste are commonly associated with aging but can also occur in younger people due to a wide variety of causes.

There are various olfactory disorders:

• Anosmia – inability to smell
• Dysosmia – things smell different than they should
• Hyperosmia – an abnormally acute sense of smell.
• Hyposmia – decreased ability to smell
• Olfactory Reference Syndrome – psychological disorder which causes the patient to imagine he has strong body odor
• Parosmia – things smell worse than they should
• Phantosmia – "hallucinated smell," often unpleasant in nature

Complete loss of the sense of taste is known as ageusia, while dysgeusia is persistent abnormal sense of taste,

Somatosensory impairment[link]

Insensitivity to stimuli such as touch, heat, cold, and pain are often an adjunct to a more general physical impairment involving neural pathways and is very commonly associated with paralysis (in which the motor neural circuits are also affected).

Balance disorder[link]

A balance disorder is a disturbance that causes an individual to feel unsteady, for example when standing or walking. It may be accompanied by symptoms of being giddy, woozy, or have a sensation of movement, spinning, or floating. Balance is the result of several body systems working together. The eyes (visual system), ears (vestibular system) and the body's sense of where it is in space (proprioception) need to be intact. The brain, which compiles this information, needs to be functioning effectively.

Intellectual disability[link]

Intellectual disability is a broad concept that ranges from mental retardation to cognitive deficits too mild or too specific (as in specific learning disability) to qualify as mental retardation. Intellectual disabilities may appear at any age. Mental retardation is a subtype of intellectual disability, and the term intellectual disability is now preferred by many advocates in most English-speaking countries as a euphemism for mental retardation.

Mental health and emotional disabilities[link]

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and perceived by the majority of society as being outside of normal development or cultural expectations. The recognition and understanding of mental health conditions has changed over time and across cultures, and there are still variations in the definition, assessment, and classification of mental disorders, although standard guideline criteria are widely accepted.

Developmental disability[link]

Developmental disability is any disability that results in problems with growth and development. Although the term is often used as a synonym or euphemism for intellectual disability, the term also encompasses many congenital medical conditions that have no mental or intellectual components, for example spina bifida.

Nonvisible disabilities[link]

Several chronic disorders, such as diabetes, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease or epilepsy, would be counted as nonvisible disabilities, as opposed to disabilities which are clearly visible, such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair.

Sociology of disability[link]

People-first language[link]

Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped. "Cerebral Palsy: A Guide for Care" at the University of Delaware offers the following guidelines:^[7]

Impairment is the correct term to use to define a deviation from normal, such as not being able to make a muscle move or not being able to control an unwanted movement. Disability is the term used to define a restriction in the ability to perform a normal activity of daily living which someone of the same age is able to perform. For example, a three year old child who is not able to walk has a disability because a normal three year old can walk independently. Handicap is the term used to describe a child or adult who, because of the disability, is unable to achieve the normal role in society commensurate with his age and socio-cultural milieu. As an example, a sixteen-year-old who is unable to prepare his own meal or care for his own toileting or hygiene needs is handicapped. On the other hand, a sixteen-year-old who can walk only with the assistance of crutches but who attends a regular school and is fully independent in activities of daily living is disabled but not handicapped. All disabled people are impaired, and all handicapped people are disabled, but a person can be impaired and not necessarily be disabled, and a person can be disabled without being handicapped.

The American Psychological Association style guide states that, when identifying a person with an impairment, the person's name or pronoun should come first, and descriptions of the impairment/disability should be used so that the impairment is identified, but is not modifying the person. Improper examples are "a borderline", "a blind person", or "an autistic boy"; more acceptable terminology includes "a woman with Down syndrome" or "a man who has schizophrenia". It also states that a person's adaptive equipment should be described functionally as something that assists a person, not as something that limits a person, e.g., "a woman who uses a wheelchair" rather than "a woman in/confined to a wheelchair."

A similar kind of "people-first" terminology is also used in the UK, but more often in the form "people with impairments" (e.g., "people with visual impairments"). However, in the UK, the term "disabled people" is generally preferred to "people with disabilities". It is argued under the social model that while someone's impairment (e.g., having a spinal cord injury) is an individual property, "disability" is something created by external societal factors such as a lack of wheelchair access to the workplace.^[8] This distinction between the individual property of impairment and the social property of disability is central to the social model. The term "disabled people" as a political construction is also widely used by international organisations of disabled people, such as Disabled Peoples' International (DPI).

Literature[link]

Many books on disability and disability rights point out that "disabled" is an identity that one is not necessarily born with, as disabilities are more often acquired than congenital. Some disability rights activists use an acronym TAB, "Temporarily Able-Bodied", as a reminder that many people will develop disabilities at some point in their lives due to accidents, illness (physical, mental or emotional), or late-emerging effects of genetics.^{[dubious – discuss][citation needed]}

Masculinity[link]

According to author Daniel J. Wilson, the characteristics of masculinity include strength, activeness, speed, endurance, and courage. These characteristics are often challenged when faced with a disability and the boy or man must reshape what it means to be masculine. For example, rather than define "being a man" through what one can physically do, one must re-define it by how one faces the world with a disability and all the obstacles and stereotypes that come with the disability.^[9]

In Leonard Kriegel's book, Flying Solo, he describes his fight with poliomyelitis and the process of accepting his disability in a world that values able-bodiedness. He writes, "I had to learn to be my own hero, my own role model – which is another way of saying that I had to learn to live with neither heroes nor role models" (pg. 40).^[10]

Femininity[link]

Some note that women who are disabled face what is called a "double disability", meaning they must not only deal with the stereotypes and challenges posed by femininity, but they must also deal with those posed by being disabled. Culture also tends to view women as fragile and weaker than men, stereotypes which are only heightened when a woman has a disability.^[9]

According to the "Survey of Income and Program Participation", as described in the book Gendering Disability, 74 percent of women participants and 90 percent of men participants without disabilities were employed. In comparison, of those with a form of disability, 41 percent of women and 51 percent of men were employed. Furthermore, the nondisabled women participants were paid approximately $4.00 less per hour than the nondisabled men participants. With a disability, women were paid approximately $1.00 less than the nondisabled women participants and the men were paid approximately $2.00 less than the nondisabled men participants. As these results suggest, women without disabilities face societal hardships as compared to men, but disability added to the equation increases the hardships.^[9]

Theory[link]

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), produced by the World Health Organization, distinguishes between body functions (physiological or psychological, e.g., vision) and body structures (anatomical parts, e.g., the eye and related structures). Impairment in bodily structure or function is defined as involving an anomaly, defect, loss or other significant deviation from certain generally accepted population standards, which may fluctuate over time. Activity is defined as the execution of a task or action. The ICF lists 9 broad domains of functioning which can be affected:

• Learning and applying knowledge
• General tasks and demands
• Communication
• Basic physical mobility, Domestic life, and Self-care (i.e., activities of daily living)
• Interpersonal interactions and relationships
• Community, social and civic life, including employment
• Other major life areas

In concert with disability scholars, the introduction to the ICF states that a variety of conceptual models has been proposed to understand and explain disability and functioning, which it seeks to integrate. These models include the following:

The medical model[link]

The medical model is presented as viewing disability as a problem of the person, directly caused by disease, trauma, or other health condition which therefore requires sustained medical care provided in the form of individual treatment by professionals. In the medical model, management of the disability is aimed at a "cure," or the individual’s adjustment and behavioral change that would lead to an "almost-cure" or effective cure. In the medical model, medical care is viewed as the main issue, and at the political level, the principal response is that of modifying or reforming healthcare policy.

The social model[link]

The social model of disability sees the issue of "disability" as a socially created problem and a matter of the full integration of individuals into society (see Inclusion (disability rights)). In this model, disability is not an attribute of an individual, but rather a complex collection of conditions, many of which are created by the social environment. Hence, the management of the problem requires social action and it is the collective responsibility of society at large to make the environmental modifications necessary for the full participation of people with disabilities in all areas of social life. The issue is both cultural and ideological, requiring individual, community, and large-scale social change. From this perspective, equal access for someone with an impairment/disability is a human rights issue of major concern.

Other models[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)

• The spectrum model refers to the range of visibility, audibility and sensibility under which mankind functions. The model asserts that disability does not necessarily mean reduced spectrum of operations.
• The moral model refers to the attitude that people are morally responsible for their own disability.^[11] For example disability may be seen as a result of bad actions of parents if congenital, or as a result of practicing witchcraft if not. This attitude may also be viewed as a religious fundamentalist offshoot of the original animal roots of human beings when humans killed any baby that could not survive on its own in the wild. Echoes of this can be seen in the doctrine of karma in Indian religions.
• The expert/professional model has provided a traditional response to disability issues and can be seen as an offshoot of the medical model. Within its framework, professionals follow a process of identifying the impairment and its limitations (using the medical model), and taking the necessary action to improve the position of the disabled person. This has tended to produce a system in which an authoritarian, over-active service provider prescribes and acts for a passive client.
• The tragedy/charity model depicts disabled people as victims of circumstance who are deserving of pity. This, along with the medical model, are the models most used by non-disabled people to define and explain disability.
• The legitimacy model views disability as a value-based determination about which explanations for the atypical are legitimate for membership in the disability category. This viewpoint allows for multiple explanations and models to be considered as purposive and viable.
• The social adapted model states although a person’s disability poses some limitations in an able-bodied society, oftentimes the surrounding society and environment are more limiting than the disability itself.^[12]
• The economic model defines disability by a person’s inability to participate in work. It also assesses the degree to which impairment affects an individual’s productivity and the economic consequences for the individual, employer and the state. Such consequences include loss of earnings for and payment for assistance by the individual; lower profit margins for the employer; and state welfare payments. This model is directly related to the charity/tragedy model.
• The empowering model allows for the person with a disability and his/her family to decide the course of their treatment and what services they wish to benefit from. This, in turn, turns the professional into a service provider whose role is to offer guidance and carry out the client’s decisions. This model “empowers” the individual to pursue his/her own goals.^[12]
• The market model of disability is minority rights and consumerist model of disability that recognizing people with disabilities and their stakeholders as representing a large group of consumers, employees and voters. This model looks to personal identity to define disability and empowers people to chart their own destiny in everyday life, with a particular focus on economic empowerment. By this model, based on US Census data, there are 1.2 billion people in the world who consider themselves to have a disability. An additional two billion people are considered stakeholders in disability (family/friends/employers), and when combined to the number of people without disabilities, represents 53% of the population. This model states that, due to the size of the demographic, companies and governments will serve the desires, pushed by demand as the message becomes prevalent in the cultural mainstream.^[13]
• The consumer model of disability is based upon the “rights-based" model and claims that people with disabilities should have equal rights and access to products, goods and services offered by businesses. The consumer model extends the rights-based model by proposing that businesses, not only accommodate customers with disabilities under the requirements of legislation, but that businesses actively seek, market to, welcome and fully engage people with disabilities in all aspects of business service activities. The model suggests that all business operations, e.g., websites, policies and procedures, mission statements, emergency plans, programs and services, should integrate access and inclusion practices. Furthermore, these access and inclusion practices should be based on established customer service access and inclusion standards that embrace and support the active engagement of people of all abilities in business offerings.^[14]

Management[link]

Assistive technology[link]

Assistive Technology is a generic term for devices and modifications (for a person or within a society) that help overcome or remove a disability. The first recorded example of the use of a prosthesis dates to at least 1800 BC.^[15] The wheelchair dates from the 17th century.^{[citation needed]} The curb cut is a related structural innovation. Other examples are standing frames, text telephones, accessible keyboards, large print, Braille, & speech recognition software. People with disabilities often develop personal or community adaptations, such as strategies to suppress tics in public (for example in Tourette's syndrome), or sign language in deaf communities. Assistive technology or interventions are sometimes controversial or rejected, for example in the controversy over cochlear implants for children.^{[citation needed]}

As the personal computer has become more ubiquitous, various organizations have formed to develop software and hardware to make computers more accessible for people with disabilities. Some software and hardware, such as Voice Finger, SmartboxAT's The Grid, Freedom Scientific's JAWS, the Free and Open Source alternative Orca etc. have been specifically designed for people with disabilities while other software and hardware, such as Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking, were not developed specifically for people with disabilities, but can be used to increase accessibility.^{[citation needed]} The LOMAK keyboard was designed in New Zealand specifically for persons with disabilities.^{[citation needed]} The Internet is also used by disability activists and charities to network and further their goals. Organizations, such as AbilityNet and U Can Do IT in the US, provide assessment services that determine which assistive technologies will best assist an individual client.^{[citation needed]} These organizations also train disabled people in how to use computer-based assistive technology.^{[citation needed]}

Adapted sports[link]

Wheelchair basketball match between South Africa and Iran at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

The Paralympic Games (meaning "alongside the Olympics") are held after the (Summer and Winter) Olympics. The Paralympic Games include athletes with a wide range of physical disabilities. In member countries organizations exist to organize competition in the Paralympic sports on levels ranging from recreational to elite (for example, BlazeSports America in the United States).

The Paralympics developed from a rehabilitation programme for British war veterans with spinal injuries. In 1948, Sir Ludwig Guttman, a neurologist working with World War II veterans with spinal injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury in the UK, began using sport as part of the rehabilitation programmes of his patients.

In 2006, the Extremity Games was formed for people with physical disabilities, specifically limb loss or limb difference, to be able to compete in extreme sports.^{[citation needed]} A manufacturer of prosthetics, College Park Industries, organized the event^{[citation needed]} to give disabled athletes a venue to compete in this increasingly popular^{[citation needed]} sports genre also referred to as action sports. This annual event, held in the summer in Orlando, Florida,^{[citation needed]} includes competitions in skateboarding, wakeboarding, rock climbing, mountain biking, surfing, motocross and kayaking.^{[citation needed]} Non-profit organizations have created programs to advance adaptive sports for regular recreation and sport opportunities.^{[citation needed]}

Discrimination, government policies, and support[link]

United Nations[link]

On December 13, 2006, the United Nations formally agreed on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the first human rights treaty of the 21st century, to protect and enhance the rights and opportunities of the world's estimated 650 million disabled people. As of April 2011, 99 of the 147 signatories had ratified the Convention.^[16] Countries that sign the convention are required to adopt national laws, and remove old ones, so that persons with disabilities will, for example, have equal rights to education, employment, and cultural life; to the right to own and inherit property; to not be discriminated against in marriage, etc.; to not be unwilling subjects in medical experiments.

In 1976, the United Nations launched its International Year for Disabled Persons (1981), later renamed the International Year of Disabled Persons. The UN Decade of Disabled Persons (1983–1993) featured a World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. In 1979, Frank Bowe was the only person with a disability representing any country in the planning of IYDP-1981. Today, many countries have named representatives who are themselves individuals with disabilities. The decade was closed in an address before the General Assembly by Robert Davila. Both Bowe and Davila are deaf. In 1984, UNESCO accepted sign language for use in education of deaf children and youth.

Costa Rica[link]

Under the Ley de Igualdad de Oportunidades (Law of Equal Opportunities), no person can be discriminated by their disabilities if they are equally capable as another person. This law also promotes that public places and transport should have facilities that enable people with disabilities to access them.

May 28 is the Día Nacional de la Persona con Discapacidad (National Disabled People Day) to promote respect for this population.

Currently the political party Partido de Acceso Sin Exclusión (Access Without Exclusion Party) fights for the rights of disabled persons, and one congressman, Oscar López, is blind.

United Kingdom[link]

Under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1995, extended in 2005), it is unlawful for organisations to discriminate (treat a disabled person less favourably, for reasons related to the person's disability, without justification) in employment; access to goods, facilities, services; managing, buying or renting land or property; education. Businesses must make "reasonable adjustments" to their policies or practices, or physical aspects of their premises, to avoid indirect discrimination.^[17]

Since 2010 the Disability Discrimination Act has been replaced with the Equality Act 2010. This act still protects disabled people against discrimination but also encompasses a number of other characteristics including age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage, pregnancy, race, religion, sex and sexual orientation.^[18]

A number of financial and care support services are available, including Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance.^[19]

Employment[link]

The Employers' Forum on Disability (EFD) is a membership organisation of UK businesses. Following the introduction of the DDA the membership of EFD recognised the need for a tool with which they could measure their performance on disability year on year.

In 2005 80 organisations took part in the Disability Standard benchmark providing the first statistics highlighting the UK's performance as a nation of employers.

Following the success of the first benchmark Disability Standard 2007 saw the introduction of the Chief Executives' Diamond Awards for outstanding performance and 116 organisations taking the opportunity to compare trends across a large group of UK employers and monitor the progress they had made on disability.

2009 will see the third benchmark, Disability Standard 2009. EFD have promised that for the first time they will publish a list of the top ten performers who will be honoured at an award ceremony in December 2009.^[20]

United States[link]

Discrimination in employment[link]

The US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires all organizations that receive government funding to provide accessibility programs and services. A more recent law, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which came into effect in 1992, prohibits private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, or in the terms, conditions and privileges of employment. This includes organizations like retail businesses, movie theaters, and restaurants. They must make "reasonable accommodation" to people with different needs. Protection is extended to anyone with (A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual, (B) a record of such an impairment, or (C) being regarded as having such an impairment. The second and third criteria are seen as ensuring protection from unjust discrimination based on a perception of risk, just because someone has a record of impairment or appears to have a disability or illness (e.g. features which may be erroneously taken as signs of an illness).

African Americans and disability[link]

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the African American community has the highest rate of disability at 20.8 percent,^[21] slightly higher than the overall disability rate of 19.4%.^[21] Although people have come to better understand and accept different types of disability, there still remains a stigma attached to the disabled community.^{citation needed} African Americans with a disability are subject to not only this stigma but also to the additional forces of race discrimination. African American women who have a disability face tremendous discrimination due to their condition, race, and gender. Doctor Eddie Glenn of Howard University describes this situation as the "triple jeopardy" syndrome.^[22]

Social Security Administration[link]

The US Social Security Administration defines disability in terms of inability to perform substantial gainful activity (SGA), by which it means “work paying minimum wage or better”. The agency pairs SGA with a "listing" of medical conditions that qualify individuals for benefits.

Education[link]

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, special educational support is limited to children and youth falling into one of a dozen disability categories (e.g., specific learning disability) and adds that, to be eligible, students may require both special education (modified instruction) and related services (supports such as speech and language pathology).

Insurance[link]

It is illegal for California insurers to refuse to provide car insurance to properly licensed drivers solely because they have a disability.^[23] It is also illegal for them to refuse to provide car insurance "on the basis that the owner of the motor vehicle to be insured is blind," but they are allowed to exclude coverage for injuries and damages incurred while a blind unlicensed owner is actually operating the vehicle (the law is apparently structured to allow blind people to buy and insure cars which their friends, family, and caretakers can drive for them).^[24]

Demographics[link]

Difficulties in measuring[link]

The demography of disability is difficult. Counting persons with disabilities is challenging. That is because disability is not just a status condition, entirely contained within the individual. Rather, it is an interaction between medical status (say, having low vision or being blind) and the environment.^{[citation needed]}

Estimates worldwide[link]

Estimates of worldwide and country-wide numbers of individuals with disabilities are problematic. The varying approaches taken to defining disability notwithstanding, demographers agree that the world population of individuals with disabilities is very large. For example, in 2004, the World Health Organization estimated a world population of 6.5 billion people, of those nearly 100 million people were estimated to be moderately or severely disabled.^[25] In the United States, Americans with disabilities constitute the third-largest minority (after persons of Hispanic origin and African Americans); all three of those minority groups number in the 30-some millions in America.^[25] According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of 2004, there were some 32 million disabled adults (aged 18 or over) in the United States, plus another 5 million children and youth (under age 18). If one were to add impairments—or limitations that fall short of being disabilities—Census estimates put the figure at 51 million.^[26]

There is also widespread agreement among experts in the field that disability is more common in developing than in developed nations.

Nearly eight million men in Europe returned from the World War I permanently disabled by injury or disease.^[27]

About 150,000 Vietnam veterans came home wounded, and at least 21,000 were permanently disabled.^[28] Increased US military involvement has resulted in a significant increase of disabled military personnel since 2001. According to Fox News, this is a '25 percent' rise, with more than '2.9 million' total veterans now disabled.^[29]

After years of war in Afghanistan, there are more than one million disabled people.^[30] Afghanistan has one of the highest incidences of people with disabilities in the world.^[31] An estimated 80,000 Afghans have lost limbs, mainly as a result of landmines.^[32]

Political issues[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2010)

Political rights, social inclusion and citizenship have come to the fore in developed and some developing countries. The debate has moved beyond a concern about the perceived cost of maintaining dependent people with disabilities to an effort of finding effective ways to ensure that people with disabilities can participate in and contribute to society in all spheres of life.

Many are concerned, however, that the greatest need is in developing nations—where the vast bulk of the estimated 650 million people with disabilities reside. A great deal of work is needed to address concerns ranging from accessibility and education to self-empowerment and self-supporting employment and beyond.

In the past few years, disability rights activists have also focused on obtaining full citizenship for the disabled.

However obstacles reside in some countries in getting full employment, also public perception of disabled people may vary in areas.

Disability rights movement[link]

The disability rights movement is the movement to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for people with disabilities. The specific goals and demands of the movement are: accessibility and safety in transportation, architecture, and the physical environment, equal opportunities in independent living, employment, education, and housing, and freedom from abuse, neglect, and violations of patients' rights.^[33] Effective civil rights legislation is sought in order to secure these opportunities and rights.^[33][34]

Disability insurance[link]

Disability benefit, or disability pension, is a major kind of disability insurance, and is provided by government agencies to people who are temporarily or permanently unable to work due to a disability. In the U.S., disability benefit is provided within the category of Supplemental Security Income, and in Canada, within the Canada Pension Plan. In other countries, disability benefit may be provided under Social security systems.

Costs of disability pensions are steadily growing in Western countries, mainly European and the United States. It was reported that in the UK, expenditure on disability pensions accounted for 0.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 1980, but two decades later had reached 2.6% of GDP.^[35][36] Several studies have reported a link between increased absence from work due to sickness and elevated risk of future disability pension.^[37]

A study by researchers in Denmark suggests that information on self-reported days of absence due to sickness can be used to effectively identify future potential groups for disability pension.^[38] These studies may provide useful information for policy makers, case managing authorities, employers, and physicians.

Private, for-profit disability insurance plays a role in providing incomes to disabled people, but the nationalized programs are the safety net that catch most claimants.

See also[link]

Disability portal

• Adaptive recreation
• Disability discrimination act
• Disability etiquette
• Disability studies
• Disabled robotics
• Ergonomy
• Human variability
• Invisible disability
• List of disability rights organizations
• List of physically disabled politicians
• Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
• Orthopedics
• Out From Under: Disability, History and Things to Remember (traveling exhibition)
• Passing
• Psychophobia
• Sexuality and disability
• Special education
• Ugly law

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Frank Bowe, Handicapping America: Barriers to disabled people, Harper & Row, 1978 ISBN 0-06-010422-8
• Burch, Susan, “(Extraordinary) Bodies of Knowledge: Recent Scholarship in American Disability History,” OAH Magazine of History, 23 (July 2009), 29–34.
• DePoy, E., & Gilson, S.F. (2004). Rethinking disability: Principles for professional and social change. Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth. ISBN 978-0-534-54929-9
• Encyclopedia of disability, general ed. Gary L. Albrecht, Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.], SAGE Publications, 2005
• Glenn, Eddie. March 20, 1997. "African American Women with Disabilities: An Overview."
• David Johnstone, An Introduction to Disability Studies, 2001, 2nd edition, ISBN 1-85346-726-X
• Kaushik, R., 1999, "Access Denied: Can we overcome disabling attitudes," Museum International (UNESCO), Vol. 51, No. 3, p. 48–52.
• Lansing, Michael J., “‘Salvaging the Man Power of America’: Conservation, Manhood, and Disabled Veterans during World War I,” Environmental History, 14 (Jan. 2009), 32–57.
• Longmore, Paul, “Making Disability an Essential Part of American History,” OAH Magazine of History, 23 (July 2009), 11–15.
• Oliver, Michael. The Politics of Disablement, St. Martin's Press 1997, ISBN 0-333-43293-2
• Nikora, L.; Karapu, R.; Hickey, H.; & Awekotuku, N., Researchgateway.ac.nz, Disabled Maori and Disability Support Options, 2004. Retrieved on April 19, 2009.
• Charlotte Pearson (2006) Direct Payments and Personalisation of Care, Edinburgh, Dunedin Academic Press, ISBN 1-903765-62-5
• Tom Shakespeare, Genetic Politics: from Eugenics to Genome, with Anne Kerr, New Clarion Press, 1999, ISBN 1-873797-25-7
• Carmelo Masala, Donatella Rita Petretto, 2008, From disablement to enablement: conceptual models of disability in the 20th century, Disability and Rehabilitation, vol. 30(17), 1233-1244.
• Carmelo Masala, Donatella Rita Petretto, 2008, Psicologia dell'Handicap e della Riabilitazione,Kappa, Rome .

External links[link]

• Disability at the Open Directory Project

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Paul Drummond Cameron (born November 9, 1939) is an American psychologist and sex researcher. While employed at various institutions including the University of Nebraska he conducted research on passive smoking, but he is best known today for his claims about homosexuality. After a successful 1982 campaign against a gay rights proposal in Lincoln, Nebraska, he established the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), now known as the Family Research Institute (FRI). As FRI's chairman, Cameron has written papers associating homosexuality with perpetration of child sexual abuse and reduced life expectancy.

In 1983, the American Psychological Association expelled Cameron for non-cooperation with an ethics investigation, although by his own account he had resigned from the organization the previous year. Position statements issued by the American Sociological Association and Canadian Psychological Association have accused Cameron of misrepresenting social science research.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Cameron was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S., on November 9, 1939.^[1] His family moved shortly afterwards to Florida.^[2] He received a BA from Los Angeles Pacific College in 1961, an MA from California State University in Los Angeles the following year and a PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1966.^[1][3] He held posts as an assistant psychology professor at University of Wisconsin–Stout (1966–67) and Wayne State University (1967–68), before becoming an associate professor at the University of Louisville (1970–73) and the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology (part of the Fuller Theological Seminary) (1976–79). In 1979, he became an associate professor of Marriage and Family at the University of Nebraska.^[1]

During this period, Cameron conducted research on a variety of topics, including the effects of passive smoking and the relation between pet ownership and happiness. In his 1978 book Sexual Gradualism, he supported a middle ground between liberal and conservative Christian attitudes to sexuality, arguing that teenagers should avoid intercourse while experimenting with lower "levels" of sexual intimacy.^[2]

In 1980, Cameron left the University of Nebraska and took up private practice as a psychologist in Lincoln, Nebraska.^[1] In 1982, when the Lincoln city council asked residents to vote on a proposal to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, Cameron led the opposition as chairman of the Committee to Oppose Special Rights for Homosexuals.^[4] Despite his earlier moderate position on teenage relationships, Cameron had come to take a hard-line stance on the topic of homosexuality. He has stated that his approach, emphasising the harms he believed to be caused by homosexual behavior and its acceptance, was influenced by his work on the "lethal" behavior of smokers.^[2]

During the campaign in Lincoln, Cameron delivered a speech at the University of Nebraska Lutheran chapel. This drew much attention after he stated that a four-year-old boy had suffered a brutal homosexual assault in a local mall. Police were unable to confirm the incident, and Cameron acknowledged that he had heard the story only as a rumor.^[2] On May 11, Lincoln voters rejected the proposed measure by a 4–1 margin.^[4]

Family Research Institute[link]

In 1982, Cameron co-founded the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality in Lincoln.^[2] Believing that earlier sex surveys, including those conducted by Playboy magazine, had overestimated the prevalence of homosexuality, Cameron set out in 1983 to conduct what he described as "a fair sexuality poll, not one based on volunteers". One newspaper reported his expectation that the results would support his case for a ban on homosexual acts throughout the United States. Funding, according to Cameron, was provided by businessmen including several Nebraska chief executives.^[5] In the 1983 ISIS Survey, an "extensive self-administered questionnaire" was offered to 9,129 adults in five U.S. cities, and 4,340 responses were received. In 1984, these were supplemented with data from 824 adults from Dallas.^[6]

ISIS was shortly afterwards renamed the Family Research Institute (FRI) and moved to Washington, D.C.. In 1995 FRI changed location again, this time to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where it remains based.^[1][2] In his capacity as FRI's chairman, Cameron has authored both popular pamphlets and scientific articles on the topic of homosexuality. The cover photograph for Cameron's pamphlet Child Molestation and Homosexuality depicted "a young boy being pulled into a men's bathroom", while Murder, Violence and Homosexuality showed "a little girl cowering beneath an arm wielding an ax".^[2] Many of Cameron's scientific articles have been based on the 1983–1984 ISIS survey, including a 1996 paper that concluded based on participants' answers concerning their teachers that homosexual teachers could influence their students to become homosexual.^[6]

Another of Cameron's conclusions, based partly on his studies of obituaries in gay newspapers, is that homosexuals as a group have a median age of death about 20 years lower than that of heterosexuals.^[7][8] After analysing official data from Denmark, which allowed Same-sex unions in 1989 and Norway, which allowed same-sex marriage in 2009^[9], Cameron reported in 2007 that "married lesbians lived to age 56 and married gay men to age 52".^[10] Cameron states that many victims of child sexual abuse are the same sex as their abusers – one FRI study on sexual abuse by foster parents in Illinois reported that 34% of perpetrators were guilty of same-sex abuse^[11] – and concludes that "there is a strong, disproportionate association between child molestation and homosexuality".^[12]

Cameron was quoted in Rolling Stone as saying that homosexual sex was more pleasurable than most heterosexual sex, and as a result, if homosexuality were tolerated then it would become predominant within a few generations.^[13]

Cameron's publications have been cited as support by some groups who oppose same-sex marriage and allowing homosexuals to become foster or adoptive parents, including the Traditional Values Coalition.^[3] Cameron testified in the case Baker v. Wade (1985).^[14] In 1992, Gale Norton, then the Attorney General of Colorado, employed Cameron as a consultant when defending a law preventing the extension of civil rights legislation to homosexuals. Cameron's testimony went unused, and the law was struck down by the Supreme Court. More recently, Cameron campaigned against a gay-rights initiative in Maine in 2000, testified in favor of the failed Virginia Anti-Gay Adoption Bill in 2005,^[3][15] and opposed a 2007 Colorado bill intended to allow cohabiting couples to adopt.^[16] He was tricked into appearing in Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary film Brüno (2009).^[17] Southern Poverty Law Center has classed "Family Research Institute" as a hate group

Family[link]

Cameron is married and has several children.^[2] His son Kirk received a doctorate in statistics from Stanford University and has been involved with the Family Research Institute since 1983.^[2][18]

Criticism[link]

For the most part, official scientific organisations have paid very little attention to Cameron's studies, and thus extensive scientific analysis of his claims have not been widely available. However Cameron's research, public statements and legal testimony have received criticism from researchers and organizations over methodologies they view as academically dishonest and misleading.

From professional organizations[link]

The American Psychological Association (APA) launched an investigation into Cameron after receiving complaints about his work from members.^[2][3] The APA President Max Seigel sent Cameron a letter on December 2, 1983 stating that the Board of Directors had decided to drop him from membership for failure to cooperate with their investigation.^[19] FRI has contended that Cameron had already resigned from the organization in November 1982, citing correspondence from before his formal expulsion.^[20] In a letter published in the March 1983 edition of the APA Monitor, Cameron stated that his reasons for leaving included his opinion that the organization was becoming more of a "liberal PAC" than a professional society.^[21] An APA spokesperson told The Boston Globe in 2005, "We are concerned about Dr. Cameron because we do believe that his methodology is weak."^[3]

In 1984 the Nebraska Psychological Association issued a statement disassociating itself "from the representations and interpretations of scientific literature offered by Dr. Paul Cameron".^[3] In 1986 the American Sociological Association passed a resolution condemning Cameron for "consistent misrepresentation of sociological research".^[22] This was based on a report from the ASA's Committee on the Status of Homosexuals in Sociology, which summarised Cameron's inflammatory statements and commented, "It does not take great analytical abilities to suspect from even a cursory review of Cameron's writings that his claims have almost nothing to do with social science and that social science is used only to cover over another agenda. Very little of his work could find support from even a bad misreading of genuine social science investigation on the subject and some sociologists, such as Alan Bell, have been 'appalled' at the abuse of their work."^[23] In 1996, the Board of Directors of the Canadian Psychological Association approved a position statement disassociating the organisation from Cameron's work on sexuality, stating that he had "consistently misinterpreted and misrepresented research on sexuality, homosexuality, and lesbianism".^[24]

From individuals[link]

After Cameron submitted affidavits to the U. S. District Court of Dallas in Baker v. Wade (1985), Judge Buchmeyer wrote in his opinion that Cameron had "made misrepresentations to this Court".^[14] Buchmeyer's decision was reversed by the Fifth Circuit on other grounds, without mentioning Buchmeyer's finding that Cameron had made misrepresentations.^[25] FRI has disputed Judge Buchmeyer's assessment of Cameron's affidavits.^[26]

Epidemiologists Morten Frisch and Henrik Brønnum-Hansen argue that Cameron was wrong to infer reduced life expectancy from the fact that deaths among homosexually married partners in Denmark and Norway occurred at a lower median age than those among heterosexually married partners: "Because the age distribution among persons in same-sex marriages was considerably younger than that of people who had ever been heterosexually married, the average age at death among those who actually died during the observation period was, not surprisingly, considerably younger in the population of same-sex married persons." Their own analysis found that excess mortality in Danish same-sex marriages since 1995 was "restricted to the first few years after a marriage, presumably reflecting preexisting illness at the time of marriage".^[27] Similarly, critics have argued that obituaries in gay-themed newspapers, which Cameron used to estimate homosexual mortality, do not provide a representative sample of deaths and ignore surviving members of the same generation.^[28]

Cameron has also been criticized for placing responsibility for same-sex child sexual abuse on "homosexuals"; opponents state that someone who carries out such abuse need not have a homosexual orientation with respect to other adults.^[29][30] Gregory M. Herek, a psychologist specialising in prejudice against sexual minorities, charges that Cameron misrepresented the literature he had reviewed and cited to support his claims, such as a Groth and Birnbaum (1978) study in which none of the participating child molestors actually identified as homosexuals, and none of those who were bisexual claimed to prefer men over women. Furthermore, while Cameron assumed all the same-sex molestations were perpetrated by homosexuals, he did not assume all the opposite-sex molestations were perpetrated by heterosexuals; he included a "bisexual correction" only for opposite-sex molestations that effectively increased the number of perpetrators described as "homosexual" without changing the number described as "heterosexual".^[31]

Herek noted that most of the Cameron group's academic publications in the past 15 years have been based on a survey study conducted in 1983 and 1984. The main survey was completed in seven U.S. cities and towns in 1983. Data were later added from a 1984 Dallas (TX) sample. Most of the Cameron group's papers have reported data from the combined samples. According to Herek, a critical review of the Cameron group's sampling techniques, survey methodology, and interpretation of results reveals at least six serious errors in their study. Herek concludes, "an empirical study manifesting even one of these six weaknesses would be considered seriously flawed. In combination, the multiple methodological problems evident in the Cameron group's surveys mean that their results cannot even be considered a valid description of the specific group of individuals who returned the survey questionnaire. Because the data are essentially meaningless, it is not surprising that they have been virtually ignored by the scientific community."^[32] "The Cameron group has published its empirical research in academic journals with low prestige and, at least in the case of Psychological Reports, with a low rejection rate and a publication fee required from authors. Given the serious methodological flaws in their survey studies and obituary study, it is reasonable to conclude that the Cameron group's papers would have been rejected by more prestigious scientific journals. Other than the Cameron group itself, researchers have not cited their empirical studies as a source of ideas for new research on sexual orientation. Nor have scientists cited the group's papers to support assertions about the dangers to society posed by homosexuals."^[33]

In a widely publicized interview with Midweek Politics with David Pakman, Cameron compared homosexuality to drug use,^[34] a comparison that drew criticism from a number of gay rights blogs, websites, and the Huffington Post.^[35]

Works[link]

• Paul Cameron (1977). The Life Cycle: Perspectives and Commentary. Oceanside, NY: Dabor Science Publications. ISBN 0-89561-057-4. 
• Paul Cameron (1978). Sexual Gradualism: A Solution to the Sexual Dilemma of Teen-agers and Young Adults. Sun Valley, CA: HumLife Publications. OCLC 5028575. 
• Paul Cameron (1988). Exposing the AIDS Scandal. Lafayette, LA: Huntington House. ISBN 0-910311-52-8. 
• Paul Cameron (1993). The Gay 90s: What the Empirical Evidence Reveals about Homosexuality. Franklin, Tenn.: Adroit Press. ISBN 1-884067-01-8. 

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

• Family Research Institute website
• Mark E. Pietrzyk, "Queer Science" Independent Gay Forum
• "A Mighty Army", Southern Poverty Law Center -- profile of the Family Research Institute
• Gregory M. Herek, "Paul Cameron Bio and Fact Sheet"