Disability Discourse

Mairian Corker is a part-time Senior Research Fellow in Deaf and Disability Studies at the University of Central Lancashire. She is author of numerous publications including Deaf Transitions (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) and Deaf and Disabled or Deafness Disabled? (Open University Press), editor of Deaf Worlds and an Executive Editor of Disability and Society.Sally French is a part-time Lecturer in the Department of Health Studies at Brunel University. She also works as a freelance writer, researcher and physiotherapist. She has written and edited numerous articles and books relating to Disability Studies, including Disabling Barriers, Enabling Environments (Sage, in association with The Open University) and On Equal Terms (Butterworth-Heinemann).

"Most new books recycle existing thought, but occasionallya book comes along which offers a new set of ideas and a fresh perspective. This international compilation does both: it provides the familiar alongside the normal." - The Times Educational Supplement "Disability and the Dilemmas of Education and Justice pulls no punches. It is a relentless critique of our current special educational needs system and of those who work in it." - Special Children "A thought provoking and interesting book, that raises many valuable issues. Certainly worth a read for all involved in special education." - Education Review "I have for over 30 years been concerned with the education of students with a variety of disabilities and of various degrees of disability, andbelieved that I had acquired a knowledge of most of theproblems experienced by disabled people. However, after reading the essays containedin this book my eyes have been opened to a myriad of other problems experienced by them, and for me the essays have opened up new avenues of thought on education as it affects disabled students.The writing of this book has long been overdue." - EducationToday "...a must for students...It brings special needs into the wide cultural arena which seems to me to be where it must be located as we moveinto the twenty-first century." - British Educational Research Journal "This book is stronglyrecommendedto anyone involved in special education." - Educational Research "...a book that will inform and enlighten even the most veteran and knowledgeable members of the special education profession...At the same time, it is written in sufficient detail and with enough background information to allow its ideas to be accessible to newcomers or lay readers. Its authors'perspectives are fresh, informed by multiple sources and disciplines." - Qualitative Studies in Education

• Series editor's prefaceIntroductionreclaiming language in disability studiesPart one: Personal narrativesInside aphasiaThe wind gets in my wayI am more than my wheelsDepressed and disabledsome discursive problems with mental illnessNarrative identity and the disabled selfPart two: The social creation of disability identityWhy can't you be normal for once in your life? From a problem with no name to the emergency of a new category of differenceUnless otherwise stateddiscourses of labelling and identity in coming outCarving out a place to actacquired impairment and contested identityDiscourse and identitydisabled children in mainstream high schoolsTransforming disability identity through critical literacy and the cultural politics of languageTalking 'tragedy'identity issues in the parental story of disabilityPart three: Cultural discoursesStudying disability rhetoricallyModern slogan, ancient scriptdisability in the Chinese languageBodies, brains and behaviourthe return of the three stooges in learning disabilityJoseph F. Sullivan and the discourse of 'crippledom' in progressive AmericaArt and lies? Representations of disability on filmWhat they don't tell people with learning difficultiesFinal accounts and the parasite peopleDisability discourse, the principle of optimization and social changeBiographical notesReferencesIndex.