Disabling Barriers
Book Review
Gerolami, Giselle
http://solidarity-us.org/atc/195/review-disabling-barriers/
Date Written: 2018-07-01
Publisher: Against the Current
Year Published: 2018
Resource Type: Article
Cx Number: CX23394
Review of a collection on disability rights.
Abstract:
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Excerpt:
Disabling Barriers: Social Movements, Disability History, and the Law
Edited by Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt
Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press, 2017, 244 pages, $32.95 (Canadian) paperback.
DISABLING BARRIERS: SOCIAL Movements, Disability History, and the Law represents a unique contribution to growing literature in the area of disability studies, an area long neglected by scholars. Editor Ravi Malhotra is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa who has written extensively on disability and the law. Co-editor Benjamin Isitt is a historian whose research and published work has focused on the history of labor and the left in British Columbia.
This collection is an accomplishment not only given the dearth of material available in disability studies, but also because of the diversity of topics and voices provided by the contributors. Additionally, the overarching theme promotes a view of disability consistent with the social model of disability....
Malhotra and Isitt state their goals: "We hope that the chapters that follow are able to push the discussion forward, ask new questions about the past, present and future, and encourage scholars from law, history and disability studies to rethink their assumptions about people with disabilities and their place in the world. We hope this questioning will inform policy debates and play a role in transforming social, legal, economic, and political relations, with a view towards removing barriers and achieving substantive equality."
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