Toward Equity in Research on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Lack of diversity in IDD research is typically conceptualized only in terms of (1) recruitment of samples that do not appropriately represent the sociodemographics of the population, or (2) the limited number of researchers from historically marginalized backgrounds. Critically, the field also suffers from over-reliance on perspectives and social systems of dominant culture-both in how disability is regarded and in relation to other dimensions of identity and culture. These lenses lead to research findings that reinforce, rather than reduce, social inequities. We propose a framework that minimizes reliance on diagnostic categories, shifts from deficit- to person-centered models, acknowledges people's multiple identities, and includes self-advocates and diverse communities as partners in the research enterprise. The systems change necessary to support this framework is described.

Imagining Neurodivergent Futures from the Belly of the Identity Machine: Neurodiversity, Biosociality, and Strategic Essentialism

Several critiques have emerged of the neurodiversity paradigm and of claims made by activists in the Neurodiversity Movement. These critiques include concerns that the Neurodiveristiy movement downplays the differences between Autistic people. In this article, I argue that the neurodiversity paradigm is a strategically adopted response to current realities. Sometimes, it is strategically necessary to appeal to existing narratives about Autism, or to emphasize solidarity within the Autistic community over the autism spectrum's internal diversity. At times, this can lead activists to neglect a more nuanced articulation of the Neurodiversity paradigm, which allows for the diversity of our community while still calling for solidarity in the face of shared experiences of discrimination. I compare this strategy with strategies of strategic essentialism utilized in the Indigenous Rights movement in Canada. I also explore the ways in which discourses of ableism and racism have historically been intertwined. Both Autistic people and Indigenous people represent diverse communities that must grapple with externally imposed identities to access legal rights, and both identities have been denigrated as mentally inferior by non-Autistic and colonial powers. I conclude that it is sometimes necessary to employ these types of strategies to secure needed resources and protections. I call for both scholars and advocates to take a more intersectional approach to understanding how strategic essentialism is being deployed within the Neurodiversity Movement.

Mindshift in autism: a call to professionals in research, clinical, and educational settings

Autistic people often have poor outcomes over the life course, including in health, education, employment, and community inclusion. Many professionals working with Autistic adults in research, clinical, and educational settings devote their careers to trying to improve such outcomes. However, we maintain that real progress cannot happen without a fundamental mindshift. The status quo for professionals is to view autism as an illness. Instead, the neurodiversity movement encourages us to value and embrace autism as an aspect of human diversity and asks us to view Autistic people as a marginalized group that experiences significant disparities. While some professionals may be adopting language and concepts from the neurodiversity movement, we argue that making this mindshift fundamentally changes our practice across research, clinical, and educational settings. In this perspective, we call on professionals to embrace this mindshift to reduce discrimination and stigma, halt the spread of harmful ideologies, and help Autistic adults live fulfilling lives.

A call to action for disability and rehabilitation research using a DisCrit and Disability Justice framework

PURPOSE

Disability and ableism exist within a societal context that does not ignore the many facets of a person's identity, however often our disability research does not recognize how experiences vary based on the intersecting identities individuals hold. This article utilizes Intersectionality, Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit), and Disability Justice to identify ways for rehabilitation researchers to adapt their research practices for maximum inclusivity and representation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using these three frameworks, we have developed a call to action including recommendations for rehabilitation researchers to consider as they design and implement research projects.

RESULTS

Incorporating these frameworks provides an opportunity to reimagine current research practices.

CONCLUSIONS

An accessible approach can help researchers better understand and report on the nuances of intersecting identities on the lives of disabled people.Implications For RehabilitationDisability identity and ableism must be viewed intersectionally, and disability related research must attend to the many facets of a person's identity.Intersectionality, DisCrit, and Disability Justice provide useful frameworks through which we can conduct more inclusive and accessible disability research.We present a call-to-action including seven general considerations that researchers can implement to guide the development of intersectional and inclusive disability research.

Louisiana's "Medically Futile" Unborn Child List: Ethical Lessons at the Post-Dobbs Intersection of Reproductive and Disability Justice

Ableist attitudes and structures are increasingly recognized across all sectors of health care delivery. After Dobbs, novel questions arose in the United States concerning how to protect reproductive autonomy while avoiding discrimination against and devaluation of disabled persons. In this essay, we examine the Louisiana Department of Health's emergency declaration, "List of Conditions That Shall Deem an Unborn Child 'Medically Futile,'" issued August 1, 2022. We raise a number of medical, ethical, and public health concerns that lead us to argue that the declaration should be rescinded. Analysis of this ethically objectionable declaration provides valuable lessons about how to uphold both reproductive and disability justice in a post-Dobbs landscape.

Shifting the discourse on disability: Moving to an inclusive, intersectional focus

Individuals with disabilities comprise one of the largest marginalized groups in the United States and experience systemic barriers in health care. In Westernized communities, disability has historically been conceptualized via the medical model, which considers disability an individual-level deficit in need of correction. Although other models of disability (e.g., social model) have been developed to address the medical model's ableist shortcomings, these fail to consistently acknowledge intersectionality. Specifically, these models fail to consider that (a) a disabled individual may hold other marginalized or oppressed identities and (b) these intersecting oppressions may exacerbate health inequities. Intersectionality, which originates from Black feminist literature, describes the ways that systems of power and oppression (e.g., racism, sexism) interact to form an individual's unique experience. To date, the intersection of disability and other marginalized identities has been neglected in psychology and related fields, leaving little guidance for how scholars, clinicians, and other stakeholders can address disability via an intersectional lens. The present article discusses how a disability-affirmative, intersectional approach can serve as a strategy for challenging and reforming oppressive systems across the field of psychology. We assert that, ultimately, this approach has the potential to optimize and expand access to equitable, inclusive mental health care, and we propose actionable steps psychologists can take in research, practice, training, and policy in pursuit of this aim. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Implications of internalised ableism for the health and wellbeing of disabled young people

When conceptualising health and wellbeing among disabled people, the experience of internalised ableism must be considered. In this article, we argue that internalised ableism is indeed a health and wellbeing issue that materialises in numerous complex psychological, social and physical consequences. For theoretical grounding, we utilise critical disability studies, feminist theorising about solidarity and disability activists' concept of 'disability justice'. We draw on data from focus-group interviews with disabled young people, comprising ten men and eleven women, with different impairment types. The focus-group discussions revolve around various aspects of their wellbeing and participation in society, and possible and actual threats to the wellbeing of disabled children and young people in general. The analysis reflects various negative effects of internalised ableism on the identity, health and wellbeing of disabled young people. Family support, access to safer spaces and positive peer interactions are factors defining how internalised ableism develops, is maintained or defied. Peer support and solidarity are strong indicators of promoting healing from internalised ableism. We argue that disability scholars need to address the health and wellbeing of disabled people in an ableist world.

"Give Us the Chance to Be Part of You, We Want Our Voices to Be Heard": Assistive Technology as a Mediator of Participation in (Formal and Informal) Citizenship Activities for Persons with Disabilities Who Are Slum Dwellers in Freetown, Sierra Leone

The importance of assistive technology (AT) is gaining recognition, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) set to publish a Global Report in 2022. Yet little is understood about access for the poorest, or the potential of AT to enable this group to participate in the activities of citizenship; both formal and informal. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore AT as mediator of participation in citizenship for persons with disabilities who live in two informal settlements in Freetown, Sierra Leone (SL). The paper presents evidence from 16 participant and 5 stakeholder interviews; 5 focus groups and 4 events; combining this with the findings of a house-to-house AT survey; and two national studies-a country capacity assessment and an informal markets deep-dive. Despite citizenship activities being valued, a lack of AT was consistently reported and hindered participation. Stigma was also found to be a major barrier. AT access for the poorest must be addressed if citizenship participation for persons with disabilities is a genuine global intention and disability justice is to become a reality.

The politics of mad femme disclosure

This essay imagines mad femme politics as an intervention and as a strategy that moves disabled, chronically ill, and mad educators and learners toward collective access and liberation. Using personal narrative, femme theory, and mad studies as reference points, the essay explores how a queering of tenderness and vulnerability can empower and embolden the process of disclosure.

Disability, communication, and life itself in the COVID-19 pandemic

In this article we offer an analysis of a deeply problematic and troubling dual aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic: how disability is being understood within normative accounts of health and medicine to frame, interpret, and respond to its spread and implications; what are the terms of inclusion and exclusion in altered social life in the COVID crisis; and how people with disabilities fare. We find disturbing indications of disablism and oppressive biopolitics in the 'enforcing of normalcy' that frames and dominates COVID reconstruction of social life - a situation that we suggest needs urgent deciphering, critique, and intervention.

Moving toward disability justice: Introduction to "lesbian lives, disabled lives"

This essay introduces the special issue of Journal of Lesbian Studies on "Lesbian Lives, Disabled Lives" by describing the work of disability activism and Disability Justice within a contemporary cultural context that overlaps with lesbian and queer activism and lesbian studies.

COVID-19 and the need for disability conscious medical education, training, and practice

The COVID-19 era exposes what was already a crisis in the medical profession: structural racism, ageism, sexism, classism, and ableism resulting in healthcare disparities for Persons with Disabilities (PWD). Early research highlights these disparities, but we do not yet know the full impact of this pandemic on PWD. Over the last 20 years, many medical schools have attempted to develop disability competency trainings, but discrimination and inequities remain, resulting in a pervasive distrust of medicine by the disability community at large. In this commentary, we suggest that disability competency is insufficient because the healthcare disparities experienced by PWD are not simply a matter of individual biases, but structural and systemic factors requiring a culture shift in the healthcare professions. Recognizing that disability is a form of diversity that is experienced alongside other systemic disadvantages like social class, race, age, sex, gender identity, and geographic location, we explore the transformative potential of disability conscious medical education, training, and practice that draws on insights from intersectional disability justice activism. Disability conscious medicine is a novel approach, which improves upon competency programs by utilizing disability studies and the principles of disability justice to guide us in the critique of norms, traditions, and institutions to more fully promote the respect, beneficence, and justice that patients deserve.