Equality, Diversity and Inclusion ResourceList - Disability
A few example books from the list:
Disability Services and Disability Studies in Higher Education: History, Contexts, and Social Impacts by
Disability Services and Disability Studies in Higher Education considers how the two fields of disability studies and disability services in institutions of higher education impact each other. Disability Studies is centered in the classroom, an interdisciplinary field that teaches about the social contexts of disability, while Disability Services works outside the classroom, making sure students with disabilities are able to access classroom spaces and educational material. Oslund explores the effect of the services on the larger societies in which they are located, students who encounter the respective fields, and those who self-identify as disabled or have an identity of disability posited on them by the society in which they live.
Sitting Pretty by
A memoir-in-essays from disability advocate and creator of the Instagram account @sitting_pretty Rebekah Taussig, processing a lifetime of memories to paint a beautiful, nuanced portrait of a body that looks and moves differently than most. Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Writing about the rhythms and textures of what it means to live in a body that doesn't fit, Rebekah reflects on everything from the complications of kindness and charity, living both independently and dependently, experiencing intimacy, and how the pervasiveness of ableism in our everyday media directly translates to everyday life. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one point or another. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story.
Accessible America by
A history of design that is often overlooked--until we need it Have you ever hit the big blue button to activate automatic doors? Have you ever used an ergonomic kitchen tool? Have you ever used curb cuts to roll a stroller across an intersection? If you have, then you've benefited from accessible design--design for people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. These ubiquitous touchstones of modern life were once anything but. Disability advocates fought tirelessly to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities became a standard part of public design thinking. That fight took many forms worldwide, but in the United States it became a civil rights issue; activists used design to make an argument about the place of people with disabilities in public life. In the aftermath of World War II, with injured veterans returning home and the polio epidemic reaching the Oval Office, the needs of people with disabilities came forcibly into the public eye as they never had before. The US became the first country to enact federal accessibility laws, beginning with the Architectural Barriers Act in 1968 and continuing through the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, bringing about a wholesale rethinking of our built environment. This progression wasn't straightforward or easy. Early legislation and design efforts were often haphazard or poorly implemented, with decidedly mixed results. Political resistance to accommodating the needs of people with disabilities was strong; so, too, was resistance among architectural and industrial designers, for whom accessible design wasn't "real" design. Bess Williamson provides an extraordinary look at everyday design, marrying accessibility with aesthetic, to provide an insight into a world in which we are all active participants, but often passive onlookers. Richly detailed, with stories of politics and innovation, Williamson's Accessible America takes us through this important history, showing how American ideas of individualism and rights came to shape the material world, often with unexpected consequences.
Use Browzine to browse and explore our wide range of journals. Watch our guide to see how it works.
Examples of journals related to disability include:
BoB is an off-air recording and media archive service which stores recorded TV and Radio programmes in an archive indefinitely. Explore our Disability BoB playlist.
Explore the Cadbury Research Disability History Resource Guide.
The Cadbury Research Library, in the Muirhead Tower, is the home for Special Collections and Archives of the University of Birmingham. The collections comprise approximately 200,000 pre-1850 books dating from 1471 and some 4 million manuscripts. The Cadbury Research Library welcomes all interested users, both staff and students of the University and members of the public.