No description available.

No description available.

This thesis explores how a small group of women with learning disabilities give meaning to sexuality, and how institutional processes within family and service settings influence this. It focuses on empirical data gained primarily from interviews with sixteen women, supplemented and contextualised by data drawn from a focus group with six women, and observations of a course on sexuality for men and women with learning disabilities. The theoretical framework draws on the social model of disability, which suggests that disability is socially produced; Foucauldian concepts of regulation and normalisation; and symbolic interactionist notions of how sexuality is constructed through social interaction, alongside Foucault’s notion of sexuality being ‘produced’ via normative discourses. The research is therefore embedded within a framework that explores how women with learning disabilities are subject to a number of very particular regulatory sexual accounts and discourses, including those that relate specifically to ‘learning disability’, as well as gendered normative accounts that can act to compete with those in relation to learning disability, or work with, and underscore them. The study therefore explores where and how this group learnt about sexuality, teasing out some of the institutional accounts and discourses around sexuality, learning disability and gender that respondents reported coming into contact with; the kinds of institutional practices that influenced the agency of respondents, thus underlining or challenging the kinds of accounts and discourses of sexuality they reported encountering; and the various accounts and discourses of sexuality reflected in respondents’ own opinions in relation to sexuality, gender and learning disability. Findings suggest that respondents were subject to contradictory accounts, discourses and practices in relation to sexuality within institutional contexts, and that these both underscored norms related to the label of ‘learning disability’, as well as gendered and (hetero)sexual norms. Respondents themselves expressed a range of views in relation to sexuality. However, many accounts reflected the norms they reported encountering within family and service settings.

The current study exammes critically the factors that have influenced the construction of the concept of intellectual disability within disabled families in Ecuador. It also enquires about the strategies that disabled families and their impaired members have developed to negotiate, to accept, to reject or to confront discourses and actors that are present in such a construction. Implementing the contribution of Latin American thought, intellectual disability has been analysed as a modem construct that responds to four categories, medical and pedagogical, administrative and bureaucratic, moral and cultural, and a category of intimacy and mutuality. With the purpose of giving voice to the disabled individuals and their families, life stories were collected from 24 Ecuadorian families of three different ethnic , backgrounds: indio, negro, and mestizo. The process was developed through in-depth interviews with' a semi-structured format, as well as participant observation as a useful technique to understand meanings of life and experiences. Alongside the aforementioned, being loyal to the. incorporation of the category of intimacy, the methodology of the research included sharing time with the families (3 days with each family) in each area of fieldwork. The results of the research intend to contribute to the improvement of the work of the disability social movement, international organisations and the government in Ecuador are introducing approaches of conscientization and community action. In this way, the study hopes to play a significant part in giving a voice to disabled people and their families, which will hopefully bring about new means for policies and changes in attitude.

No description available.

This research set-out to: a) investigate attitudes of disabled people (adults) toward other disabled people; and, b) attitudes of disabled people toward different impairment groups. Comparative data from a non-disabled sample was also collected. Two new attitude rating scales were developed for this research: the General Attitude Scale Toward Disabled People (GASTDP) and the Attitude Toward Impairment Scale (A TIS). Both scales achieved acceptable levels of internal and external reliability. Positive attitudes toward disabled people were found from both the disabled (M = 41.08; n = 193) and non-disabled samples (M = 39.29; n = 120). However, a hierarchy of impairment also appears to exist, with the disabled sample producing a rank ordering of most accepted to least of Deaf, Arthritis, Epilepsy, Cerebral Palsy, HIV/AIDS, Down's Syndrome and Schizophrenia. The nondisabled sample rank ordering was the same for five of the seven impairment groups, with only Cerebral Palsy and HIV / AIDS being placed in reverse order. The GASTDP contains two sub-scales (Subtle and Blatant Prejudice subscales). Statistically significant results between the two sub-scales were found for both the disabled and non-disabled samples, suggesting people tend to hold subtle forms of prejudice toward disabled people. The discussion therefore utilises the term aversive disablism, based on aversive racism. This theory argues that whilst people may be reluctant to express negative attitudes toward disabled people, they may also support policies that are disablist, i.e. segregated housing. The contact hypothesis, whereby contact with members of a minority group influence attitudes, was not supported by the data. This thesis recommends further research into subtle forms of prejudice toward disabled people from an in-group perspective and attitudes toward different impairment groups.

Chaque personne est susceptible de vivre un accident entraînant un profond changement de son corps. Cette situation redoutée n'arrive pas toujours qu'aux autres. Parmi les personnes qui ne sortent pas indemnes de leur accident, certaines sont touchées par une déficience motrice irréversible, qui peut prendre la forme d'une paralysie ou d'une amputation d'un ou plusieurs membres de leur corps. Ces personnes font alors l'expérience du handicap moteur. Cette expérience déstabilisante ne peut être réduite à sa seule dimension corporelle. Elle implique, pour l'individu, de devoir composer avec une prise en charge institutionnelle (à l'hôpital, puis dans un centre ou une unité de rééducation et de réadaptation, pendant plusieurs mois, voire années), de reformuler son existence, ainsi que de reconstruire sa relation conjugale. Guère étudiée dans le champ de la sociologie du couple ou de la sociologie du handicap, la dimension conjugale de l'expérience du handicap moteur permet de saisir à la fois la dynamique de la relation conjugale et la capacité de cette relation à atténuer une épreuve durable et déstabilisante pour l'individu ayant une déficience motrice. À partir d'entretiens menés auprès de femmes et d'hommes confrontés à une déficience motrice (hémiplégie, paraplégie, tétraplégie, amputation) depuis quelques années, cette thèse se propose, d'une part, d'analyser les façons dont ces individus (re)construisent leur expérience du handicap moteur avec leur conjoint et, d'autre part, de saisir les conséquences de l'apparition de la déficience motrice sur leur relation conjugale. / Each person is likely to live an accident involving a deep change of her body. This dreaded situation does not always arrive only at the others. Among the people who do not leave unscathed of their accident, some are touched by an irreversible motor deficiency, which can take the form of a paralysis or an amputation of one or more members of their body. These people make the experiment of the motor disability. This destabilizing experiment cannot be reduced with its only body dimension. It implies, for the individual, to have to compose with an institutional period (at the hospital, then in a center or a unit of rehabilitation and readjustment, during several months, even years), to reformulate his existence, like rebuilding his marital relation. Hardly studied in the field of the sociology of the couple or the sociology of the disability, the marital dimension of the experiment of the motor disability makes it possible to seize at the same time the dynamics of the marital relation and the capacity of this relation to attenuate a durable and destabilizing test for the individual having a motor deficiency. Starting from interviews carried out near women and men confronted with a motor deficiency (hemiplegia, paraplegia, tetraplegia, amputation) for a few years, this thesis has proposed, on the one hand, to analyze the ways in which these individuals (re)build their experiment of the motor disability with their spouse and, on the other hand, of seizing the consequences of the appearance of motor deficiency on their marital relation.

Chaque personne est susceptible de vivre un accident entraînant un profond changement de son corps. Cette situation redoutée n'arrive pas toujours qu'aux autres. Parmi les personnes qui ne sortent pas indemnes de leur accident, certaines sont touchées par une déficience motrice irréversible, qui peut prendre la forme d'une paralysie ou d'une amputation d'un ou plusieurs membres de leur corps. Ces personnes font alors l'expérience du handicap moteur. Cette expérience déstabilisante ne peut être réduite à sa seule dimension corporelle. Elle implique, pour l'individu, de devoir composer avec une prise en charge institutionnelle (à l'hôpital, puis dans un centre ou une unité de rééducation et de réadaptation, pendant plusieurs mois, voire années), de reformuler son existence, ainsi que de reconstruire sa relation conjugale. Guère étudiée dans le champ de la sociologie du couple ou de la sociologie du handicap, la dimension conjugale de l'expérience du handicap moteur permet de saisir à la fois la dynamique de la relation conjugale et la capacité de cette relation à atténuer une épreuve durable et déstabilisante pour l'individu ayant une déficience motrice. À partir d'entretiens menés auprès de femmes et d'hommes confrontés à une déficience motrice (hémiplégie, paraplégie, tétraplégie, amputation) depuis quelques années, cette thèse se propose, d'une part, d'analyser les façons dont ces individus (re)construisent leur expérience du handicap moteur avec leur conjoint et, d'autre part, de saisir les conséquences de l'apparition de la déficience motrice sur leur relation conjugale. / Each person is likely to live an accident involving a deep change of her body. This dreaded situation does not always arrive only at the others. Among the people who do not leave unscathed of their accident, some are touched by an irreversible motor deficiency, which can take the form of a paralysis or an amputation of one or more members of their body. These people make the experiment of the motor disability. This destabilizing experiment cannot be reduced with its only body dimension. It implies, for the individual, to have to compose with an institutional period (at the hospital, then in a center or a unit of rehabilitation and readjustment, during several months, even years), to reformulate his existence, like rebuilding his marital relation. Hardly studied in the field of the sociology of the couple or the sociology of the disability, the marital dimension of the experiment of the motor disability makes it possible to seize at the same time the dynamics of the marital relation and the capacity of this relation to attenuate a durable and destabilizing test for the individual having a motor deficiency. Starting from interviews carried out near women and men confronted with a motor deficiency (hemiplegia, paraplegia, tetraplegia, amputation) for a few years, this thesis has proposed, on the one hand, to analyze the ways in which these individuals (re)build their experiment of the motor disability with their spouse and, on the other hand, of seizing the consequences of the appearance of motor deficiency on their marital relation.

Chaque personne est susceptible de vivre un accident entraînant un profond changement de son corps. Cette situation redoutée n'arrive pas toujours qu'aux autres. Parmi les personnes qui ne sortent pas indemnes de leur accident, certaines sont touchées par une déficience motrice irréversible, qui peut prendre la forme d'une paralysie ou d'une amputation d'un ou plusieurs membres de leur corps. Ces personnes font alors l'expérience du handicap moteur. Cette expérience déstabilisante ne peut être réduite à sa seule dimension corporelle. Elle implique, pour l'individu, de devoir composer avec une prise en charge institutionnelle (à l'hôpital, puis dans un centre ou une unité de rééducation et de réadaptation, pendant plusieurs mois, voire années), de reformuler son existence, ainsi que de reconstruire sa relation conjugale. Guère étudiée dans le champ de la sociologie du couple ou de la sociologie du handicap, la dimension conjugale de l'expérience du handicap moteur permet de saisir à la fois la dynamique de la relation conjugale et la capacité de cette relation à atténuer une épreuve durable et déstabilisante pour l'individu ayant une déficience motrice. À partir d'entretiens menés auprès de femmes et d'hommes confrontés à une déficience motrice (hémiplégie, paraplégie, tétraplégie, amputation) depuis quelques années, cette thèse se propose, d'une part, d'analyser les façons dont ces individus (re)construisent leur expérience du handicap moteur avec leur conjoint et, d'autre part, de saisir les conséquences de l'apparition de la déficience motrice sur leur relation conjugale. / Each person is likely to live an accident involving a deep change of her body. This dreaded situation does not always arrive only at the others. Among the people who do not leave unscathed of their accident, some are touched by an irreversible motor deficiency, which can take the form of a paralysis or an amputation of one or more members of their body. These people make the experiment of the motor disability. This destabilizing experiment cannot be reduced with its only body dimension. It implies, for the individual, to have to compose with an institutional period (at the hospital, then in a center or a unit of rehabilitation and readjustment, during several months, even years), to reformulate his existence, like rebuilding his marital relation. Hardly studied in the field of the sociology of the couple or the sociology of the disability, the marital dimension of the experiment of the motor disability makes it possible to seize at the same time the dynamics of the marital relation and the capacity of this relation to attenuate a durable and destabilizing test for the individual having a motor deficiency. Starting from interviews carried out near women and men confronted with a motor deficiency (hemiplegia, paraplegia, tetraplegia, amputation) for a few years, this thesis has proposed, on the one hand, to analyze the ways in which these individuals (re)build their experiment of the motor disability with their spouse and, on the other hand, of seizing the consequences of the appearance of motor deficiency on their marital relation.

Media is considered as one of the most powerful tools in disseminating information thereby shaping people’s lives. While there have been various studies about the relationship between media and people with disabilities, much of the emphasis has been on the media’s representation of people with disabilities than accessibility of print content in formats friendly to people with visual impairments. This research is a qualitative study which looked at the accessibility of online published print media information to people with visual impairments in terms of format. This was done by analysing content in online newspapers and magazines to determine its accessibility to them. Online interviews were also conducted to find out how print media is accessible to people with visual impairments. The Uses and Gratifications and the Social Responsibility theories were selected to frame the study on how media satisfies their specific needs and desires as well as having certain social obligations to society respectively. The findings of this study were that print media was inaccessible to people with visual impairments both in terms of formats and content. There is no print media known to people with visual impairments producing information in Braille format. The electronic version of printed media proved to be inaccessible due to the lack of media adherence to the Web Accessibility Guidelines. The research also established the underrepresentation and lack of representation in some print media due to print media’s lack of interest to cover disability issues. To respond to these needs, a framework was developed to ensure that people who are visually impaired are able to access print media information. / Communication Science / D. Phil. (Communication studies)