The present research study is a deconstructive collaborative project situated within a postmodern paradigm. The research is premised on a notion that disability has been constructed by societies to reflect their values and norms. Despite various ancient and contemporary worldviews stabilising this normative paradigm, disability has remained a shifting and fleeting concept. For the most part, it has cast the disabled identity in more negative and alienating ways than positive. The Christian cultural context of Lesotho within which the study is situated has not done any better in terms of portraying people with disabilities. Instead, it has inherited the legacy of the ancient Mediterranean world and further re-read it in the light of the demands of contemporary society on the disabled identity. For instance, people with disabilities are still constructed as „sinners‟, „monsters‟, „add-ons‟, and pathological burdens who cannot by themselves survive the challenges of the contemporary world. Using the ideas of Foucault and Derrida, the study examines ways in which such a notion of disability is not only linguistically unstable but also founded on the binary opposites. The participatory nature of the study brings the important voices of people with disabilities to further destabilise the notion of disability and to deconstruct the dominant disability story. The immersion of this study within the participatory ethics and consciousness of Kotzé and Heshusius respectively, has led to an ambitious proposing of the participatory model of disability. The latter has leanings towards metaphors of the church as communion founded on and nurtured by the theologies of embrace, interdependence, healing and botho. It also resonates with the metaphor of the church as expounded in I Corinthians 12. As members of the body of Christ, no member can suffer without the rest of the body feeling the same. If one member of the body is disabled all the body is disabled. Alienating and marginalising others has no place in such a metaphor of church as communion, since by its own definition, all belong to and participate within it. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

Students with learning difficulties are said by many writers to be prohibited from having a valued learner identity and denied a voice in which to influence their educational circumstances. They are, it is argued, kept submerged in a ‘culture of silence’, where they are homogenised as a deficit category of learners and, therefore, perceived in a one-dimensional way. Such disabling barriers stem from practitioner assumptions and wider sociological influences, which are also part of this same culture. The by-products of this thinking have prevented practitioners from developing more interactive and enabling relationships with their students. Starting with a commitment to listen to student views, and explore accessible, flexible and innovative ways in which to advocate these, the research reported in this thesis sought ways to address this agenda. Set in a further education college, five student co-researchers, four practitioner co-researchers and a facilitator co-researcher embarked on a year long project to learn how the same students could be supported in contributing to their own learning. Being a transparent account, the inquiry was also interested in exploring the difficulties of this endeavour and whether student empowerment would alter the relational dynamics and, therefore, practitioner roles. As the facilitator was instrumental in introducing these ideas, she also examined her own influential role. Data were generated from observations and co-researcher experiences of engaging with roles, body collages, student interviews, photo voice, journals, portfolios and reflective meetings. These exploratory processes and methods were predicated upon the ideological frameworks of the social model of disability and multiple intelligences theory. The study revealed that renegotiated co-researcher roles and body collages were effective processes for enabling reciprocal engagement, causing students to empower themselves and leading practitioners to rethink in ways that had not been anticipated. These processes were also felt to be educationally effective in relation to curriculum aims. Whilst journals and lengthy meetings proved to be impractical and of little use, the reflective journal did prove to be an essential tool for the facilitator, allowing her to draw upon further evidence. The findings indicate that student voice can be raised through collaboration and forging relationships of trust and co-ownership. The thesis concludes by arguing that silences were broken, not least since these collaborative actions are still being used in the particular context in ways that are conducive to everyday practices. Although time and commitment are needed, these are valuable strategies that other marginalised educational communities may benefit from adopting.

<p>A literature review covering both the social construct model and medical model of disability followed by an argument of the importance of leisure and social activities, especially the arts, for people with disabilities. Concluding quantitative and qualitative research through focus groups and surveys, the project ends with a guide to implementing accessibility and inclusion efforts when planning online arts events.</p>

Education facilitates community involvement, participation, and acceptance, but not for students with significant disabilities who are taught in separate settings. The policy of separate education derives from arcane beliefs, limited research, and misconceptions that result in people with disabilities having choices made for them not with them. The All IN Pix YPAR asked six high school students with significant disabilities to photo document a week in their high school yearbook class. Each day after school, the students discussed a single photo using a modified photovoice method in structured interviews using the SHOWeD questioning protocol. After data capture, during a Zoom focus group interview, participant photographers picked 10 pictures and identified themes. Study district schoolteachers opted into the ALL IN Pix Gallery Exhibit Survey and shared their reactions to the images and student comments. The teachers found the exhibit impactful in providing a view of the students’ world, giving voices to students, and teaching the teachers more about the people beyond their disabilities. Students felt empowered in classes where they had choice in their education. Student participants became advocates for change over the course of the study. Recommendations for practice include, adopting students’ requests for experiential and choice driven instruction, incorporation of photovoice into individualized education plan development, club involvement, and teacher development. The All IN Pix YPAR study empowered student participants through self-advocacy and personal autonomy, which align to the study theoretical frameworks of empowerment education theory, critical disability theory, and the social model of disability theory (Kunt, 2020).

Living Disability: Ways Forward from Decontextual Models of Disability consists of six articles that provide both theoretical and pragmatic commentaries on decontextual approaches to vulnerability and disability. In What Contemporary Models of Disability Miss: The Case for a Phenomenological Hermeneutic Analysis I argue many commonly accepted models for understanding disability use a vertical method in which disability is defined as a category into which people are slotted based on whether or not they fit its definitional criteria. This method inevitably homogenizes the experiences of disabled people. A hermeneutic investigation of commonly accepted models for understanding disability will provide an epistemological tool to critique and to augment contemporary models of disability. In A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Resolution to the Principlist- Narrative Bioethics Debate Narrative, I note narrative approaches to bioethics and principlist approaches to bioethics have often been presented in fundamental opposition to each other. I argue that a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to the debate finds a compromise between both positions that maintains what is valuable in each of them. Justifying an Adequate Response to the Vulnerable Other examines the possibility of endorsing the position that I, as a moral agent, ought to do my best to respond adequately to the other’s vulnerability. I contend that, insofar as I value my personal identity, it is consistent to work toward responding adequately to the vulnerability of the other both ontologically and ethically. Who Can Make a Yes?: Disability, Gender, Sexual Consent and ‘Yes Means Yes’ examines the ‘yes means yes’ model of sexual consent, and the political and ethical commitments that underpin this model, noting three fundamental Ph.D. Thesis – C. Kavanagh; McMaster University - Philosophy v disadvantages. This position unfairly polices the sexual expression of participants, particularly vulnerable participants such as disabled people, it demands an unreasonably high standard for defining sexual interaction as consensual, and allows perpetrators of sexual violence to define consent. In Craving Sameness, Accepting Difference: The Possibility of Solidarity and Social Justice I note realist accounts typically define solidarity on the basis of a static feature of human nature. We stand in solidarity with some other person, or group of people, because we share important features in common. In opposition to such realist accounts, Richard Rorty defines solidarity as a practical tool, within which there is always an ‘us’, with whom we stand in solidarity, and a ‘them’, with whom we are contrasted. I argue that by understanding Rorty’s pragmatic solidarity in terms of the relational view of solidarity offered by Alexis Shotwell, it is possible to conceptualise solidarity in a manner that allows for extending the boundaries of the community with whom we stand in solidarity. In Translating Non-Human Actors I examine Bruno Latour’s position that nonhuman things can be made to leave interpretable statements, and have a place in democracy. With the right types of mediators, the scientist can translate for non-humans, and those voices will allow for nonhuman political representation. I wish to suggest that, like scientists, people with disabilities are particularly capable of building networks that facilitate translation between humans and non-humans. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Living Disability: Ways Forward from Decontextual Models of Disability consists of six separate articles that provide both theoretical and pragmatic commentaries on decontextual approaches to vulnerability and disability. The first three articles examine contemporary approaches to understanding vulnerability and disability, and explore what a contextual theoretical approach, one that puts the experiences of people with disabilities at the centre, might look like. The second three articles provide a bioethical examination of practical ethical questions associated with the treatment of people with disabilities when it comes to social and political positions on disability and sexuality, solidarity with people with disabilities, and the relationship between people with disabilities and objects.

Avhandlingen beskriver och analyserar hur frågor kring tillgänglighet/handikapp för första gången aktualiserades och implementerades i planeringen och utformningen av den byggda miljön i Aten, nämligen processen i samband med beslut, planering och implementering av jätteprojektet Atens Metro. Studien tecknar framväxten av olika handikapporganisationer, som från att ha varit svaga aktörer successivt lyckades få gehör för sina krav inom stadens förvaltning, politiska organ, den grekiska riksdagen och inte minst inom de företag som byggde metrosystemet. Avhandlingen diskuterar hur handikapporganisationer och metrosystemet växte fram och påverkade varandra, hur viktiga forum för att diskutera/problematisera olika perspektiv på handikapp skapades där aktörsgrupper med delvis olika intressen förde fram sina ståndpunkter och förhandlade samt vilka konkreta avtryck som dessa processer ledde till i form av en - slutligen - handikappvänlig teknisk konfiguration av metrosystemet. Studien knyter också an till den europeiska diskussionen, bl.a. inom EU, kring handikapp och vilken betydelse som denna diskussion hade för det framväxande metroprojektet, inte minst inför Atens OS-värdskap 2004. Avhandlingen tar sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i dels samhällsvetenskapliga teknik- och vetenskapsstudier, dels "disability studies". / The idea of building a metro network in Athens dates back to the 1950s. It took almost fifty years for the Greek government to develop plans, secure funds and to carry out an effective procurement process for the construction of the Athens metro. In February 1987 the government announced an invitation to tender for the design and construction of the metro. Thirteen years later, in January 2000 the first two lines began operation. The construction of the metro consisted of numerous preliminary studies, different public organizations which dealt with its development and several controversies concerning its design. One of these controversies referred to the issue whether the metro would be accessible to disabled people or not. Integrating accessibility provisions in the metro design constituted a controversial issue where different actors argued and acted for and against its implementation. This study describes and analyses the process of making the metro accessible. The analysis focuses on how questions regarding accessibility/disability were actualized for the first time in the planning and design of the Greek built environment and in particular on the process of building the biggest and most complicated infrastructure project in Greece, the Athens metro. At the same time, the study describes the evolution of disability organizations in Greece: they changed from being weak actors who were unable to influence socio-political configurations to actors that successively gained attention within the public administration, political organs, the Greek Parliament and the company that constructed the metro. The study discusses how disability organizations and the metro were developed and influenced each other and how important forums, where several actors with diverse interests problematized and produced different perspectives on disability, were initiated. These forums constituted public spaces within the public administration and eventually contributed to the construction of an accessible metro network. The analysis is also connected to Athens hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2004 which created increasing demands for constructing an accessible built environment, including the metro. Furthermore, the study also draws upon the discussion within the EU on disability and on which kind of consequences this discussion implied for the developing metro. The theoretical basis for this study is located at the intersection of two broad fields, namely science and technology studies (S&amp;TS) and disability studies.