Approximately 10% of the world’s population is estimated to be disabled and this number is expected to rise in the next few decades. Disability has consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for their families and their environment, it is a human and social issue that touches us ...
(Show more)Approximately 10% of the world’s population is estimated to be disabled and this number is expected to rise in the next few decades. Disability has consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for their families and their environment, it is a human and social issue that touches us all. People in different cultural settings ascribe different meanings to disability; consequently, its repercussions are both culturally contingent and universal. In the project Rethinking Disability are the local and global dimensions of disability brought together and is the interaction, tension and conflict between these two aspects examined by undertaking the first comprehensive study of the far-reaching political, societal and cultural implications of the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP), a landmark event organized by the United Nations in 1981, which appears to have gone virtually unrecognized in scholarship. During the presentation, the hypothesis of this project will be discussed, namely if the International Year, together with its counterpart, the International Decade of Disabled Persons (1982-1993) was the most significant watershed in the modern history of disability. Moreover, the practical and theoretical challenges of writing a global disability history will be addressed.
(Show less)