What do you think?
Rate this book
The Basics
Disability: The Basics
Disability: The Basics is an engaging and accessible introduction to disability which explores the broad historical, social, environmental, economic and legal factors which affect the experiences of those living with an impairment or illness in contemporary society. The book explores key introductory topics including:
the diversity of the disability experience;
disability rights and advocacy;
ways in which disabled people have been treated throughout history and in different parts of the world;
the daily realities of living with an impairment or illness;
health, education, employment and other services that exist to support and include disabled people;
ethical issues at the beginning and end of life.
Disability: The Basics aims to provide readers with an understanding of the lived experiences of disabled people and highlight the continuing gaps and barriers in social responses to the challenge of disability. This book is suitable for lay people, students of disability studies as well as students taking a disability module as part of a wider course within social work, health care, sociology, nursing, policy and media studies.
the diversity of the disability experience;
disability rights and advocacy;
ways in which disabled people have been treated throughout history and in different parts of the world;
the daily realities of living with an impairment or illness;
health, education, employment and other services that exist to support and include disabled people;
ethical issues at the beginning and end of life.
Disability: The Basics aims to provide readers with an understanding of the lived experiences of disabled people and highlight the continuing gaps and barriers in social responses to the challenge of disability. This book is suitable for lay people, students of disability studies as well as students taking a disability module as part of a wider course within social work, health care, sociology, nursing, policy and media studies.
186 pages, Hardcover
Published August 15, 2017
18 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 8, 2023
We surely came a long way since disabled people were being institutionalised, ostracised, and/or victims of all sorts of eugenics policies! And yet...
This book is an introduction to the various debates pertaining to ableism/ disablism, and so is a highly recommended read for anyone trying to get a better understanding of what it all entails. Because it's a very recent work (it was first published in 2018), I feel in fact that it will be far more relevant to contemporary readers, at least more relevant than the (still must-read) works from previous intellectuals/ campaigners mostly writing from a 1980s-1990s perspective (or, at least, the ones I came across, such as The Politics of Disablement: A Sociological Approach). More, the fact that the author focuses as much on physical disabilities as on learning ones, while also accounting for various mental disorders, makes for a great overview of an otherwise confusing field. And indeed: how does one defines 'disability' in the first place?
Grabbing the bull by the horns, Tom Shakespeare challenges here many preconceptions and prejudices. The issue is not merely that there are still a lot of confusion (ignorance?) around how we define 'impairment' as opposed to 'disability' (although he proposes to talk about 'predicament'; a term which, I think, better embraces what is being dealt with here...). The issue is that, defining 'disability' itself has been made even more tricky since most disabled people do not consider themselves 'disabled' (and that's not even delving into the so-called 'disability paradox'!) besides some demographics not being thought as being 'disabled' otherwise, while, in fact, being primarily so (e.g. the elderlies...). Linguistic claptraps? Not at all!
Of course, as with everything trying to pigeon-hole individuals as per societal expectations (conscious or not) such complete mess in labelling shouldn't surprise us. What the author brilliantly does, thought, is to show how, by retracing the history behind the disability experiences, campaigning rights and advocacy, such messy, confusing labelling nevertheless matters, and matters a great deal. From inclusion to health and social care and education, it's not enough indeed to be understanding and compassionate, since removing ableist and disablist attitudes cannot be enough to resolve the many issues faced by still a vast number of variously impaired people. Normalisation philosophy might have triumphed somehow, but not all problems have magically vanished into thin air. The author, here, quotes from the many preventable deaths at the hands of the NHS to the abuse still far too prevalent in the care sector (my field of work), and, the elephant in the room: eugenics.
His work being mainly centred upon the UK, he reminds the readers that, in the UK, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, after which a pregnancy cannot be terminated unless... in case of 'abnormalities'. Is this eugenics? The author is circumspect. His argument is familiar. On the one hand, he argues that it cannot be considered so since eugenics policies were, historically, imposed by governments that made them mandatory (e.g. forced sterilizations) whereas, here, to abort is a personal choice left to prospective parents. On the other, he questions whether prospective parents truly have 'a choice' or are, on the contrary, nudged by a medical culture, itself part of a broader popular culture, that still reduces such foetuses to their conditions, negating, by the same token, the potential they embody as future individuals. The argument is familiar, so readers will, here, probably have their own opinion already... Interestingly, though, he doesn't focus on the beginning of life only, but on its ending as well; for instance by debating euthanasia too. Again: it might be 'just' an introduction, but it tackles a wide range of topics that still demand to be challenged.
All in all, then, this short read (it clocks at about 160 pages), divided into very clear chapters each dealing with an issue of its own, is a great way to come to grip with how disability is lived, experienced, perceived, and debated in the 21st century. The back cover recommend it to people studying and/ or working 'within social work, health care, sociology, nursing, policy and media studies'. I disagree slightly. Going along with the author, I indeed feel that the term 'predicament' is helpful, and so I would strongly recommend it to absolutely anyone. Disablism, like sexism or racism (and any other prejudicial attitudes) should concern us all, especially given that, disabled or not as of now, we may become so at some point.
This book is an introduction to the various debates pertaining to ableism/ disablism, and so is a highly recommended read for anyone trying to get a better understanding of what it all entails. Because it's a very recent work (it was first published in 2018), I feel in fact that it will be far more relevant to contemporary readers, at least more relevant than the (still must-read) works from previous intellectuals/ campaigners mostly writing from a 1980s-1990s perspective (or, at least, the ones I came across, such as The Politics of Disablement: A Sociological Approach). More, the fact that the author focuses as much on physical disabilities as on learning ones, while also accounting for various mental disorders, makes for a great overview of an otherwise confusing field. And indeed: how does one defines 'disability' in the first place?
Grabbing the bull by the horns, Tom Shakespeare challenges here many preconceptions and prejudices. The issue is not merely that there are still a lot of confusion (ignorance?) around how we define 'impairment' as opposed to 'disability' (although he proposes to talk about 'predicament'; a term which, I think, better embraces what is being dealt with here...). The issue is that, defining 'disability' itself has been made even more tricky since most disabled people do not consider themselves 'disabled' (and that's not even delving into the so-called 'disability paradox'!) besides some demographics not being thought as being 'disabled' otherwise, while, in fact, being primarily so (e.g. the elderlies...). Linguistic claptraps? Not at all!
Of course, as with everything trying to pigeon-hole individuals as per societal expectations (conscious or not) such complete mess in labelling shouldn't surprise us. What the author brilliantly does, thought, is to show how, by retracing the history behind the disability experiences, campaigning rights and advocacy, such messy, confusing labelling nevertheless matters, and matters a great deal. From inclusion to health and social care and education, it's not enough indeed to be understanding and compassionate, since removing ableist and disablist attitudes cannot be enough to resolve the many issues faced by still a vast number of variously impaired people. Normalisation philosophy might have triumphed somehow, but not all problems have magically vanished into thin air. The author, here, quotes from the many preventable deaths at the hands of the NHS to the abuse still far too prevalent in the care sector (my field of work), and, the elephant in the room: eugenics.
His work being mainly centred upon the UK, he reminds the readers that, in the UK, abortion is legal up to 24 weeks, after which a pregnancy cannot be terminated unless... in case of 'abnormalities'. Is this eugenics? The author is circumspect. His argument is familiar. On the one hand, he argues that it cannot be considered so since eugenics policies were, historically, imposed by governments that made them mandatory (e.g. forced sterilizations) whereas, here, to abort is a personal choice left to prospective parents. On the other, he questions whether prospective parents truly have 'a choice' or are, on the contrary, nudged by a medical culture, itself part of a broader popular culture, that still reduces such foetuses to their conditions, negating, by the same token, the potential they embody as future individuals. The argument is familiar, so readers will, here, probably have their own opinion already... Interestingly, though, he doesn't focus on the beginning of life only, but on its ending as well; for instance by debating euthanasia too. Again: it might be 'just' an introduction, but it tackles a wide range of topics that still demand to be challenged.
All in all, then, this short read (it clocks at about 160 pages), divided into very clear chapters each dealing with an issue of its own, is a great way to come to grip with how disability is lived, experienced, perceived, and debated in the 21st century. The back cover recommend it to people studying and/ or working 'within social work, health care, sociology, nursing, policy and media studies'. I disagree slightly. Going along with the author, I indeed feel that the term 'predicament' is helpful, and so I would strongly recommend it to absolutely anyone. Disablism, like sexism or racism (and any other prejudicial attitudes) should concern us all, especially given that, disabled or not as of now, we may become so at some point.
February 1, 2019
3.5, rounded up because I got it from the library and Disability Studies books, for some reason, are mostly inexplicably expensive. It was good, but there were a lot of things I wish had been more in depth.
November 4, 2018
I found this book really helpful in a variety of ways. It is always good to become more well rounded in life which can increase your own understanding and ability to be empathetic.
August 3, 2021
Really was a great introduction into the disability world and various topics, and handled with nuance. Highly recommend!
May 24, 2025
very well written book
September 18, 2019
Great little introduction to the socio-political aspects of disability/disability studies. Focused a bit too much on personal autonomy/agency for someone like myself who is more interested in questions about intellectual (rather than physical) disability, but that may be to be expected in a book that tries to introduce all of disability.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews