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- DISABLED PEOPLE AND EMPLOYMENT: RECOVERING HISTORIES AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES PETER WHEELER BA (HONS) DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
- ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1
- CHAPTER 2: Research Concepts and Analytical Framework 50
- CHAPTER 4: An Historical Reflection on Disability (I) 117
- CHAPTER 5: An Historical Reflection on Disability (II) 153
- CHAPTER 6: Assisting the Employment of Disabled People 173
- CHAPTER 7: Staff Recruitment and Training 215
- CHAPTER 8: Overcoming Access Barriers 235
- CHAPTER 10: Conducting Research and Writing a Doctoral Thesis: 273 Reflections from a Disabled Perspective
- BIBLIOGRAPHY 290 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABBREVIATIONS DDA
University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrapA Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/3937 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. DISABLED PEOPLE AND EMPLOYMENT: RECOVERING HISTORIES AND CONTEMPORARY PRACTICES PETER WHEELER BA (HONS) DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK WARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL OCTOBER 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DECLARATION ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION 1 The place of experiential knowledge in disability research 12 Sources of data 18 Thesis outline 18 The social model organisation 21 New deal for disabled people 22 CHAPTER 1: Understanding Disability and Approaches to Equality 26 Models of disability 27 The quantification of disability: reinforcing a medical model 34 The first OPCS survey 35 The second OPCS survey 38 ICIDH-2 42 Equality for minority groups in organisations 45
Antonio Gramsci 50 Ideology 55 Common sense and good sense 58 Hegemony 62 Intellectuals 65 Assimilation and integration 68 Differentiating organisational ideologies 74 CHAPTER 3: Research Methodology 80 Methodological approach 80 Accessing and using documentary data 85 Ethnographic research 89 Research interviews 96 Disability and research interviews 97 Researching disability 99 Emancipatory disability research 100 Accessing research organisations 108 Gaining access to NDDP and SMO 111 Generaliseability 115
Claims for a historical continuity of oppression 118 The politics of disability 122 Disabled people victims of medical discourse 127 The rise of a disability movement 130 Disabled people and charities 137 Henshaw’s Blind Asylum 138 Thermega Ltd.: an ‘industrial experiment 145 Summary 150 CHAPTER 5: An Historical Reflection on Disability (II) 153 Disability post-Second World War 154 Sheltered and subsidised workshops 160 The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) 163 Impairment 165 Substantial and long-term effect 166 Normal day-to-day activities 167 The DDA and the environment 168 Summary 170
Politics and not-for-profit (NFP) organisations 174 NDDP: the provision of employment opportunities 177 SMO: the provision of employment opportunities 192 SMO: internal employment practices 207 Summary 211 Conclusion 212
Recruitment practices in NDDP 216 Recruitment practices in SMO 218 Job-related training in NDDP 221 Job-related training in SMO 222 NDDP: staff disability awareness training 226 SMO: staff disability awareness training 228 Summary 232 CHAPTER 8: Overcoming Access Barriers 235 NDDP: defining and enabling access 236 SMO: defining and enabling access 240 Summary 251 CHAPTER 9: Research Summary and Conclusions 254 Is the social model of disability new? 254 Organisational comparisons 261 Implications of the research 265 Policy implications 268 Research limitations and future proposals 271 CHAPTER 10: Conducting Research and Writing a Doctoral Thesis: 273 Reflections from a Disabled Perspective Embarking on the research: working with supervisors 273 Embarking on the research: finding a place to work 275 Accessing buildings and information: non-medical helpers 277 Accessing information: adaptive technologies 279 Writing the thesis: computer-generated speech systems 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY 290 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are too many people who have helped in the course of this research to list them all here, consequently when naming organisations my thanks go to the individuals who made the work possible. Hence I would wish to acknowledge the assistance given by staff at both Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Warwick. Also, the many archivists from: the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick; the National Film Archive; the Working Class movement library; the British Library Newspaper Archive; the RNIB research library; Henshaw's Society of the Blind; John Ryland's Library, and the House of Lords archive. Anonymity dictates I cannot acknowledge individuals in both participatory organisations, NDDP and SMO and individual disabled people who both informed and criticised as the research developed. There are two principal non medical helpers who have assisted from before the research commenced often without receiving payment: Sue Paraszczuck and Neil Terry. Sue had the unenviable task of trying to understand the purpose of the research to work as a sighted helper in archive and library searches. Neil acted as an internet and electronic journal searcher; I know both would agree the experience has been interesting and often extremely funny. Dr Lynn Robson has edited the final version raising many issues which assisted in obtaining clarity of writing and making the work conform to the visual standards required for a Ph.D. Whether due to bad luck, bad attitudes or a direct function of working with me, during the course of the research I have had 3 second supervisors, none of whom lasted more than a matter of months. Only my director of studies Dr. Ardha Danieli has had the fortitude to stay with the research to the end. It is the support, encouragement and criticism given by Ardha that has enabled me to complete the research. My only remaining prayer is that she has destroyed all my earlier writings. Abstract. This thesis argues that the claim that disability is capable of reduction to two polar opposite models of disability cannot be sustained. Drawing on historical data, it is shown that for over the past century organised groups of disabled people were proactive in affecting social change without recourse to medical intervention, fighting for economic emancipation. Hence claims that the social model of disability represents a new understanding are incorrect. It is shown that the dominant traditional intellectual understandings of disability were not reducible to simplistic oppositional medical/social models, but rather a more complex combination which acknowledged both components in the construction of disability. To test this understanding, a comparison was made between two contemporary organisations who have the mission of engaging disabled people in work, and might be expected to operate to the oppositional social/medical models. Through an ethnographic study in an organisation run and controlled by disabled people and participatory observation in a government employment initiative for disabled people, it is shown through the organic understandings held by stakeholders in both organisations that mutually exclusive models could not be seen in everyday operations, and despite one organisation working explicitly to a social model of disability, they could not escape the reality of impairment when claiming that disability was singularly the result of disabling attitudes and social structures. Hence the social model organisation could not provide any better employment opportunities than one operating to traditional intellectual understandings. Through considering my own impairment and the traditional prescriptive methodological texts which assume a non disabled researcher, a methodological contribution is made by challenging understandings held in both positivist and interpretive approaches. It is also argued, that emancipatory disability research by disregarding any consequences of impairment, fails to make the challenges necessary to provide a more inclusive model. ABBREVIATIONS DDA Disability Discrimination Act DRC Disability Rights Commission ESWS Ex-Services Welfare Society ICIDH International Classification of Impairments, Disability and Handicap ISRM Institute of Sport and Recreation Management MOL Ministry of Labour NDDP New Deal for Disabled People NLB National League of the Blind OPCS Office of Population Census and Statistics PKTBAC Printing and Kindred Trades’ Blind Aid Committee PNP Publicly Funded Not-for-Profit Organisations RNIB Royal National Institute for the Blind SMO Social Model Organisation UPIAS Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation WHO World Health Organisation Download 0.82 Mb. Share with your friends:
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