2009/01/01 by Fiona Kumari Campbell · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Disability Rights and Representation
paper · doi:10.1057/9780230245181_2
openalex publication_date 2009/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Although there are many debates in disability studies and the disability services fields, most people would agree with the proposition that disabled people 1 experience various degrees of subordinated and diminished lives through economic, social, legal, religious and cultural discrimination. These problems were recently formally recognised by the United Nations in the form of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities , which bind member nations who become signatories. In the light of this recognition, it is important to pause and think about the nature of harm that disabled people experience and the very concept of harm . For instance, is it the impairment itself that causes the harm? If so, we should focus on reducing or indeed eliminating the impairment, which is a common perspective. Such a view interprets disability as harmful in and of itself. In contrast, there is a view among some disabled people that whilst impairments at times cause inconvenience, tiredness and even pain, the primary source of harm is external to the person, situated in the realm of belief. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.