Call for Papers
Our call for abstracts and papers is now closed. Please register by April 13th
Towards Social Integration: Rights, Roles, Recognition of Persons with Disabilities
There are many disabled citizens within society for whom the issues of care, health and support are paramount. Conversely, there are many who have physical or intellectual impairments, or conditions that limit social interaction, or who have been diagnosed with mental disorders and who do not see themselves as “suffering” from a disability. Society and social structures nonetheless erect impediments to full participation and the capacity to live happy and meaningful lives. Arguably it is this lack of sensitivity to the needs and rights of all citizens that causes “disability.” This conference seeks to open a debate on how those with different abilities and needs are perceived, educated, and provided with the necessary structures to enable all to live as full-fledged members of Caribbean society.
Caribbean society has erected extraordinary barriers to seeing those who are different. It is no coincidence that unique amongst world literatures, there are only two Caribbean literary works that in any way privilege or foreground persons with intellectual or learning disabilities. This suggests a peculiar lack of awareness amongst the most elite of Caribbean peoples about the nature of disability and the status of those with functional limitations.
This conference seeks to create visibility and a forum for discussion. It invites papers from academics and interested persons working in the field such as researchers, health professionals, educators, literary, linguistic and cultural scholars, social scientists, lawyers, care givers and persons with disabilities under the terms of the World Health Organization which defines disability as:
not something that a person has but, instead, something that occurs outside of the person—the person has a functional limitation. Disability occurs in the interaction between a person, his or her functional ability, and the environment. A person’s environment can be the physical environment, communication environment, information environment, and social and policy environment.
The conference seeks to enhance research, to give visibility, to sensitize the general public, to draw attention to the rights of those with functional limitations.
The conference invites papers that include, but are not limited to topics such as:
Policy formation and implementation
Legal framework
Employment and access
Representation and self fashioning
Mental disorders / invisible disabilities
Assistive technologies
Human rights
Inclusive education
Disability trauma and abuse
Women and disability
Children and disability
Ageing and disability
Conference information, travel and accommodation, registration, and programming will be posted and updated regularly.
For the full Call for Papers, see here.
For more information, please contact:
Conference email:
Disability.Conference@sta.uwi.edu
