Dementia, disability rights and disablism: understanding the social position of people living with dementia

an article by Carol Thomas and Christine Milligan (Lancaster University, UK) published in Disability & Society Volume 33 Issue 1 (2018 )

Abstract

This article considers the recent history and consequences of positioning people living with dementia in the realms of disability, disablism and disability rights. The geo-political focus is the United Kingdom and neighbouring resource-rich nations in the Global North.

The first section examines the growing trend of identifying ‘dementia’ with ‘disability’, a trend fuelled by the expansion of dementia-related activism and research.

The second section focuses on how researchers who have published in Disability & Society and other journals have applied the social model of disability to individuals living with dementia.

The third section discusses three conceptual challenges that lie ahead for those who choose to research and theorise the dementia/disability connection.

These challenges concern:

• theorising dementia as disability;
• understanding intersectionality in dementia contexts; and
• understanding ‘abuse’ in dementia contexts.

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Persons with Disabilities: Entitled to Beg, not to Work. The Argentine Case

an article by Eduardo Daniel Joly (Fundación Rumbos and REDI (Red por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad), Argentina) and María Pía Venturiello (Universidad de Buenos Aires and CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas), Argentina) published in Critical Sociology Volume 39 Number 3 (May 2013)

Abstract

The article analyses the structural unemployment that characterises persons with disabilities from a social, economic and political perspective.

As long as persons with disabilities continue to be defined as unable to perform productive work, they will remain condemned to poverty, begging, dependency and a life without projects to fulfill.

With reference to the history and struggles of the disability rights movement in Argentina, it focuses on understanding this struggle as a collective endeavour, aimed at establishing the right to earn a living by working, i.e. via paid productive employment.

It concludes by positing that in the long run, social inclusion can only be realised in a society that is organised so that each individual can contribute what he or she is capable of, with the necessary means put at his and her disposal; and that in return, his and her needs (as they may evolve over time) will be met.

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