Disability Studies: Internet Resources

Interdisciplinary journal of the Society for Disability Studies (SDS)

An open-access annual journal begun in 2009 by York University’s Critical Disability Studies Graduate Student Association (CDSSA).

This newsletter advertises events relevant to the disability community and additional content of interest.

A nonprofit, hybrid publisher for The Human Sciences Research Council of South Africa, this site offers free, open-access e-books on scholarly social science research in Africa, including Disability Studies.

This peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary, international journal is published by the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa.

As part of the epublications.bond.edu.au Australia open access repository of research and scholarly output of Bond University, scholar Shelly Kinash created a video series on education, accessibility, and assistive technology.

This video posted on Vimeo offers the film portion of a 3-D multimedia installation of a project developed by Liz Crow on the possibility of resistance of disabled people to Aktion T-4, the Nazi extermination program.

This online presentation, based on the research of Mark Mostert, professor at Regent University in Virginia, shows the often-neglected and almost hidden history of the Nazi Aktion T-4 program. Techniques and methods for exterminating asylum inmates and others considered defective or degenerate served as a blueprint for the concentration camps. Although there is nothing graphic about the historical photos, their presence alongside the text and narration makes this video profoundly disturbing.

The Annual Disability Statistics Compendium is a web-based tool that pools disability statistics published by various federal agencies together in one place. When working on legislative and other matters relating to persons with disabilities, the Compendium will make finding and using disability statistics easier.

This Web resource is organized and managed by “librarians, and those in the fields of communication and disability studies.” The volunteers monitor, report on, and classify by subject books, videos, and telephone hotlines of interest to the disability community. The site features Librarians Connections, a list of resources on library accessibility.

This center is dedicated to helping people live to the fullest. Much of its work focuses on protecting people who are especially vulnerable to health risks - babies, children, people with blood disorders, and people with disabilities.

Founded in 1982 as the Section for the Study of Chronic Illness, Impairment, and Disability (SSCIID), the organization was renamed the Society for Disability Studies in 1986. SDS is an international nonprofit organization that seeks to promote a greater awareness of disability across time and geography, as well as to advocate for social change. The site hosts discussion lists, sample syllabi, and publishes guidelines for the establishment of disability studies program.

Formed in 2004, CDSA supports research and scholarship by people with disabilities. CDSA is supported by a similar organization, the Canadian Centre for Disability Studies, but CDSA has as its mission the inclusion of interdisciplinary disability studies as part of the academic discourse. The site provides links to online Web zines, journals, and organizations of interest to the disability community.

Based in Sweden, the nonprofit foundation describes itself as a policy development center specializing in consumer-driven policies for disabled peoples’ freedom of choice, self-determination, self-respect, & dignity. The institute, which grew out of the international Independent Living movement, states on its website that the foundation is controlled by persons with disabilities. The links are primarily to self-help & advocacy websites, but also includes links to Disability Studies & Research.

This organization, established in Denmark in 1997, provides a forum for scholars of all disciplines interested in research surrounding disability and marginalization. The official language of the organization is English. The website itself is sparse, most useful for links to other Northern network.

CDS is an interdisciplinary centre for research and education in the field of disability studies at the University of Leeds (England). The Centre incorporates and develops the work of the former Disability Research Unit (DRU) and aims to promote international excellence within the field.

This website from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) features news, blogs, podcasts, and interviews by and for all those interested in contemporary issues facing those with disabilities.

NPR's compilation of related articles and podcasts

B. A. Haller’s blog supplies and aggregates links to representations of disability in the media, as well as information related to cultural studies and disability.

Created by the Disability Studies bibliographer at UC-Davis, the librarian blogger alerts students to conferences, fellowships, online bibliographies, and current journal articles of interest to the disability studies community.

Scholars interested in investigating disability history and disability advocacy in developing countries will find a wealth of information on this blog by Andrea Shettle. In addition to calls for papers, internships, and job opportunities her links under Research, Reports, Papers, Statistics will take the reader to various resources.

Launched in 2006, this project describes the history of disability in South Australia since settlement in 1836. The site contains short articles, stories by contemporary disabled people, and a searchable database of primary source material, including photographs from the State Library of South Australia and the History Trust of South Australia.

A project by People, Inc., a nonprofit agency based in New York that helps seniors and those with disabilities live independently, the Museum of disABILITY History collects objects and artifacts related to disability history. The museum is located in Buffalo, New York, and its online catalog of images, objects, books, and the archive is searchable.

A project of the University of California-Los Angeles, this site contains online images and organizations of disabled visual artists, film-makers, musicians, and performance artists. The center’s mission is to promote the work of disabled artists through representation in their online gallery. The site provides links to artists’ bios and relevant articles related to art and disability, including news about grants, exhibition venues, and other opportunities for disabled artists.

The resource created for the President’s Office on Disability Policy (2001), the comprehensive annotated New Paradigm of Disability: A Bibliography (2007) is located under the Disability Culture link and is organized by categories: Community/Culture, Disability Studies, Family, Children and Relationships, History, Identity, Policy/Civil Rights, Publications, Video, Radio, Music, and the Internet.

Although this website is primarily concerned with issues around inclusive education, it is also an important resource for bibliographies and links on the social model of disability. This site links to scholarship that begins to apply theory to the ways we educate.

Under its Additional Resources link, CIRRIE hosts several exceptionally well-researched online bibliographies on the cultural and historical origins of the construction of disability in the Middle East and Southern Africa, and in the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan from antiquity to the present. Compiled, updated, and annotated by M. Miles, the bibliographies contain both historical materials, as well as medical-rehabilitation-related links.

An annotated bibliography on general studies on the body, including gender and disability, complied by Nathan Sivin for the University of Pennsylvania’s History and Sociology of Science course.

A discussion network launched in March 2001, coedited by Penny Richards of UCLA and Susan Sufian of Oregon Health Sciences University. The list is hosted on the Humanities and Social Sciences Online Network to disseminate scholarly information related to disability history. The earliest posts offer a fascinating glimpse of the growing pains associated with the emergence of a new discipline.