Bob Williams-Findlay is the author "More Than a Left Foot". He has
been a leading disability activist in Britain for thirty years and has
written numerous articles on Disability Politics and Social
Oppression.
Sandra Daniels has had over 25 years engagement within disability
politics. She played a leading role in the Disabled People's Direct
Action Network. Sandra is an experienced advocate, especially for
learning disabled people.
Sandra and Bob will be challenging mainstream political approach to
"disability" which promotes an individualistic, and overtly
medicalised, narrative that a disabled person is marginalised and
excluded on the basis of their body, impairment, health condition,
and/or medical label.
In contrast Sandra and Bob support the social model of disability
which places disability in the context of the economic system which
requires working class people to fulfill a specific role as workers.
The ability (or not) to fulfill that role has led to the treatment of
those with impairments as a drain on the system. Rather than adapt to
enable people to participate fully and lead independent lives, the
system isolates, institutionalises, and treats those with impairments
as dependents of the society rather than as a part of the collective.
The struggle for recognition that economic and social conditions are
what creates disability and the demand for independent living is at
the centre of the disabled peoples' movement. It is not only the
restrictions encountered by disabled people, but the refusal of
society to recognise and address them that is the foundation of
disability and that this problem is inextricably linked to the class
system of capitalism.
"More Than a Left Foot" by Bob Williams-Findlay is available from
Resistance Books here ...
https://resistancebooks.org/pr