Patrick Kermit, president of the NNDR

The Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research is now completing its transition to an open access journal published by Stockholm University Press, thus transferring the cost of publishing from the reader to the author (or the author’s institution). On behalf of the Nordic Network of Disability Research I congratulate the journal, its editors, the publisher, and last but not least, its readers, on this occasion. I also want to express our gratitude to Taylor & Francis Ltd, who have hosted the journal in years past, both for their good work and the commitment they have shown. We are also very happy that all previously published articles in the back catalogue will be available as open access papers with this transition.

This address is mainly focused on the significance of becoming an open access journal. Disability research and disability studies are interdisciplinary fields, and in every respect academic disciplines as scientific as anyone else. The foundation for our work consists in seeking and expanding knowledge in our field, applying methods which observe common standards meant to secure norms like reliability and the possibility of verification. At the same time, one cannot fully appreciate the significance of disability research and disability studies without recognizing that other normative questions concerning social justice, equal rights, access and accessibility permeates studies in this field. This is why our decision to move to open access publishing is significant. Continue reading →

Photo: Hisayo Katsui

Once a year the Board meets for a physical meeting. Last week the meeting took place in Copenhagen, where the new board meet for the first time. Many exciting plans are ahead of NNDR. In addition to the meeting, members of the board visited the venue for the 15^th NNDR Conference at Campus Carlsberg in Copenhagen. See the “about page” to fine out who is volunteering as NNDR board members.

Simo Vehmas, President of NNDR, http://blogs.helsinki.fi/spvehmas/

Fom the beginning of 2018, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research (SJDR) will be published with an Open access license by Stockholm University Press. This means that all the material in the journal can be downloaded for free and shared with colleagues without restrictions. The whole previous archive of SJDR with its 18 volumes will be made available free of charge as well. The entire journal content will thus become available to anyone with an access to internet. As the NNDR board and the Editors are already working hard with the transition to a new publisher, we’d like to announce the change now to open up for comments.

The journal will be a truly open publication because we have chosen the strategy to not charge the authors of publishing their material in SJDR. All the costs will be covered by NNDR. And now you’re thinking: there’s a catch, isn’t there? Yes, there is. It’s called Nordic social democracy. Continue reading →

Simo Vehmas, Professor of Disability Studies, University of Helsinki, President of NNDR, simo.vehmas@helsinki.fi, http://blogs.helsinki.fi/spvehmas/

I read recently a fascinating paper about the self-advocacy of young people with intellectual disability in Sweden by Magnus Tideman and Ove Svensson (Tideman & Svensson 2015). The findings of their study touch upon various contentious issues in disability studies such as the meaning of autonomy and independence, identity politics, and whether justice for disabled people is mainly a matter of distribution of goods or recognition of their equal worth.

Respect for self-determination and social justice seem to go hand in hand despite the fact that some impairments do pose a challenge for reconciling these two. What Tideman’s and Svensson’s paper highlights so well is the difficulty of “finding the right balance between giving an individual responsibility and independence and at the same time providing him or her with an adequate amount of help and support” (Tideman & Svensson 2015, 6). Providing disabled people with equal opportunities for autonomy and independence has always been important to disability movement despite the contested and ambiguous nature of the concept “autonomy”. The importance of disability identity is also contentious: some think that identification on the basis of impairment and discrimination to a disabled collective results in labeling and further discrimination rather than to empowerment and justice (e.g. Shakespeare 2006, ch. 5). Continue reading →

Jodie Bradley*, Vicky Farnsworth*, Annie Ferguson*, Hayley Wilcock*, Dan Goodley**, Kirsty Liddiard** and Katherine Runswick-Cole***

* Speak Up Self-Advocacy
** The University of Sheffield
*** Manchester Metropolitan University

In September 2015, we travelled to Toronto, Canada to take part in a workshop exploring intimate citizenship in the lives of people labeled with learning disabilities. Continue reading →

Simo Vehmas, Professor of Disability Studies, University of Helsinki, President of NNDR, simo.vehmas@helsinki.fi, http://blogs.helsinki.fi/spvehmas/

I have been often asked why as a nondisabled person I’m interested in disability. Some ask the question because they assume that interest in disability requires a personal experience of impairment, and some because they doubt the credibility of an academic who lacks the personal experience of disablement. Whatever the reasons are, my answer lately to the question has been: “What makes you think that I’m not disabled?”

Obviously, it is because I’m socially privileged, but it is also because I don’t have a visible impairment. I do, however, have tinnitus, sleeping apnea and an unspecified arthritis of some sort. They’re all impairments, aren’t they? You may, however, think that these conditions are so minor that they’re not proper impairments and, as a result, my disability credibility is null. You might not say this to me in public because it would be politically incorrect, but, in my experience, most people (irrespective of their disability identity) do think along these lines. Continue reading →