Stephen J Macdonald

Back to the future, disability and the digital divide

The aim of this article is to explore disability and the digital divide using a quantitative methodology. The research investigates what impact digital technologies have had in improving the life-chances for disabled people from deprived neighbourhoods in the northeast of England. The study explores how disabled people engage with digital and assistive technologies in order to overcome disabling barriers and social exclusion. Unfortunately, the analysis found no evidence that digital and assistive technologies had any impact on reducing social exclusion for disabled people. In fact, the research discovered that these technologies seemed to construct new forms of disabling barriers as a consequence of the digital divide.

Windows of Reflection: Conceptualizing Dyslexia Using the Social Model of Disability

The aim of this study is to develop perceptual knowledge of dyslexia from adults diagnosed with this condition. Historically, the dominant conceptual frameworks used to study dyslexia stem from psychological or educational practice. These disciplines predominantly draw on professional neuro-biological or educational knowledge that can be broadly summarized within a medical or educational model approach. Both the medical and educational models view dyslexia as resulting from a neurological and learning dysfunction. As such, only a small amount of research has attempted to locate dyslexia within a sociological context. This paper analyses the life narratives of adults diagnosed with dyslexia using the social model of disability. The author investigates the impact that disabling barriers have in education and employment for people with dyslexia. The implications of this are discussed, particularly how issues of disabling barriers and social-class structures affect the lives of people with dyslexia. The paper argues that social-class positioning and institutional discrimination (in the form of disabling barriers) shape the experiences of people living with this condition.

THE LIMITS OF TECHNOLOGY: Social class, occupation and digital inclusion in the city of Sunderland, England

Drawing upon the concept of capital and its uneven distribution, as outlined by Bourdieu, the article highlights the importance of social class, occupational status and place in understanding how individuals and communities make use of and benefit from technology in their everyday lives. Based upon quantitative and qualitative research conducted in the city of Sunderland, England, the article addresses the extent and manner to which those in ‘socially excluded’ areas of the city engage with technology, specifically personal computers and the internet and the impact of such engagement upon quality of life and social inclusion. The research indicates that the manner in which technology is experienced by marginalized social groups in this place, does not fit neatly with a dominant discourse of digital inclusion which emphasizes technology as a means for social inclusion, particularly in the realms of civic participation, educational achievement and employment.

Biographical Pathways into Criminality: Understanding the Relationship between Dyslexia and Educational Disengagement.

Since the 1960s, studies in the psycho-sciences have implied that people with dyslexia are at increased risk of engaging in criminal behaviours. There are two common themes that have emerged from this research. Firstly, studies that employ a psycho-medical model imply that the correlation between dyslexia and crime is embedded within neurological physiology of individuals. Secondly, an educational approach has developed which suggests that, because of the educational failure of (some) people with dyslexia, it is easy for this group to drift into criminality. The aim of this study is to investigate the phenomena of dyslexia and conceptualise criminal behaviour from the perspective of people with this condition. By using biographies, this will go beyond an individualised approach to redefine dyslexia and crime using a social model perspective.

‘Community fear and harassment’: learning difficulties and hate crime incidents in the north-east of England

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between impairment, disabling barriers and risk factors relating to hate crime incidents. The study analyses quantitative data collected in 2011–2012 where there were 81 incidents of disability hate crime reported in the Tyne and Wear area of England. The research discovered that in the Tyne and Wear region people with learning difficulties have a greater likelihood of experiencing hate crime than do people with other impairments. Although there was no significant difference between impairment and types of hate crime incidents recorded (i.e. verbal abuse/harassment, violence and criminal damage), there were distinct differences between police and victim support responses to victims which correlated to impairment categories (p ≤ 0.05). The study concludes by suggesting that owing to specific disabling barriers experienced by people with learning difficulties, this group is at increased risk of being victimised and is less likely to receive support from criminal justice agencies.

“Journey's end”: statistical pathways into offending for adults with specific learning difficulties

Purpose – The aim of this study is to understand how social barriers might result in people with specific learning difficulties coming in contact with the criminal justice system in the UK. The study seeks to apply the social model of disability to conceptualise a statistical relationship between socio‐economic status and key life events for people with specific learning difficulties (i.e. diagnosis, educational achievements, and employment).Design/methodology/approach – A cluster sample was used to obtain statistical data from a questionnaire based survey. The study collected quantitative and qualitative data on the life experiences of people with specific learning difficulties (n=77). The paper analyses the quantitative data and discovers statistically significant relationships (p≤0.05) concerning socio‐economic status, specific learning difficulties and crime.Findings – Within the data findings age of diagnosis is significantly (p≤0.00) affected when comparing socio‐economic status with the offender an...

The disability bias: understanding the context of hate in comparison with other minority populations

Abstract During recent years ‘disability hate crime’ has become a major political and criminal justice concern due to a number of high-profile murders in the United Kingdom. The aim of this article is to compare disability-motivated hate crimes with other hate crimes motivated by homophobic or racist bias. This study employs a quantitative methodology utilising data collected by the ARCH hate crime recording system over a 10-year period (2005–2015). The data findings illustrate a number of variations concerning incidents reported by disabled people regarding violence and threatening behaviour, when compared with incidents motivated by race/faith or homophobic bias.

The Right to be Labelled: From Risk to Rights for Pupils with Dyslexia in ‘Special Needs’ Education

In Ulrich Beck’s (1992, 2001) analysis of the cultural construction of risk, he asserts that the discourse of ‘rights’ and ‘risk’ emerged from the 1970s because of the transition from ‘industrial modernity’ to the era of ‘reflexive modernity’. According to Beck, the idea of civil rights occurred because of society’s increased access to welfare and education, which resulted in ‘lay’ members of society questioning professional knowledge and power. Therefore, people’s ability to conceptualise their own social position led to an increase in social activism and constructed a new reflexive language of ‘rights’ and ‘risk’ (Beck, 2001; Denney, 2005; Heaphy, 2007). This corresponds with the foundation of the social model of disability, which also developed out of the disability rights movement of the 1970s. The social model of disability has challenged social attitudes since that time by suggesting that people with impairments are disabled by society rather than by their bodies (Oliver, 1997; Barnes and Mercer 2010).

New Directions in Hate Reporting Research: Agency, Heterogeneity and Relationality

The third-party hate reporting project Arch, based in the north-east of England, has one of the largest datasets on third-party reporting of hate crime/incidents in the UK. Spanning a 10-year period from 2005, this dataset, though limited, provides a unique opportunity to trace the patterns of those reporting hate, based on ‘race’ and faith, sexuality and transgender identity, and disability. Focusing on reports of hate, based on perceived sexuality and/or transgender identities, the article considers the timing, location, and nature of hate crime/incidents reported, as well as some of the patterns in the repeat reporting data. This is done to suggest three features of those who are victimised by hate crime/incidents. First, they can be understood as agentic, indeed, of inhabiting transformative identities: not only do they challenge their perceived stigmatised identities by reporting their hate experiences, but by doing so they reframe the identities of those normals who enact hate as stigmatised. Second, they are heterogeneous, with multiple, intersecting identities, different experiences of hate, and responses to them. Third, we suggest that, by drawing on the parallels between domestic violence and hate, it might be more fruitful to think of those who report repeat victimisations, especially of apparently ‘low level’ experiences, as being caught up in hate relationships. In conclusion, a new agenda is suggested for hate research to include a focus on agency, heterogeneity, and relationality.

Marketing ‘madness’: conceptualising service user/survivor biographies in a period of deinstitutionalisation (1975–2014)

Abstract This article aims to present the lived experiences of psychiatric service users/survivors who have experienced the transition from institutional care in the 1970s and 1980s to community care services in the 1990s and post-2000s. By using a biographical narrative approach the study compares service users’ historical experiences with their contemporary experiences of community and residential care. Sixteen biographical narratives were analysed to explore how mental health services have changed over time, from the perspective of service users/survivors, their families and mental health practitioners. The study examines how the closure of NHS mental hospitals in the 1980s, which were replaced in the 1990s with new types of community and residential care services, has changed the lives of service users/survivors. Thus, the article presents these lived biographical experiences which, for the majority of service users/survivors, were defined by the process of trans-institutionalisation rather than de-institutionalisation, within a neoliberal context.