Disabilities

This chapter begins with a consideration of disability as a form of social inequality as opposed to a purely medical condition. Following a relatively brief history of social understandings of disability, this chapter then charts the emergence of disability studies as a stand-alone discipline. Finally, because scholarship within the field of disability studies has predominantly focused on issues associated with physical disability, this chapter concludes by drawing on work concerning psychiatric disability to illustrate several consequences of this underinclusion and discusses challenges in incorporating physical, psychological, and intellectual conditions into a more universal conception of disability.