The New Zealand Disability Strategy (NZDS) states: “disabled people aspire to a good life. However, they also face huge barriers to achieving the life that so many take for granted” (NZDS, p. 1). This paper introduces a number of ideas about disability and inclusion that have influenced the movement towards social equality sought by disabled people and their supporters in the last 50 years. Although up to 20% of people in New Zealand have some kind of recognisable disability or difficulty, many barriers to full participation of all disabled people remain. The social oppression of disabled people - or people who differ from normative expectations in respect of appearance and/or behavior - is often not well understood in euro-western culture. Through engaging with the ideas presented in this paper, students will gain a deep appreciation of the relationship between ideas about disability and inclusion and what it might mean to live ‘a good life’ as a disabled citizen with full rights within a supportive social context. Issues of disability and inclusion are a concern for everyone – disabled and non-disabled people alike. The expertise you bring as an active and contributing member of this society to this paper is acknowledged. You are invited to share your opinions and beliefs as an integral part of this paper.

As a Disability and Inclusion Studies graduate you are expected to

• demonstrate a detailed understanding of the theoretical roots of the medical, structural, minority and post-structural models that are currently debated in Disability Studies as an academic discipline.
• demonstrate a detailed awareness of the national and international perspectives, policies, literature, culture, and economic factors that determine personal and collective responses to the presence of bodily difference by appearance and behaviour
• possess a detailed and critical understanding of research methodologies that further the emancipatory aims of Disability Studies in an international context.
• acquire a detailed and critical understanding of the disjunction between theoretical understandings and community practices in relation to disabling conditions and inclusive practices.
  

This 30-point paper explores key aspects of the contemporary political, social and educational spaces in which medical, social justice, relational and post-structural models of disability and inclusion are formed and debated. The content of this paper considers a number of theories about the nature and function of disabling conditions, and how these ideas have been influential in the development of authentic and agentic practices of inclusion. The framework adopted in this paper is designed to promote students’ understanding about disability and inclusion from a rights and beyond-rights point of view. A set text, required readings and audio & visual resource materials are used to expand on the ideas explored in this paper.

This paper is taught partly online.

This is a required paper for the PGDip(Dins)/MDInS.