The present report is submitted in response to General Assembly resolution 61/106, by which the Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol thereto. As requested by the Assembly, a brief overview of the status of the Convention as at 3 August 2007 is presented. The report also contains a brief description of technical arrangements on staff and facilities made necessary for the effective performance of the functions of the Conference of States Parties and the Committee under the Convention and the Optional Protocol, and a description on the progressive implementation of standards and guidelines for the accessibility of facilities and services of the United Nations system. Recent efforts of the United Nations and agencies to disseminate information on the Convention and the Optional Protocol are also described.

わかりやすい障害者の権利条約 : 知的障害のある人の権利のために = Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

Disability is a dynamic concept than varies in each individual, depending on the situation and the resources available. The World Health Organization (1) has tried to classify the consequences of illness at three levels: (1) impairment, defined as any loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function; (2) disability, defined as any restriction or lack (resulting from an impairment) of ability to perform an activity in the manner or within the range considered normal for a human being, and (3) handicap, defined as a disadvantage for a given individual resulting from an impairment or a disability that limits or prevents the fulfillment of a role that is normal (depending on age, sex, social and cultural factors) for that individual.

/pdf/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities-3vs2wxcyh2.pdf

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

In the era of convergence, in the so-called participatory culture we are all living in, it is assumed that we all have equal access to the world collective knowledge and, as a result, our core soci...

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09687599.2018.1443587

Restricted access: media, disability, and the politics of participation

Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture

This study concerns older gamers, who are often neglected in the gaming world. After reviewing the literature about older gamers, we have found most studies focus on the therapeutic function of videogames for solving problems related to age. Using an intersectional vision of critical gerontology studies and critical disability studies, we find that implicit compulsory youthfulness and compulsory ablebodiedness or ablemindedness colours studies about both older gamers and disabled gamers. These compulsory systems not only put older gamers and disabled gamers into a passive treatment-receiving position but also exclude them from a non-utilitarian style of game playing. Moreover, we recognise there are images of so-called ideal game players in current studies about older gamers and disabled gamers. These images further marginalise older gamers and disabled gamers. It is suggested that scholars undertaking future studies avoid ageism and ableism when studying older gamers or disabled gamers. Instead, researchers need to explore the original motivation of ageing people or people with disability to play video games, the sociocultural environment in which they are exposed to games and the specific social conditions under which games affect them.

/pdf/the-older-gamer-in-games-studies-marginalised-or-idealised-2zx3cxwomx.pdf

The Older Gamer in Games Studies: Marginalised or Idealised?

Video games are an expanding area of popular culture spanning traditional age, gender and socioeconomic divides and appealing to a diverse market. People with disability represent a significant but under researched gaming demographic (Beeston et al., 2018). While this group represent a large portion of the gaming population, inaccessible interfaces and consoles may prevent people with disability from playing games. Despite this, research dating back to 2008 suggests 92% of gamers with disability continue to play games despite these obstacles. This paper aims to put the topic of gamers with disabilities on the agenda for Open Literacies. The paper brings into dialogue research and conceptions of disability and digital media (especially the work of Gerard Goggin, Meryl Alper, Katie Ellis and Elizabeth Ellcessor) with accounts of gamers with disability, and how we might understand digital access as a cultural practice (for instance, the work of Foley & Ferri). This theoretical synthesis leads us to draw attention to the alternative ways in which games can be played and the impacts this has for the disability community. A secondary aim of the paper is to consider the contexts in which disability appears in gaming in popular culture and everyday life. For example, therapeutic and educational contexts dominate while recreation is considered less important. The paper concludes with reflections about the ways disabled gamers engage in open literacy to bring accessibility to the forefront and change the rules of the game.

https://culturalscience.org/articles/10.5334/csci.128/galley/166/download/

Who Gets to Play? Disability, Open Literacy, Gaming

As COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, universities acted quickly to move their core business of teaching and research online. Classes shifted to platforms such as Zoom, Webex, Collaborate and Microsoft Teams and teachers and students alike were expected to adapt. And they did. While there has been much discussion of the unpaid labour involved in making this shift and the difficulties inherent in merging work, study and domestic life, there has been little acknowledgement or analysis of inherent notions of the preferred user in this rapid shift to technology. This paper draws on critical disability studies to offer a conceptual and theoretical analysis of a deeply problematic aspect of the rapid move to online education in response to COVID-19: the reliance of notions of the preferred user. The preferred user is simply the type of person technology creators or institutions envision using their product or service. Within critical disability studies the preferred user is often recognised as white, male and able bodied (see Ellcessor, 2017). In other words, the preferred user often excludes people with disability and other forms of disadvantage. Accordingly, in this paper we offer a preliminary overview, conceptualisation, and reflection on students with disability (and by extension other non-preferred users), their experiences and perspectives in relation to what might be described as disabling approaches to online learning, for example synchronous learning, video conferencing. Firstly, we introduce the concept of disability, as it has been redefined in the past two decades, as social, political, cultural, and rights-based – rather than some kind of biomedical condition or charity topic.  We also give an overview of universal design for learning to reflect on the importance of adapting learning environments for all students. Secondly, we discuss the disconnect between students, teachers and support staff. From these cases, there are some significant challenges to key questions, such as how we understand students with disability, whose responsibility is it to provide access and support, and is mainstreaming accessible technology always the most appropriate answer? Thirdly, we chart the ways these already existing issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the opportunities that have also arisen. For example, accessibility features such as captioning for people with disabilities, or non-preferred users, are actually beneficial to everyone. Finally, while the forced shift to online learning during this pandemic has the ideal potential to accommodate “non-preferred” users, the actual roll out and delivery of online learning is still defaulting to modes that are both difficult and challenging, and in many cases exacerbates existing issues and inequalities. We conclude with suggestions about how a consideration of the non-preferred user might actually be the preferred approach for all.

/pdf/the-pandemic-preferred-user-42smmqtoob.pdf

Kai-Ti Kao

Papers

Who Gets to Play? Disability, Open Literacy, Gaming

The Pandemic Preferred User