Disability news and resources in Europe

Disability news and resources

This page lists the countries in Europe with resources and recent highlights.

Countries

Recent Highlights

Struck out Disability Debrief feature on physical education's lessons of exclusion and ableism:

“If gym was so terrifying, it wasn’t simply because I found it unpleasant and was no good at it. It was because I knew we weren’t just playing. Our games were the symbolic staging of something bigger and incredibly important: our place in our group. The sports pitch was where the border between the included and the excluded was being drawn.” (Jan, Disability Debrief)

In Finland:

Disability Tax in the Welfare State: Uncertainty and Resentment about Disability Services in Finland:

“The disability tax experiences are elaborated through four aspects: (1) rejected applications, (2) uncertain realisation, (3) laborious complaint mechanisms, and (4) the psycho–emotional effect. The findings of this study establish collective experiences of multi-layered disability tax throughout the disability services process. It concludes that disability services, which were originally planned to specifically ensure equal opportunities to participate in society for persons with disabilities, are increasingly becoming the very sources of burden as austerity has silently grown deeper over recent years and has become the clear policy of the current government.” (2024, Disabilities)

In France:

Anti-ableist activists and management associations a useful breakdown of political history of disability in France and understanding the different claims of organisations to represent disabled people. (2024, Capucine Lemaire)

In Germany:

The choices are not equal. Raúl Krauthausen challenges segregation of disabled people in Germany: in education, work and housing. (Mar, Disability Debrief)

In Hungary:

Can Disability Rights Flourish in Backsliding Democracies? The Case of Hungary:

“Results show that the space for disability rights advocacy has been shrinking for the Hungarian disability movement. Opportunities to influence and monitor public policy-making have been diminishing. Disability advocacy organisations have been less included in consultations and decisions about policies affecting disabled people. Due to fear of repercussions, disability movement actors often employ self-censorship when talking publicly. The meaning of human rights and civil society have changed in the public discourse. Legal obligations to consult with the disability movement, existing human rights laws, and statutory human rights bodies seem less and less effective amid eroding democratic structures. The disability movement has become fractured.” (2024, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research)

In Ireland:

More harm, more barriers, more silence: intimate partner abuse leaves disabled women feeling hurt, disbelieved and isolated, new research finds:

“abusive partners, often in the position of a carer, weaponise women’s disabilities including withholding medication, denying basic care and mobility needs, using impairments to portray the woman as an unfit parent and inflicting verbal and physical abuse that targets their disability.” (2024, RTE)

In Sweden:

Disablised or Ablised?: Linguistic Categorisations of Dis/ability in Swedish Print Media Over Time:

“The study shows that the overall terms to name dis/ability and disablised people in Swedish have changed regularly, while the underlying concepts, structures and ways of categorisation regarding dis/ability remain the same. Dis/ability is shown to be understood along a medical-biological model as located in the individual. Ability is rarely mentioned. These results suggest that any attempts at changing mainstream society's conceptualisations of dis/ability need to involve more work than just replacing outdated or offensive words by new ones. The results also suggest a need for making tacit ableist norms explicit if they are to be challenged.” (2024, Disability Studies Quarterly)

In Switzerland:

Disability at the end of class thoughtful discussion of debate on inclusive education. (In French, 2024, Couper l'herbe sous les roues)

In Ukraine:

Russia Targeted and Deported Disabled Children From Ukraine reporting on 84 disabled people, both children and adults, forcibly moved by Russia from the Oleshky Specialized Boarding School. (2024, New Lines Magazine)

Disability Certificates Scandal: What Led to the Prosecutor General’s Resignation and What’s Next? In-depth report. (2024, Kyiv Post)

You can't just use the restroom: why Ukraine's capital is far from barrier-free. Interviews with officials and activists. (2024, UNN)

In the United Kingdom:

The 'war' on disabled people and my fight for an independent life. Musician and activist John Kelly:

“You've got to chain yourself to the busses
Show them what the fuss is.” (2024, the Guardian)

Beyond Disability Stigma: Examining Tolerance and Intolerance toward Disability Issues:

“Recent advances from social psychology suggest that intolerance is conceptually distinct from stigma and prejudice and results from value-driven reasons to interfere with a person’s beliefs or practices that have little to do with their identity or characteristics like impairment. However, study of (in)tolerance has so far been neglected in the disability context. In this paper, we address this gap. We argue that studying disability-related (in)tolerance is crucial for understanding disability discrimination and designing interventions to combat it.” (2024, Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research)

Fall with me My childhood, told through its falls. (2024, Disability Debrief)

Testimonies from the past Debrief feature looking at disabled people's life writing shows how their stories challenge official histories:

“All too often it is only the powerful who get to tell stories. This profoundly shapes how we see the world. But writing history without the testimony of ordinary disabled people is just smoke and mirrors.” (2024, Disability Debrief)

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