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History has told us something about our war dead but very little about our war wounded. Veterans with a Vision provides a vibrant, poignant, and very human history of Canada’s war-blinded veterans, whose courage and the organization they created reshaped the way Canadians and successive governments perceived war disability and, in particular, blindness. Serge Durflinger illuminates the lives of the war blinded by detailing the veterans' process of civil re-establishment, physical and psychological rehabilitation, and social and personal coping. He describes how, in 1922, a group of veterans formed the Sir Arthur Pearson Association of War Blinded (SAPA), closely linked to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). This organization effectively advocated for government pension entitlements, job retraining, and other social programs that allowed veterans to regain a strong measure of independence. Veterans with a Vision captures the spirit of perseverance that permeated the veterans’ community and highlights the impacts made by the war blinded as advocates for all Canadian veterans and all blind citizens.
I Sight: The Power of Perception By: James Eliol Mercer Harrowing and deeply personal, I Sight: The Power of Perception is a memoir detailing the journey of author James Mercer as he comes to the realization that he suffers from a rare genetic eye disorder, one that deteriorates with time and threatens to leave him fully blind by middle age. Starting in early childhood, Mercer recognizes he is different from his peers; his parents never let him stay out past sundown, and often in low light or bright light conditions, the world becomes an indecipherable blur. With adolescence comes a better understanding of his sight deficiency, but it also creates a greater divide between Mercer and other “normal” teenagers, who can freely go to school dances and to local nightly hangouts, getting to experience a freedom Mercer may never know. This memoir tells a story of how disability can bring fear, shame, and isolation, but through the love of family and true friends, one can find acceptance and joy.
At head of title: The Canadian Institute for the Blind.
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The disparity in access to information is a worldwide phenomenon. Global Information Inequalities offers a captivating look into problems of information access across the world today. One of the unique strengths of the book is the use of examples of library initiatives from around the world to illustrate the range of possibilities for equitable access and library service delivery in a global context. It contains numerous examples of a wide variety of information problems and solutions ranging from developing literacy programs in rural communities in Tanzania, building school libraries in China, making government-related information more transparent in Chile, to exploring how digital technolo...
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Making Rights a Reality? explores the way in which disability activists in the United Kingdom and Canada have transformed their aspirations into legal claims in their quest for equality. It unpacks shifting conceptualizations of the political identity of disability and the role of a rights discourse in these dynamics. In doing so, it delves into the diffusion of disability rights among grassroots organizations and the traditional disability charities. The book draws on a wealth of primary sources including court records and campaign documents and encompassing interviews with more than sixty activists and legal experts. While showing that the disability rights movement has had a significant impact on equality jurisprudence in two countries, the book also demonstrates that the act of mobilizing rights can have consequences, both intended and unintended, for social movements themselves.
In Working towards Equity, Dustin Galer argues that paid work significantly shaped the experience of disability during the late twentieth century. Using a critical analysis of disability in archival records, personal collections, government publications and a series of interviews, Galer demonstrates how demands for greater access among disabled people for paid employment stimulated the development of a new discourse of disability in Canada. Family advocates helped people living in institutions move out into the community as rehabilitation professionals played an increasingly critical role in the lives of working-age adults with disabilities. Meanwhile, civil rights activists crafted a new consumer-led vision of social and economic integration. Employment was, and remains, a central component in disabled peoples' efforts to become productive, autonomous and financially secure members of Canadian society. Working towards Equity offers new in-depth analysis on rights activism as it relates to employment, sheltered workshops, deinstitutionalization and labour markets in the contemporary context in Canada.