Giving Voice to Profound Disability : Dignity, Dependence and Human Capabilities

Giving Voice to Profound Disability is devoted to exploring the lives of people with profound and multiple learning difficulties and disabilities, and brings together the voices of those best placed to speak about the rewards and challenges of living with, supporting and teaching this group of vulnerable and dependent people – including parents, carers and teachers. Along with their personal insights the book offers philosophical reflections on the status, role and treatment of profoundly disabled people, and the subjects discussed include:

• Respect and human dignity
• Dependency
• Freedom and human capabilities
• Rights, equality and citizenship
• Valuing people
• Caring for others

The experience and reflections presented in this book illustrate the progress and achievements in supporting and teaching people with profound disabilities, but they also reveal the challenges involved in enabling them to develop their full potential. It is suggested, also, that these challenges apply not only to this group, but also to people who, through sickness, accident and old age, face equivalent levels of dependency and disability.

Giving Voice to Profound Disability will be of interest to all those involved in the lives of severely and profoundly disabled people, including parents, carers, teachers, nurses, therapists, academics, researchers, students and policymakers.

John Vorhaus is a reader at UCL Institute of Education, University of London, UK.