Multidisciplinary Research on the Disability Rights — The More the Better ZHANG Wanhong* & GAO Wei** Abstract: Studies on the rights of persons with disabilities are typical of multidisciplinary research. In recent years, following the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in particular, studies of the rights of the disabled have presented the following trends and features: diverse research angles, the expanding of the depth and width of research; a focus on personal experience and cultural interpretation; a concern for the impacts of multiple identities on the realization of individual rights; and a stress on empirical, participatory and emancipatory research. Multidisciplinary disability right research is now at a preliminary stage and it is worth further development so as to promote the disability cause in China. Keywords: disability rights ♦ human rights ♦ multidisciplinary Ⅰ. The Studies on Disability Rights with Multidisciplinary Perspective There is no precise definition of "multidisciplinary research" in academia, in practice there are other names for it, such as interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary. The difficulty in defining the concept is that the "subject" itself is constructed, not an objective fact. Construction of a discipline is often based on a series of assumptions, principles, and methods, while the research methods used in different disciplines often overlap. For example, sociological and anthropological studies have different goals, but in practice they may use the same methods, such as surveys, interviews, etc. Besides, with the development of society, new disciplines have appeared, such as gender studies. Gender studies are not necessarily mutually exclusive with other disciplines, and indeed are often combine with other disciplines to form new sub-disciplines, for instance feminist geography. For the sake of this paper, "multidisciplinary" will be used in a broad sense, including not only the subject of the theory assumed, but also its research methods, such as surveys, interviews, national records, and literature analysis. Breaking the rigid boundaries between disciplines, so as to go beyond the traditional normative research, allows various concepts and techniques to be applied to the study of disability and rights of persons with disabilities and finally develop empirical research on the basis of evidence-based study. Multidisciplinary research that apply the theories and methods from different disciplines offers unique advantages and has great potential for research to improve national human rights policy. Multidisciplinary research aims to break down disciplinary barriers, to apply the theories and methods from different disciplines on one subject. It is easy to undertake comprehensive and complex research assignments when experts with different backgrounds work together and complement one another. Multidisciplinary group work is an effective complement to the knowledge limitations of a scholar's individual research, which is far beyond the simple superposition of a scholar's individual intelligence and creativity. The complexity of the issues related to disability and the rights of persons with disabilities makes them well suited to multidisciplinary research. Disability includes both physical and psychological injury to persons and the effect of the physical environment and social attitudes. In reality, there are different forms and personal experiences After the 2008 United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the rights of people with disabilities began to draw a greater attention. At present, the international academic research on the rights of persons with disabilities includes disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, literature, and feminism, etc. And in addition to books, there are several journals that specifically focus on multidisciplinary research in the field of disabilities, such as Disability and Society, the Disability Studies Quarterly, the International Journal of Disability, Development, and Education, the Journal of Disability Policy Studies, the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, the Research in Social Science and Disability, and so on. Research into the rights of people with disabilities is, in a broad sense, part of studies into disability issues, but it is not easy to distinguish studies into the rights of people with disabilities from studies into disability issues. Some articles explicitly discuss the rights of disabled people, or use the framework of rights, while there are articles which do not directly focus on their rights, but adopt a perspective based on the basic principles of human rights, such as non-discrimination, participation and empowerment. Their aim is to promote the equal participation and integration into the society of people with disabilities. In this paper, the above two categories will be considered to be research on disability rights. But it needs to be noted that although some articles proclaim to be research on rights, they display superiority to disability groups, believing that disability groups are "being granted rights". Research on rights and human rights (law) contain the choice of value, the researchers' stance will obviously influence their findings. Ⅱ. Characteristics of Multidisciplinary Research on the Rights for the Disabled Generally, the current international research into the rights of persons with disabilities has the following features: (1) a diverse research angle, with the depth and extent of the research constantly expanding; (2) from abstract theory and normative research to specific and empirical research; (3) on the basis of "facts", emphasis is placed on the experience and the interpretation of the "person" in relation to society and culture; (4) concern about the intersections personal identity/identities and individual rights; (5) persons with disabilities being at the centre of research, being both the objects of research and participants in the research, paying attention to the empowerment of participants and emancipation of subjects. A. Diversity of disability rights research Apart from the law, at present, research into the rights of people with disabilities involves sociology, anthropology, political science, psychology, economics, language, literature, gender studies and other social sciences and humanities disciplines (here does not include such disciplines as medicine, rehabilitation, etc.). There are two dimensions to studies on rights of persons with disabilities that are based on the characteristics of different disciplines. One is tends to "objective"description and analysis of the facts, trying to clarify some kind of social phenomenon and present a variety of influences, as well as the relationship between the various factors. These studies use quantitative methods, focusing on the statistical analysis of the data. In the study of rights, this approach can help analyse the internal and external factors influencing the protection and realization of rights, or the effect of certain laws or measures aimed at the protection of specific rights. The United States, for example, has a lot of research on the implementation effects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The research based on the data analysis over certain timeframes, found that after the ADA came into effect, the rate of employment for persons with disabilities has not increased, rather it has decreased.6 Other research has shown that to assess the situation employment of disabled persons, a number of factors need to be taken into account, such as which persons were included under the ADA and the government subsidies provided the disabled (disability benefits) that to some extent reduces the willingness of the disabled to get a job. Studies have shown that different measurement criteria lead to different conclusions.7 In addition to the more mainstream subjects, there are also subjects such as music and geography and the disabled, which from a fresh point, inspired people to reconsider the relationship between people with disabilities and society.10 In addition to the integrated use of various disciplines and theories, research into the rights of people with disabilities focuses on its empirical nature. Empirical research on the rights of people with disabilities greatly strengthens the persuasive power of the argument, and will have a positive impact on decision-makers and policies. For example, as to the opinion that the working performance of the disabled is not as good as that of the able-bodied, scholars have made an empirical research — designing a model and index for measuring work performance — which obtained the results that except for time of service, other indices such as attendance, productivity, and task management showed there was no significant difference.11 In the first phase of a project "the Multidisciplinary Research on Disability Rights, China" presided over by the author, there was an anthropology researcher who studies female patients in psychiatric hospitals with unstructured interviews, to understand the essence of their rights and the influencing factors. She used a large number of cases and the verbal accounts of respondents, and points out, "hospitalized women, who were sent to the hospital the family members in the name of love and protection, tend to experience medical monitoring, and constraints on their behaviour, especially when family disputes occur or when a woman has very low status in the family. The deprivation of the freedom, marriage rights and health rights of hospitalized females is the result of coming together of family and psychiatry."12 C. Personal experiences and cultural interpretations As mentioned earlier, hermeneutical studies reflect socio-cultural mainstream attitudes and how they suppress the weak. Past research, and many present studies in China, have tended to focus on macro-social structures, in which the individual does not a position, and this makes the right studies cold, unable to influence policymakers and the public. Therefore, we need more vivid and substantial study, that is, to have the real "person" there. Some foreign scholars study how the disabled achieve the acquisition of “non-disabled culture” and response as the non-handicapped people expected. Researchers display the "non-disabled culture" with a series of dialog, for example, "I don't see you a handicapped at all." "At least he's not so handicapped." "You're so brave, I do not know what you are facing." ... Each individual may have multiple identities, a person with disabilities may also be a woman, a black, and elderly ... These together will have a different impact on the realization of individual rights. At present research into disability issues and the rights of people with disabilities is focused on multiple identities, which is also receiving more and more attention in China. The most mature research on disability rights are studies on gender and disability. Empirical studies have shown that women with disabilities often suffer double discrimination in a society, making their situation even more difficult.16 The common point of these two identities is that the objects of study are stigmatized and suppressed groups; women's rights in many contexts are believed to be incomplete and deficient relative to the rights of men. So in reality, in some cases, feminist groups and disability groups will join hands to push for action. But they also have differences on some issues, for example, when it comes to the argument that women are incomplete like the disabled, this stigmatizes the disabled. Another example is those disability rights advocates who think that, regardless of whether a foetus has defects, it has the right to be born, while feminists claim that the mother has the absolute right to decide whether to have an abortion or not. E. Research of participation and liberation People with disabilities have made the declaration on their rights "nothing about us without us". Currently, in academia, the role of people with disabilities in research is also a hot issue. That is, people with disabilities should not only be regarded as the objects of research, but also the ones conducting the research. In addition, as to the purpose of the research, many scholars are no more content to simply expose the findings than better reflect on how to put the research into action, so to promote social change through granting rights to the disabled. Not only that, but many non-governmental groups have also begun to actively participate in the research. Some studies are even being conducted on non-handicapped disability, these show that with the development of the disability rights movement, the influence of the disabled community is growing.17 In the process of doing research on human rights, we should not ignore the voice and force of the communities to really achieve the purpose of the research. Ⅲ. Multidisciplinary Research on the Rights for the Disabled in China To promote empirical research into the rights of people with disabilities, the Legal Research Centre on Welfare and Development of Wuhan University launched a "multidisciplinary research project in 2012. The project has recruited more than 50 researchers from universities, government and disability organizations. The researcher's backgrounds are varied, including law, sociology, anthropology, journalism, political science, literature, etc. The project has organized training and conferences on research methods for studying the rights of people with disabilities and interdisciplinary to enhance the research capacities of the participants. In support of the project, researchers in the framework of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, alone or in cooperation with other researchers conducting research, produced a series of great academic achievements, including the right to education of persons with disabilities and the right to work, mental disability rights, gender and disability, and many other studies. The Disability Rights Study compiled from the project results is the first academic collection with a clear perspective on the rights of people with disabilities, which is of epoch-making significance. I participated in and coordinated the project, during which I found the following: First, the small quantities of qualitative and interpretative research. The above has already explained the importance and value of the research, but the problems in current research may be caused by two reasons. On the one hand, domestic researchers still pay more attention to "objective" and "reproducible" study findings that limit them to a certain extent to more critical, suggestive interpretation of research. On the other hand, some project participants report that it is relatively easier to do quantitative research while qualitative research takes a longer time, which is likely to be caused by academic training. But if we accept the importance of the “person” in research, then we should strengthen qualitative research in the future. Finally, disabled communities are becoming more and more involved in studies. We have increasingly heard the voices of disabled people themselves. It turns out that their understanding on the rights of people with disability are not only more advanced and more concrete than that of scholars, but also can bring vitality to the whole team. It also confirms the "nothing about us without us" principle. Looking to the future, we need to further consolidate the foundation of multidisciplinary research on disability rights, cultivate future scholars in disability research and build multidisciplinary research groups, this will further contribute to the work of protecting the rights of people with disabilities in China. (Translated by WANG Liping) * ZHANG Wanhong ( 张万洪 ), professor of Institute for Human Rights Studies, Law School at Wuhan University. ** GAO Wei ( 高薇 ), researcher of Wuhan East Lake Community Development Institute. 1. David L. Braddock and Susan L. Parish, "An Institutional History of Disability", in Handbook of Disability Studies, ed. Gary L. Alberecht, Katherine D. Seelman and Michael Bury (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2001), 12. 2. Simi Linton, Claiming Disability, Knowledge and Identity (New York: NYU Press, 1998), 132. 3. David L. Braddock and Susan L. Parish, "An Institutional History of Disability", in Handbook of Disability Studies, ed. Gary L. Alberecht, Katherine D. Seelman and Michael Bury (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2001), 5-6. 5. Dan Goodley, Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (London: Sage Publications, 2011), 32. 6. John J. Donohue III, Michael Ashley Stein, Christopher L. Griffin, Jr., and Sascha Becker, "Assessing Post-ADA Employment: Some Econometric Evidence and Policy Considerations", Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 8, no. 3 (2011): 477–503. 7. Douglas Kruse and Lisa Schur, "Employment of People with Disabilities Following the ADA", Industrial Relations 42, no. 1 (2003). 8. Sara E. Kimberlin and Mary Ager, "Economic Theories of Disability Benefits", Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 19 (2009): 70–84. 9. Allison Ruby Reid-Cunningham, "Anthropological Theories of Disability", Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 19, no. 1 (2009): 99-111. 10. Kevin Hindle, "Are Workers with a Disability Less Productive? An Empirical Challenge to a Suspect Axiom", paper submitted to the referred stream of the Anzam 99 Conference, University of Tasmania, September 8, 1999. 11. Ibid. 12. Ma Zhiying, "In the Name of Love and Medical Treatment? On Experience of Hospitalized Female in Psychiatric Hospital from Rights Perspective", in Study on the Rights of the Disabled (Vol. I), ed. Zhang Wanhong (Beijing: Social Science Documentation Publishing House, 2014). 14. Dan Goodley, Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (London: Sage Publications, 2011), 92. 16. Ryu P. Cheng MSW, "Sociological Theories of Disability, Gender, and Sexuality: A Review of the Literature", Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 19, no.1 (2009): 112-122. 17. Dan Goodley, Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction (London: Sage Publications, 2011), 22-32. 18. United Nations Department of Public Information, "The Human Rights Convention on Persons with Disabilities Fill Protection Gaps", http://www.un.org/chinese/disabilities/convention/index.htm. 19. Liuxiaonan and Xiebin: "The Lead in Recruiting Persons with Disabilities in the Public Sectors: An Empirical Research and Policy Recommendations", in Study on the Rights of the Disabled (Vol. I), ed. Zhang Wanhong(Beijing: Social Science Documentation Publishing House, 2014). 20. Chen Bo and Huang Shiyuan, "The Practice of the Mental Disorders Promote Their Individual Autonomy Through Social Work in Shenzhen", in Study on the Rights of the Disabled (Vol. I), ed. Zhang Wanhong (Beijing: Social Science Documentation Publishing House, 2014). |
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