This fully revised and expanded second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies takes a multidisciplinary approach to disability and provides an authoritative and up-to-date overview of the main issues in the field around the world today. Adopting an international perspective and arranged thematically, it surveys the state of the discipline, examining emerging and cutting-edge areas as well as core areas of contention.Divided in five parts, this comprehensive handbook covers:Different models and approaches to disabilityHow key impairment groups have engaged with disability studies and the writings within the disciplinePolicy and legislation responses to disability studies and to disability activismDisability studies and its interaction with other disciplines, such as history, philosophy, sport, and science and technology studiesDisability studies and different life experiences, examining how disability and disability studies intersects with ethnicity, sexuality, gender, childhood and ageingContaining 15 revised chapters and 12 new chapters from an international selection of leading scholars, this authoritative handbook is an invaluable reference for all academics, researchers, and more advanced students in disability studies and associated disciplines such as sociology, health studies and social work.Chapter 6 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Nick Watson is Professor of Disability Research and Director of the Centre for Disability Research at the University Glasgow, UK. He has written on a range of disability issues including disability and technology, disability and identity and disability theory. He is on the executive editorial board of Disability & Society and is Director of What Works Scotland.Simo Vehmas is Professor of Special Education at Stockholm University, Sweden. He has written on various theoretical and ethical issues such as the ontological formation of disability and the moral significance of intellectual disability regarding moral status and sexuality.