1st Edition

The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Disability Studies

Edited By Katie Ellis, Mike Kent, Kim Cousins Copyright 2025
418 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

418 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

418 Pages 9 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

Disability impacts everyone in some way. Approximately 10-20% of the world’s population live with disability, and the associated issues affect not just these individuals but also their friends, family, and colleagues. When looking at it this way, it is strange that disability continues to be thought of as an anomaly—either as a medical problem located in a damaged body or something that exists... Read more

Chapter 1 – Introduction

 

Part I – Representation, art and culture

 

Chapter 2 – Disability, intersectionality, and decolonial perspectives from the global south

Anna Hickey-Moody and Divya Garg

 

Chapter 3 – Pandemic art and the intersection of disability and trauma studies

Jennifer McKellar and Katie Ellis

 

Chapter 4 – Neurodiversity paradigm in art

Jordan Alice Fyfe

 

Chapter 5 – Reinhabiting, reimagining, and recreating ableist spaces: Embodied criticality in art

Bree Hadley, Eddie Paterson, and Janice Rieger

 

Chapter 6 – A case of the blues:  Music, blindness, and citizenship

Alex Lubet

 

Chapter 7 – Making the outsider centre-stage: A conversation on leadership opportunities for artists with disabilities in Australian theatre

Dan Graham and Suzanne Ingelbrecht

 

Chapter 8 – Queer, crip, and anti-colonial theories in popular culture: De/constructing normativity in Disney’s The Owl House

Chloe T. Rattray and Amy Shields Dobson

 

Chapter 9 – Articulating the self: Disability rhetorics, autobiographical comics, and the case of David Small’s Stitches

Dale Jacobs and Jay Dolmage

 

Chapter 10 – Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer: Not a supercrip

Amber E. George

 

Chapter 11 – Force of nature, forced by society: Rethinking Shakespeare’s Richard III

Chloe T. Rattray and Suzanne Inglebrecht

 

Chapter 12 – Precarity and the global dispossession of indigeneity through representations of disability

David T. Mitchell

 

Part II – Media, Technology, and Communication

 

Chapter 13 – Neurodiversity and the internet: Challenging the dominant autism narratives in Indonesia

Hersinta

 

Chapter 14 – Centring disabled Americans’ writings about the Covid-19 pandemic: A critical disability studies analysis

Emily Brooks and Beth Haller

 

Chapter 15 – Indigenous sign languages in Australia

Cassandra Wright-Dole

 

Chapter 16 – A comparative study of Australia and Brazil:  Approaches to the UNCRPD and digital access

Matheus Ferreira

 

Chapter 17 – Vision Australia’s use of podcasts

Saadia Ahmed

 

Chapter 18 – Transhuman liminalities and the othered body: Exploring disability and superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Lorna Piatti-Farnell

 

Chapter 19 – Redefining access in the smart city

Kathryn Locke

 

Chapter 20 – Disability and the social construction of technology

Kai-Ti Kao

 

Chapter 21 – Take a selfie: paralympic athletes on social media

Tatiane Hilgemberg

 

Chapter 22 – Disability’s right to the smart city: A manifesto for the emergent future

Kuansong Victor Zhuang and Gerard Goggin

 

Chapter 23 – Disability and digital public health communication: Gamification and accessibility

Sian Tomkinson

 

Part III - Activism and the Life Course

 

Chapter 24 – Inclusion without access: Policing encounters with deafness

Elaine Cagulada and Tanya Titchkosky

 

Chapter 25 – Disability and activism in Oman  

Najma Al Zidjaly

 

Chapter 26 – Invisible disability, Instagram, and health communications

Stephanie Mantilla, Jennifer Smith-Merry, and Gerard Goggin

 

Chapter 27 – Singing from the same song-sheet: Harnessing the human rights framework through critical disability studies to achieve inclusive education

Catia Malaquias

 

Chapter 28 – Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit):  Past, present and future – an overview

Beth A. Ferri, David J. Connor, and Subini A. Annamma

 

Chapter 29 – Liveable disabilities: Life courses and opportunity structures across time in Sweden

Lotta Vikström, Josefine Wälivaara, and Karin Ljuslinder

 

Chapter 30 – Autocriticality and interdisciplinarity: Personal-professional applications of the tripartite model of disability 

David Bolt

 

Chapter 31 – Speculative net zero from the margins

Philip Ely, Katie Ellis, Natarsha Bates, Nathon Webber, and Jordan Alice Fyfe

 

Chapter 32 – ‘Doing’ disability research, ethically: A self-critique of a participatory disability research project

Tim Pitman

Biography

Katie Ellis is a Professor in Internet Studies and Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University.

Mike Kent is a Professor and Head of School for Media, Creative Arts and Social Enquiry at Curtin University, Australia.

Kim Cousins is a Research Assistant and Sessional Academic with the Centre for Culture and Technology and the School of Media, Creative Arts & Social Inquiry at Curtin University.