The main argument of this book is that despite international guidelines and policies promoting the mainstreaming and inclusion of disabled people into society, actual change in practice has been slow to materialise. Mainstreaming is complex and difficult to achieve. The book gives many examples of the continuing exclusion of disabled people and their families from the opportunities that are accessible to other members of society. Importantly, it also explores why development, like disability, is fundamentally about human rights. It gives examples from around the world with a strong focus on the situation in East and Southern Africa.
The book is based on 23 DfID funded research projects, the majority of which were carried out by disabled people and form the basis for 13 chapters which include issues around education, the impact of disability legislation, the Ugandan PRSP process, the role of Foreign NGOs in Mozambique, new ways of collecting disability statistics in relation to the International classifications of functioning and disability (ICF) in southern Africa, the relationship between poverty and disability, social model development and the use of participatory rural appraisal in Cambodia.
The strength of this book is the high level of participation from disabled people themselves and as such it provides an opportunity to hear the 'voices' of people not often heard. Their perceptions, experiences and ideas have some very powerful messages. This includes their anger, frustration and disappointment at the numerous injustices and levels of exclusion that are experienced. Whilst this is a strength, in some respects the negative observations and sometimes inflammatory language may be somewhat overwhelming to some readers. Regretfully, this might result in the opposite effect to the one obviously intended, and contribute to reducing levels of inclusion rather than promoting it.
With the exception of Chapters 7 and 13 the research reported in this book regretfully lacks rigour and transparency. We are rarely told what information already exists on the subject, how the data have been collected, what questions were used, what sampling techniques were employed. This makes it almost impossible to judge if the research is valid and reliable and reduces most of the content of the book to an anecdotal level. This is truly regrettable because it is obvious that this was an opportunity to provide much needed evidence to support the arguments made. Perhaps ironically, it also serves to provide an example of research conducted without enough participation from partners with research expertise. In so doing it falls short of moving the debate forward and perhaps providing a constructive direction for the way forward.
For non-disabled readers and those interested inclusive development, this book provides much useful information and many examples of the injustices still faced by disabled people and their families. For the novice researcher there are some good accounts of emancipatory research. But disabled and non-disabled researchers who want to know what evidence there is about mainstreaming and or, what might be a constructive way forward to improve the situation might be disappointed with the text.