Simon Darcy and Jerome Singleton edited a special edition of Annals of Leisure Research to produce this collection of articles dealing with disability and inclusion. Many approaches to research are represented in ‘Cultural Life,’ Disability, Inclusion and Citizenship, including Photovoice, participatory action research, quantitative methods, and qualitative methods.
The aim of the book is to develop both theory and practice related to leisure for people with disabilities, especially those people with disabilities whose voices are seldom heard as full research participants. The voices and experiences of people with intellectual disabilities and developmental disabilities feature prominently throughout the chapters of the book, allowing for an appreciation of the struggles they face in accessing opportunities for inclusive leisure and recreation.
The introduction to the book clarifies the goals of the special issue, among them to develop and define the concepts of inclusion and citizenship across different cultures. Singleton and Darcy offer the following definition of citizenship as a guiding framework for the book: ‘Citizenship is how individuals gain access to opportunities based upon what resources are available in a person’s community.’ While this statement was not intended to be an all-encompassing definition of citizenship, it falls short in the context of the book because it does not explain how citizenship is a practice and not just a right of membership.
The following chapters only provide brief references to the construct of citizenship, favouring the terms inclusion, access, and membership, among others. Chapter Two explores the accessibility of recreational facilities and services on a Canadian university campus. It would have been fascinating to unpack the idea of citizenship on a university campus and to frame the access, or lack thereof, to recreational settings in the language of citizenship and rights, rather than accessibility and sensitivities. Despite the best intentions of facility managers and instructors, the physical access to recreation opportunities at this university remains problematic, leaving out potential participants with disabilities.
This book expertly bridges the space between leisure studies and disability studies by studying leisure as a key component of a full and enjoyable life for people with disabilities. Chapter Three uses Photovoice to help adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities articulate their feelings about the world around them. One of the key themes that emerges in this chapter is employment as a key aspect of cultural life, and even as an aspect of leisure. As noted in the introduction to the book, people with disabilities often find themselves excluded from the labour force, making leisure and recreation a main focus of their lives, rather than a secondary consideration. The people in the study expressed how empowering it was to be employed and to be able to have some degree of financial independence. Employment allowed them greater freedom to choose their leisure opportunities and break free from negative stereotypes of dependence so they could assume age-appropriate roles in their interactions with others.
Chapter Four touches again on the idea of appropriate roles, this time in the context of refugee youth who have been forced by persecution or humanitarian crises to assume adult roles despite their young age. Once these youth have been resettled as refugees, it is difficult for them to integrate into a society in which the age-appropriate expectations are entirely different. The authors point to the importance of leisure as a site of learning appropriate behaviours in order to facilitate integration and belonging after resettlement. The many applications of leisure are highlighted here, and there are many avenues for research in this area as a consequence of these results.
The fifth and final chapter of this book studies the experiences of adults who have undergone a traumatic brain injury and the potential impact of an arts-based leisure programme to enhance communication with their significant others who are also their caregivers. The authors found that engaging in this leisure activity together allowed the dyads to re-establish their connections with one another and de-emphasize the caregiving aspect of their relationships. The explicit application of leisure to promote well-being among people with disabilities and their caregivers is an innovative approach, and promises to find prominent expression in future practice.
The main strength of this book, in my opinion, is the way in which it gives voice to people with disabilities, through various media, and allows the reader to reflect on their own stereotyped views and actions towards people with disabilities. It does so in a non-judgemental way, as the studies presented are not preaching inclusion and acceptance, but, rather, leaving it to the reader to realize the systemic barriers facing people with disabilities, and the ways in which they, as citizens, may be empowered to assist in the efforts to dismantle them.
The breadth of research methods and theoretical frameworks makes ‘Cultural Life,’ Disability, Inclusion and Citizenship accessible and relevant to researchers, advocates, and practitioners across a number of disciplines, and I hope they find the results presented impactful and instructive.
York University, Toronto, Canada
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© 2016 Shauna Cappe
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2015.1129122