Disability and International Development is an excellent introduction to the topic, especially for those familiar with only one of the fields concerned: disability or development. This book is the perfect launch pad for students and practitioners who work in only one of the fields and would like to work in, or promote, disability inclusive development. Cobley’s book brings together various literatures from disability studies and covers a wide range of topics, ranging from western disability models to international and regional treaties governing disability rights, health, education, employment, disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) and the disability movement, the disability–poverty nexus, and also less-covered topics like disasters. It ends with a very important subject: researching disability and the importance of enabling methods. Throughout the book, the author cites examples from different parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, the Americas, as well as western countries.
The book does what it sets out to do and what it claims to do in the title: it guides students and early practitioners by giving a general overview of the salient aspects of disability in development. Each chapter, dealing with a different topic, can be read on its own, and this format makes it easy to access information on a particular topic such as education or employment. The chapters are very well and clearly sectioned, helping the reader to stay focused through short, targeted sections. The text is easily readable, accessible, and flowing. Furthermore, the book is not excessively long, rendering it practical for practitioners and encouraging for students who want to get a quick overview of the subject(s). The reflection exercises throughout the chapters prove to be a useful point for the reader to stop and reflect about issues which those not familiar with disability (both in study and practice) might not have previously reflected upon. Rather than taking a stand, the author leaves it up to the reader to contemplate the content (through reflection exercises and the main text, summary of key points at the end of each chapter, and discussion questions): for example, in Chapter 3, the author tackles different conceptualisations of the relationship between disability and poverty, and then leaves it up to the reader to do further research and decide upon the best approach. This is an added benefit of this kind of book: at the stage the target audience are in (students, early practitioners/practitioners starting their work in this field), it is important to give an overview of the ‘basics’ and encourage readers to go and read more on the topic that interests them, analyse it further, and reflect upon which is the best course(s) to take.
Being perhaps a necessity due to its introductory character and its aim towards students, Cobley’s book does not thus delve deeply into critiques of development in relation to disability in Global South contexts. For instance, the author emphasises, throughout, the stigma attached to disability, but does not delve into the effects of colonialism and neocolonialism (e.g. through international development agencies) and capitalism in the production of disability. Having said that, Cobley tackles very important aspects which are generally tackled less than others in literature relating to disability and development. For example, in the greatly insightful Chapter 5, dealing with DPOs and the disability rights movement, Cobley sets off by describing the achievements of the independent living movement which began in the United States. He goes on to describe the role of DPOs and the obstacles they encounter, especially in Global South contexts where, for example, campaigning for human rights does not necessarily align with the DPOs’ priorities. This links to the next section of the chapter, where Cobley discusses the relevance (or otherwise) of human rights for disabled people living in poverty. Then he goes on to discuss disability mainstreaming in development interventions, and the twin-track approach to disability inclusive development, which involves ‘mainstreaming disability into all areas of development planning, while simultaneously supporting more focused initiatives designed to empower disabled people and their representative organisations’ (84).
While all of the chapters contain invaluable insights into the different aspects of development with disabled people, the final chapter (Chapter 10) is extremely important in emphasising the need for ‘empirical evidence on which to build the policies and programmes that are necessary to effectively address the concerns and priorities of disabled people, particularly those living in the Global South’ (175). Thus, ‘there is a particularly acute need for research that captures the voices of disabled people themselves, reflecting their own priorities, experiences and viewpoints’ (176). Cobley first explores participatory and action research together with their potential limitations, and then goes on to tackle the emancipatory research paradigm, which is based on the principles of ‘reciprocity, gain and empowerment’ (187), where disabled people themselves control the research. Unfortunately, there are very few (if any) such research practices in the Global South to cite, thus the chapter focuses largely on examples from the Global North, which is where the emancipatory research paradigm was born. While the author touches upon the fact that most research is controlled by academic institutions and donor agencies (185), it is also important to keep in mind other barriers to enabling research with disabled people in the Global South, such as the fact that that many academic institutions in the Global North are not inclusive of/open to research coming from the Global South, that many researchers in the Global South do not have access to academic resources produced in the Global North, and that disabled researchers in the Global South are extremely rare. Ultimately, at present, the important thing is that the researchers are willing ‘to put their skills and knowledge at the disposal of participants, rather than dictating how these attributes should be used’ (186).
Independent Researcher, Malta
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