Maria Berghs is an anthropologist with a PhD in sociology and social policy. She works in the field of medical anthropology and sociology, specialising in disability studies. Her research interests include disability, global health (sickle cell), humanitarianism, ethics, gender and West Africa (Sierra Leone).

Tsitsi Chataika is the Chairperson and a Senior Lecturer in disability and inclusive education in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Zimbabwe. Her recent publication is The Routledge Handbook of Disability in Southern Africa.

Yahya El-Lahib is a long-time disability activist and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. His research focuses on the intersection of disability and displacement as interlocking systems of oppression that continue to shape the marginalization experiences of people with disabilities within and outside state borders.

Kudakwashe Dube is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Africa Disability Alliance and has over 30 years of experience designing, managing, evaluating and monitoring development and disability programmes with international and grassroots movements. He is also chair of trustees of ADD International that fights for independence, equality and opportunities for disabled people living in poverty, alongside organisations of disabled people.

List of contributors , Acknowledgements PART I Introduction - contextualising disability activism Introducing disability activism; A virtual roundtable: re/defining disability activism with emerging global South disability activists PART II Neoliberalism and austerity in the global North 1 The impact of neoliberal politics on the welfare and survival of chronically ill and disabled people 2 'These days are ours': young disabled people's experiences of activism and participation in social movements 3 The links between models and theories to social changes as seen and understood by activists and academics: what works? 4 Figures: an artist-activist response to austerity 5 As technology giveth, technology taketh away PART III Rights, embodied resistance and disability activism 6 Exercising intimate citizenship rights and (re)constructing sexualities: the new place of sexuality in disability activism 7 'I show the life, I hereby express my life': activism and art in the political debate between social movements and institutions on D/deaf bodies in Italy8 Resisting the work cure: mental health, welfare reform and the movement against psychocompulsion 9 My disability, my ammunition, my asset in advocacy work PART IV Belonging, identity and values: diverse coalitions for rights 10 Disabled mothers of disabled children: an activism of our children and ourselves 11 Dementia as a disability 12 Voices from survivors of forced sterilisations in Japan: Eugenics Protection Law 1948-1996 13 Indigenous Species PART V Reclaiming social positions, places and spaces 14 Disability sport and social activism 15 Naples in the hands: activism for aesthetic enjoyment 16 Pissed off!: disability activists fighting for toilet access in the UK 17 Mobility-as-occupation: non-confrontational activism in Trinidad and Tobago PART VI Social media, support and activism 18 The tragedy of the hidden lamps: in search of disability rights activists from the global South in the digital era 19 'With the knife and the cheese in hand!': a virtual ethnography of the cyber-activist disabled movement in Brazil and its transnational impact 20 Australia's treatment of Indigenous prisoners: the continuing nature of human rights violations in West Australian jail cells 21 'Lchad Poland' and the fight against inequality: the role of internet advocacy in cases of a rare genetic condition Campus activism in higher education 22 Beyond random acts of diversity: ableism, academia & institutional sites of resistance 23 At the margins of academia - on the outside, looking in: refusing, challenging and dismantling the material and ideological bases of academia 24 Sensitisation: broadening the agenda to 'include' persons with disabilities 25 Rainclamation: how installation art can reclaim space, transform collective suffering into poetic resistance and bring aesthetics to disabled viewers PART VIII Inclusive pedagogies, evidence and activist practices 26 Zimbabwean disability activism from a higher education perch: an uncertain present but exciting future 27 Research as activism?: perspectives of people labelled/with intellectual and developmental disabilities engaged in inclusive research and knowledge co-production 28 Reinventing activism: evidence-based participatory monitoring as a tool for social change PART IX Enabling human rights and policy: transition: international politics 29 Implementation of CRPD in the post-Soviet region: between imitation and authenticity 30 Swedish disability activism: from welfare to human rights? 31 Gendered disability advocacy: lessons from the Girl Power Programme in Sierra Leone 32 'We need not remake the past': rebuilding the disability movement in Toronto, Canada PART X Conclusion - the coming challenges and future directions 33 Causes and effects of claims for rights: why mainstreaming in Africa matters 34 Unsettling realities and rethinking displacement: transforming settlement services for refugees, migrants and people with intellectual disabilities 35 Disability futures: activism futures and challenges Index