Disabling Barriers

Ravi Malhotra is a full professor in the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, at the University of Ottawa. He has been a disability-rights advocate for more than twenty-five years and is a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. He is the co-author (with Morgan Rowe) of Exploring Disability Identity and Disability Rights through Narratives: Finding a Voice of Their Own, which examines the narratives and life experiences of adults with physical disabilities. He is the editor of the interdisciplinary anthology Disability Politics in a Global Economy: Essays in Honour of Marta Russell, which explores the impact of globalization on disability politics. Benjamin Isitt is a historian and legal scholar specializing in the relationship between social movements and the state in Canada and globally. He is the author of three books that examine social movements and states in diverse historical and geographic contexts: From Victoria to Vladivistok: Canada’s Siberian Expedition, 1917–19; Militant Minority: British Columbia Workers and the Rise of a New Left, 1948–1972; and Duty With Dignity: The Professional Employees’ Association in British Columbia. Alongside his scholarly work, Benjamin Isitt serves the public as a city councillor and regional director in Victoria, BC. Contributors: Odelia R. Bay, Jay Dolmage, Anne Finger, Dustin Galer, Mark Leier, Geoffrey Reaume, Jen Rinaldi, Megan A. Rusciano, Eric Tucker, and Mark Walters

Foreword / Bryan D. Palmer

Introduction: Bringing History and Law to Disability Studies / Ravi Malhotra and Benjamin Isitt

Part 1: Historical Debates on Work and Disability

1 Bearing the Marks of Capital: Solidarities and Fractures in E.T. Kingsley’s British Columbia / Mark Leier

2 Employers, Disabled Workers, and the War on Attitudes in Late Twentieth-Century Canada / Dustin Galer

3 Gender and the Value of Work in Canadian Disability History / Geoffrey Reaume

Part 2: Debates in Disability Studies

4 Dancing with a Cane: The Public Perception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Disability / Anne Finger

5 Disability in Motion: Aesthetics, Embodiment, Sensation, and the Emergence of Modern Vestibular Science in the Nineteenth Century / Mark Walters

6 “Of Dark Type and Poor Physique”: Law, Immigration Restriction, and Disability in Canada, 1900–30 / Jen Rinaldi and Jay Dolmage

Part 3: Legal Debates

7 Battling the Warrior-Litigator: An Exploration of Chronic Illness and Employment Discrimination Paradigms / Odelia R. Bay

8 Towards Full Inclusion: Addressing the Issue of Income Inequality for People with Disabilities in Canada / Megan A. Rusciano

9 Compensating Work-Related Disability: The Theory, Politics, and History of the Commodification-Decommodification Dialectic / Eric Tucker

Index