[6] For example, recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification"[7] may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of exacerbating disablement processes.
The field is focused on increasing individuals with disabilities access to civil rights and improving their quality of life.
[11] In the second edition, written ten years later, he writes that "all that has changed", but "just because disability studies is on the map, does not mean that is easy to find".
Their article analyzes groups at four different universities and describes how professors have incorporated student activism into their curriculum and research.
Programs in Disability Studies should encourage a curriculum that allows students, activists, teachers, artists, practitioners, and researchers to engage the subject matter from various disciplinary perspectives.
It focuses on race, gender, sexuality, class and other related systems of oppression that can also intersect with having a disability.
[23] Some research on intersectionality and disability has focused on the aspect of being part of two or more stigmatized groups and how these are contributing factors to multiple forms of harassment, the paradox known as "Double Jeopardy".
[24] In academic settings and practices such as gender or women's studies the course work does not always highlight ideals of intersectionality and identity.
But Sri Craven highlights the fact that in academia students and professors do not look at history in a culmination of the intersecting identities but rather focus in one perspective.
[30] Other contemporary works, such as literary studies conducted by Sami Schalk explore the intersection of disability and race and the use of dis/ability as a metaphor within the genre of black women's speculative fiction.
Empirical studies show that minority students are disproportionately more likely to be removed from class or school for "behavioral" or academic reasons, and far more likely to be labeled with intellectual or learning disabilities.
[35] Feminism integrates the social and political aspects that makes a body oppressed while allowing empowerment to be present in acknowledging its culture.
Garland-Thomson further describes that "identity based critical enterprises have enriched and complicated our understandings of social justice, subject formation, subjugated knowledges and collective action".
Corbman's article highlights the beginning of disability activism during the feminist movement of the 1970s and 1980s and how the intersecting identities enticed new members and activists from across the country to join the cause.
[32] Most of the literature above is written by individual authors in the United States but there is nothing on there from other countries that depicts disability and sexuality in the same context.
[57] In addition to this, it was about forty years later in 2013 that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) changed the listing of transgender to "gender dysphoria".
[59] The court granted guardianship of her to her homophobic parents who refused visitation rights to her long time partner, Karen Thompson.
In a 2014 study of intersecting identities found that "disabled women whether gay, straight, bisexual or otherwise identifying have a harder time finding romantic relationships due to their socioeconomic status and ability.
[62] Drummond and Brotman introduce the idea that the lesbian disabled community face many barriers because of discrimination in the form of ableism, homophobia, racism and more due to intersecting identities and interests.
[62] This young woman describes how she experienced sexism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia in a number of ways at her university, the queer community and medical providers because of her disability.
The discrimination the women in these examples is part of the heteronormative, ableistic perspective in societies around the world today but are rarely discussed in the literature or during disability studies courses.
[71][30] Intellectual disability, as it is understood today, is the product of the industrial revolution as workers unable to keep up with fast-paced factory work were pathologized.
"[52] The International Association of Accessibility Professionals[74] recognizes six different models for conceptualizing disability: social, medical, cultural affiliation, economic, charity, and functional solutions.
[16] The cultural affiliation model accepts the person's disability completely and uses it a point of pride in being associated with other people in a similar condition.
[75] The economic model recognizes the effect of bodily limitations on a person's ability to work, and there may be a need for economic support or accommodations for the person's disability[76] while the charity model regards people with disabilities as unfortunate and in need of assistance from the outside, with those providing charity viewed as benevolent contributors to a needy population.
The pragmatism of the functional solution model deemphasizes the sociopolitical aspects of disability, and instead prioritizes inventiveness and entrepreneurship.
This is the prevailing opinion behind compliance literature that promotes self-efficacy and self-advocacy skills for people with disabilities preparing for transition to independent living.
It is unclear exactly which perspective of disability scholarship "psychological impairment" can fall under, and this has led to a hesitation on the part of scholars.
[79] Scholars such as Peter Beresford (2002) suggest "the development of a 'social model of madness and distress'" which would consider impairments of the mind.
[80] There are many different terms used as an alternative to disability, for example Melwood, a nonprofit who uses the term "differing abilities", describes the label disability as "a limitation in the ability to pursue an occupation because of a physical or mental impairment; a disqualification, restriction or disadvantage and a lack of legal qualification to do something, was an inadequate or limiting 'label' for a cross section of people".