Starting Points
The following resources offer introductions to and overviews of the subject matter. Use them to find out about the broad contours of your field of study, then move on to the resources listed further down on this page for more in-depth research.
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Keywords for Disability Studies by Keywords for Disability Studies aims to broaden and define the conceptual framework of disability studies for readers and practitioners in the field and beyond. The volume engages some of the most pressing debates of our time, such as prenatal testing, euthanasia, accessibility in public transportation and the workplace, post-traumatic stress, and questions about the beginning and end of life. Each of the 60 essays in Keywords for Disability Studies focuses on a distinct critical concept, including "ethics," "medicalization," "performance," "reproduction," "identity," and "stigma," among others. Although the essays recognize that "disability" is often used as an umbrella term, the contributors to the volume avoid treating individual disabilities as keywords, and instead interrogate concepts that encompass different components of the social and bodily experience of disability. The essays approach disability as an embodied condition, a mutable historical phenomenon, and a social, political, and cultural identity. An invaluable resource for students and scholars alike, Keywords for Disability Studies brings the debates that have often remained internal to disability studies into a wider field of critical discourse, providing opportunities for fresh theoretical considerations of the field's core presuppositions through a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Visit keywords.nyupress.org for online essays, teaching resources, and more. ISBN: 9781479841158Publication Date: 2015 -
Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies (Harvard Login) by ISBN: 9781138365308Publication Date: 2019 -
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The Oxford Handbook of Disability History (Harvard Login) by ISBN: 9780190234959Publication Date: 2018
Find Books & Articles
For books (both print and electronic) owned by Harvard's libraries, consult HOLLIS, our library catalog. Be sure to select the "library catalog" (not the "everything") option if you are looking only for books. Once you have found titles of interest, try exploring further by following the linked subject headings or the virtual bookshelf feature available with each detailed catalog record.
There are a number of specialized, peer-reviewed journals in disability studies that provide a good starting point for research in this area:
- Disability & Society
- Disability Studies Quarterly
- Journal of Disability Policy Studies
- Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies
In addition, try the following databases for more scholarship on various aspects of disability studies:
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CINAHL (Harvard Login)Covers research journals in nursing and allied health; also includes some materials on social work/social services and disability studies.
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PubMed (Harvard Login)Publications indexed by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health.
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Social Science Premium Collection (Harvard Login)Database collection covering the social sciences. Includes PAIS for public policy research. See also Academic Search Premier (Harvard Login).
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Social Services Abstracts (Harvard Login)Covers research in the areas of social work and human services, as well as related fields including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Find Primary Sources
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Disability History MuseumVirtual museum on the experiences of people with different abilities and changing attitudes toward disability in U.S. history. Contains digital collections of primary sources.
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The Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Archives ProjectOral history interviews and other primary sources on the U.S. disability rights movement, housed at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Disability VoicesOral history collection with interviews of people with disabilities from the British Library.
Find Data & Statistics
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Disability StatisticsCollection of statistics on disability in the United States from various sources, compiled by the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability at Cornell University.