Understanding Disability: Why the Affirmation Model is Important for Social Work Practice - with Dr Colin Cameron

The Centre for Social Work Innovation and Research (CSWIR) invites you to the following event on Friday 25 October, 1-2:30pm, at the University of Sussex / on Zoom. 

Colin Cameron has been active in the disabled people's movement since 1992 in various roles in disability arts, inclusive living and collective advocacy organisations. He has had quite a few things published, including 'Controversial Issues in a Disabling Society' (2003, with John Swain and Sally French), 'Disability Studies: A Student's Guide' (2014), and 'The Routledge Handbook of Service User Involvement' (2020, with Hugh McLaughlin, Peter Beresford, Helen Casey and Joe Duffy). He is the vocalist in a punk band called Filth and has had his Stuckist nose-picking paintings exhibited at The Royal Academy. His first degree was in social administration from Brighton Polytechnic in 1986.

“In this presentation I shall explore the view, asserted by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation almost 50 years ago, that disability is a form of social oppression, and ask why much social work practice seems to have had difficulty with this understanding. I shall consider the disability definition in the 2010 Equality Act and why this establishes in law a way of looking and thinking which makes it difficult to think about disability other than as unfortunate individual limitation. I shall outline the affirmation model, an idea that has emerged from the creative practice of the disability arts movement, which offers a way of understanding disability rooted in ideas of pride and respect, and conclude by reflecting on the affirmation model in the light of a number of statements made by disabled people, drawing out its implications for anti-oppressive social work practice.”

Dr Cameron is currently based at the Department of Social Work, Education and Community Well Being, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

How to get here: Chichester 3, Access Information and Directions

Joining online: If registered, you will receive the Zoom link before the event. *Your Zoom name should be your full name and your institution/organisation name. Those who have not registered or are unidentifiable as registered attendees will not be admitted to the Zoom call. *