{"id":95628,"date":"2014-08-18T07:01:31","date_gmt":"2014-08-18T11:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=95628"},"modified":"2014-08-22T10:32:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T14:32:46","slug":"redefine-view-of-disabled-says-uconn-researcher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/08\/redefine-view-of-disabled-says-uconn-researcher\/","title":{"rendered":"Redefine View of Disabled, Says UConn Researcher"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
The concept of ‘culture keeping’ in international adoption may also benefit the development of disabled children, according to UConn researcher Laura Mauldin. (iStock Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

American families who pursue an international adoption often embrace their child\u2019s culture of origin while raising them. It’s an approach, according to a University of Connecticut researcher, that may also be beneficial to the development of disabled children.<\/p>\n

Disability is not just about having a medical condition \u2013 it comes with a culture and a community, says Laura K. Mauldin, assistant professor of human development and family studies and women\u2019s, gender, and sexuality studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a service to the disability community to put that into the conversation, as we do with other cultural differences,\u201d says Mauldin, who has worked extensively in the deaf community. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with having a disability \u2013 what\u2019s wrong is social attitudes about disabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauldin is leading a discussion about redefining how people with disabilities are viewed and treated in society today as part of the 109th Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Her presentation, \u201cCulture Keeping and Raising a Child with a Disability,\u201d extends the concept of \u201cculture keeping\u201d that sociologist Heather Jacobsen uses to describe international adoption to families of the disabled.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2010 (the most recent statistics available) about 57 million people had a disability. Notably, about 30 percent of families have at least one disabled member.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the United States, the disabled are the largest of all minority groups, because they are across all racial groups, all classes,\u201d Mauldin says. \u201cDisability does not discriminate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addressing broad social attitudes about disabilities, which equate disabilities with an illness and, by extension, something that should be treated, is important to the development of disabled children, Mauldin says.<\/p>\n

Mauldin notes that the disability community is already working on this attitudinal change by producing its own culture, addressing disability issues through plays, books, paintings, films, and activism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family studies professor Laura Mauldin argues that disability comes with a culture, and should not be seen just as a medical condition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":95720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-95628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 04:37:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95628"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95723,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95628\/revisions\/95723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/95720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95628"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=95628"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=95628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}