From social theory to global policy: Reflections on disability, human rights and global health

The McGill Global Heatlh Programs are happy to join the McGill School of Physical and Occupational Therapy and the Centre de recherche interdisciplinaire en réadaptation du Montréal métropolitain (CRIR) in welcoming Dr. Jerome Bickenbach, Professor at the University of Lucerne and Swiss Paraplegic Research in Nottwil, and Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University.

About our speaker:

Dr. Jerome Bickenbach is a professor at the University of Lucerne and Swiss Paraplegic Research, Nottwil, and Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University, Canada. He is the author of Physical Disability and Social Policy (1993) and the co-editor of Introduction to Disability (1998), Disability and Culture: Universalism and Diversity (2000), A Seat at the Table: Persons with Disabilities and Policy Making (2001), Quality of Life and Human Difference (2003) and numerous articles and chapters in disability studies, focusing on the nature of disability and disability law and policy. He is a content editor of Sage Publications’ proposed 5 volume Encyclopaedia of Disability, and Ethics, Law and Policy, a volume in Sage Reference Series on Disability. He was the editor of the joint WHO-ISCoS report called International Perspectives on Spinal Cord Injury and more recently a World Bank/WHO manual ICF and Disability Assessment. Since 1995 he has been a consultant with WHO working on the preparation and implementation of the ICF. His research is in disability studies, using qualitative and quantitative research techniques within the paradigm of participatory action research. Most recently his research includes disability quality of life and the disability critique, disability epidemiology, ageing and wellbeing, universal design and inclusion, modelling disability statistics for population health surveys, the relationship between disability and health, and the ethics and the application of ICF to the development of human right indicators for monitoring the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As a lawyer, Prof. Bickenbach was a human rights litigator, specializing in anti-discrimination for persons with intellectual impairments and mental illness.

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For more information please contact globalhealth [at] mcgill.ca.