] [This article cites and quotes historical materials first collected in: M. Miles (1996) Pakistan's microcephalic chuas of Shah Daulah: cursed, clamped or cherished? History of Psychiatry 7: 571-589, from Taylor & Francis, www.tandf.co.uk/]
Evidence on microcephalic children (chuas) at the shrine, and how some of them developed a capacity for independent living.
Internet publication URL: http://www.independentliving.org/miles200907.html
The article introduces bibliographical evidence on deaf men working in palaces and temples of the Hittite Kingdom in Anatolia (now Turkey) during the 13th century BC, with further notes on signing and deaf people's activities in the ancient and medieval Middle East. With some additions and revision September 2009. Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200809.html and www.independentliving.org/files/miles200809.pdf.
This annotated bibliography lists a selection of 130 novels, short stories, biographies, autobiographies, materials from philosophy, anthropology and folklore, and literary criticism, in which disability, deafness or mental disorders play some significant part, from East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East and Africa, available mostly in English or French. Internet publication URLs: independentliving.org/docs7/miles200807.html and independentliving.org/docs7/miles200807.pdf
The bibliography introduces and lists 900 articles, chapters and books connected with social and educational responses to disability, deafness and mental disorders in China, Korea and Japan, from antiquity to 2007, some with annotation. (This work revises and greatly extends an earlier bibliography on the former History of Education website at the Catholic University of Nijmegen). Internet publication URLs: independentliving.org/docs7/miles200708.html and independentliving.org/docs7/miles200708.pdf
The bibliography introduces and annotates materials pertinent to disability, mental disorders and deafness, in the context of religious belief and practice in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia. Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200707.html and www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200707.pdf
In these short scripts from a radio series, Afghan parents and a counsellor discuss issues of raising their deaf child in a rural area of Afghanistan, and several ways in which they can assist her in learning to communicate. An explanatory note follows, on the origin and purpose of the radio series. [Earlier versions of these scripts were circulated in 1984, 1986 and 1988, from the Mental Health Centre Peshawar, Pakistan.] Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200705.html
Review of “Epileptic” by “David B.”, a remarkably frank account, in graphics and cartoon strip, of childhood and adulthood with an older brother having epilepsy, and a family doing the tour of cures in France of the 1960s and 1970s. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200704.html
Revised version of a paper first published in the Zeitschrift Behinderung und Dritte Welt, 3/2003, pp. 96-106, and here reproduced with permission.
International strategies concerned with disability in developing and transitional countries (DTC) are scrutinised critically, with an historical focus on beneficial traditions and practices in Asia and Africa, attesting the variety and complexity of social responses to disability. Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200701.html and www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200701.pdf (112 KB).
This much extended and revised article incorporates material from: M. Miles (2002) Children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida in East Africa: can family and community resources improve the odds? Disability & Society 17: 643-658, Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis. (The latter material is republished with permission.)
The revised article concerns social responses to children with hydrocephalus and spina bifida in African countries, and the historical development of ways in which various resources have been used to improve their life chances, and overcome the disabling effects of these conditions. Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200609.html and www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200609.pdf (239 KB).
First published in 2001, this revised article extended and updated 2006-04 offers evidence and hypotheses for a short cultural history of deaf people, culture and sign language in South Asia and South West Asia, using documents from antiquity through 2005. A new appendix shows 110 items on deafness and sign language in the Arab countries of the Eastern Mediterranean and South West Asia. This is a further revised, extended and updated version of a chapter first published in: Alison Callaway (ed) Deafness and Development, University of Bristol, Centre for Deaf Studies, 2001. It is here republished with kind permission. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200604.html
The author introduces 250 articles and books showing social responses to disability and poverty in two-thirds of the world now and in history, with critical notes. He commends some intelligent approaches in the face of complexity and challenges simplistic slogans and official blah-blah. [An earlier version of the “Modern Materials” section first appeared in DisabilityWorld (Dec.05 - Jan.06), and is reproduced by kind permission, with revision and extension.] Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles200603.html
New, much extended Version 5.01, incorporating an article first published in Disability & Society vol. 19, pp. 531-45; August 2004, titled then "Locating deaf people, gesture and sign in African histories, 1450s-1950s". The latter material is republished with permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis.
Visits 100 deaf people in 42 nations, across 1000 years of African history. From servants and schoolchildren to scientists, soldiers and statesmen, using every possible means of communication. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2005a.html
Revised and extended version of a paper that was first published with copyright by The Haworth Press, Inc., Binghampton, NY 13904-1580, in the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health (2001), vol. 5 (4) pp. 5-36, and is here reproduced with permission.
Martin Luther’s ideas and theological writings on deaf or disabled children and adults, and his personal and practical experiences in this field are shown. Textual evidence gives a different picture from what is commonly believed, and is interesting both for Luther’s own times and the modern world. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2005b.html
Probably the world's earliest recorded policy debate among a large group ofdisabled people. Also the first time a ruler changed his mind in response towhat they actually asked for. First published in Disability & Society 18 (7):865-79. Reproduced with permission of Carfax Publishing, Taylor & Francis,and with some revision. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2003.html
Documented histories of South Asian societies provide evidence that disabled people played various roles in their families and communities, sometimes with a good deal of independence. The commonest responses have been top-down, charitable or restrictive; yet some evidence challenges the stereotypes and suggests that disablement historically evoked a wider range of responses and initiative. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs3/miles2002a.html
Starting with a disabled person in Mozambique in the 1590s, and a projection of future disability services when knowledge and skills are widely disseminated and rehabilitation professionals are no longer needed, this paper looks more closely at the knowledge and skills available among disabled people and their families and communities in Southern Africa. These factors need to be pooled, refined and tested so that services become rooted in African cultures and respond more appropriately to people's self-perceived needs. Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/docs2/milesm200104.html and www.independentliving.org/docs2/milesm200104.pdf
Accounts of earlier social responses to blind people particularly in Japan, and to some extent in China, indicate a measure of both group and individual autonomy within reserved and valued occupations, ostensibly reflecting a status model more 'normal' than blind people enjoyed in much of European history. (Excerpt From: M. Miles (2000) Disability on a Different Model: Glimpses of an Asian Heritage.) Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs5/mmiles1.html
Deaf people, known as 'mutes', worked in the Turkish Ottoman court from the fifteenth to the twentieth century in various roles along with dwarfs and other entertainers. Their signing system became popular, was used regularly by hearing people including successive Sultans, and was reportedly capable of expressing ideas of whatever complexity. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs5/mmiles2.html
Educational opportunities for children with disabilities in Pakistan and Bangladesh are seen in the context of the countries' religious, cultural and economic development. The relevance of Western concepts such as "human rights", "inclusion" and "empowerment" is critically examined. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs5/mmiles3.html
A morning in the poorer parts of Dar es Salaam is described, during which Mama Kitenge visits families with children having mental and other disabilities and works with these childen and their caregivers. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs3/milesm1997a.html
This paper tells why CBR is needed, and why there are many different views about what CBR is and how it should be done. It was written for the International League of Societies for Persons with Mental Handicap (now "Inclusion International"). It uses language that is easy to read. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs2/milesm1994.html
A young Afghan who was born blind in a remote village tells of his childhood and how he gained the skills to take part in community life and later to earn his living in a town. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs3/milesm1988a.html
A project was developed at Peshawar, Pakistan, for learning the components and processes of making cheap, basic items of everyday life and offering these to disabled young people as small-scale crafts to practise at home and to sell locally. The crafts are economically marginal, with earnings insufficient for self-support, yet they can make a financial contribution to the family budget. This changes the disabled person's role and can lift self-esteem and initiate improved attitudes, while remaining within local capacities and ecology. An earlier version of this paper appeared in the African Rehabilitation Journal (1987) Vol. 2 (10) 13-14. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/docs3/milesm1987a.html
Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/miles1982asien_avvisar
This paper reviews psycho-social and religious factors, professional motivations and political inequalities, that have prevented any widespread adoption of "community-based rehabilitation" by Asian governments. Internet publication URL: www.independentliving.org/miles_m1982why_asia_rejects_western_disability_advice
