Social Work and Disability: The Current Situation and Future Scenarios

Dear Colleagues,

Disabled people have the right to be part of society and to receive the support needed to participate in it. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is clear regarding the goal of enabling disabled persons to live a life like others in society. To achieve this goal, social work research and practices are important.

This Special Issue focuses on the conditions for social work in the field of disability and the challenges of contemporary social disability work. In addition, we want to highlight trends and future scenarios facing social work and disabled people.

Welfare arrangements have often been characterised by a lack of attention to the wishes or agency of disabled people, as it was assumed that they could not control their own lives. However, the Independent Living movement (followed by other user organisations) challenged this view and emphasised a lack of autonomy, self-determination, and user control. This has led to societal and political changes that have created new opportunities for disabled people to talk about themselves in terms that differ from the language developed by welfare institutions and to have more power over their support including personal assistance. Nevertheless, there is another development related to the neoliberal reconstruction of welfare organisations, which uses new and refined methods to classify individuals into different categories. Assessments of an individual's diagnoses and functional capacity have become increasingly important in many countries so that they might access the necessary support for carrying out everyday activities.  Social work, for many disabled people, has an important role in both assessing needs and providing different types of support. There are many harrowing stories of professional oppression, discrimination, and neglect, but there are also stories of social workers promoting empowerment, autonomy, and self-determination for disabled people.

Based on different research contributions, this Special Issue focuses on analyses of the current situation and conditions of social work in the field of disability and development trends. We particularly welcome articles on the experiences of disabled people, of their families and networks, of social workers, of managers, and of politicians. The factors that either contribute to or hinder quality social work are of great interest. These include challenges related to the type and extent of disability, staff competence, evidence-based practices, the organisation of social work, and legal provisions. The tension between disabled people's right to self-determination, autonomy, and participation and the practice and context of social work raises empirical and theoretical questions related to factors such as power and intersectionality. 

For this Special Issue, we seek original empirical studies of all kinds as well as reviews, but we will not consider purely methodological manuscripts. Theoretical manuscripts may be taken into account, but empirical articles will be prioritised.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) of the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Olin
Prof. Dr. Magnus Tideman
Guest Editors

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• disability
• social work
• everyday life
• social relations
• participation
• empowerment