Disability

Introduction: Energy Consumption (EC) and Body Mass Index (BMI) are the major complications associated with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), which can be improved by exercise rehabilitation. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of using rebound therapy (exercise on a trampoline) on EC and BMI in individuals with SCI. Materials and Methods: Sixteen individuals with SCI (ASIA classification: A=6, B=6, C=2, D=2) were selected and randomly divided into two groups of experimental (rebound exercise) and control. The experimental group performed the exercise program by a modified trampoline for 12 weeks (10-30 minutes; 3 sessions a week). EC was measured by the Physiological Cost Index (PCI) and BMI was calculated by standard formula before and after the exercise intervention. Finally, the obtained data were analyzed by Repeated-Measures Analysis of Variance (RM-ANOVA) in SPSS. Results: The results of RM-ANOVA revealed significant interaction in both criteria (P<0.01). In other words, the experimental group changes were substantial, compared to that of the control group. Conclusion: The collected results indicated that rebound therapy could, in effect, improve the SCI individuals’ EC and BMI. Furthermore, it was suggested that rebound exercise can be a useful sports rehabilitation method for patients with SCI.

Disability was a ubiquitous image in the fiction of the nineteenth century, an age which witnessed controversial discussions regarding the questions of normalcy and deviance. Considered by many as the most famous writer of the period, Charles Dickens also widely employed disabled characters in his novels. One of the most memorable of these characters is Tiny Tim, a disabled child in Dickens’s novella A Christmas Carol, whose pathetic condition greatly moves Scrooge, the narrative’s notorious protagonist, facilitating and expediting his spiritual transformation. This paper aims to analyze the character of Tiny Tim and his influence on the main character in the light of the theory of narrative prosthesis. Introduced by disability critics David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, the theory holds that disabled characters have served as prosthetic devices in many narratives; that is, they have not been appreciated, described, and understood for who they are as physically / mentally different people. Rather, they have only functioned as metaphors and symbols that have been constructed to convey a moral message to “normal” characters and readers. Research findings show that Tiny Tim exemplifies narrative prosthesis as his short presence in the work only reinforces the ableist discourse of the novella.

This study aims to examine the representation of women with disabilities (sensory impairment) in the Indian cinema, focusing on the Hindi speaking Bollywood. Three popular movies shown in Bollywood have been selected in order to investigate the way in which women with disability are represented. The movies include Koshish (i.e. ‘Effort’, (1972), Lafangey Parindey (i.e. ‘Cheeky Birds’, (2010) and Kaabil ([i.e. ‘Capable’, (2017). The year 1970 has been selected as the beginning of the time frame because it is the closest time to the first Bollywood movie (Koshish, 1972), in which a disabled woman is depicted as a leading role. To analyze the movies, Critical Disability Theory (CDT) was selected as the study’s theoretical framework, and Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) has been applied as the study’s research method. Results reveal that the representation of women with disability has undergone significant positive changes over time, which includes variations in social status, ability and achievements, issues and concerns, patterns of pleasure, presence and acceptance, social attitude, words and phrases used, as well as changes in policies related to women with disabilities.