M. Miles

• PhD
• Minor Scholar at None

Review of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" by Mark Haddon, publ. 2003 / 2004, stage play now re-running in London.

Introduces ca. 300 items in historic Persia and modern Iran, pertinent to disability, deafness, blindness, mental impairment and vulnerability. Modern section is from 1850s to present. Historical section is antiquity to 1850. Annotations help to sketch a fascinating picture of how the people of this important region have used skills and talents, co...

Critique and proposals on Community Based Rehabilitation for, with and by disabled people and their communities in the economically weaker two thirds of the world, reviewing developments from 1970s to 2010s, with extensive reference to experiences in South Asia and literature across the world.

South Asian languages and literature offer many terms for mental retardation (MR), intellectual disability or cognitive impairment, with a range of concepts and meanings through three millennia of history. Responses to mental retardation are illustrated by stories from religious, medical, legal and psychological literature, translated from Sanskrit...

The article reviews components and recent discussion of the 'Social Model of Disability', with special focus on two books, Disability Rights and Wrongs by Tom Shakespeare, and The Social Model: Europe and the Majority World edited by Colin Barnes and Geof Mercer. The 'Social Model' calls for close and sceptical scrutiny, as it has become one of the...

INDIA (revised edition). This article introduces blind and sighted men and women who developed education and employment for blind people in China and in India from the 1830s onward, and whose pioneering efforts have disappeared from later accounts of blind people's history. This revised and much extended online version is published in xxxx 2011: ww...

The article gives background, context and introduction to the journal issue on intellectual disability and behavioural difference, families in South Asia, religion, faith, grief, joy, and the personal journey of parents with a disabled child. Realities of ordinary life in poverty and oppression, and the “religious folklore” with its undercurrent of...

This is a supplement of about 150 items to the earlier bibliography (180 items) published in the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health(2002) vol. 6 (2/3) pp. 149-204. It lists and annotates materials (often in translation, sometimes with commentary) pertinent to disability, deafness and religious belief and practice in the histories and cultural...

Children with spina bifida and hydrocephalus in Africa: can medical, family and community resources improve the life chances?" 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: 6...

Construction of valued identities and evidence‐based cultural histories is not easy for deaf or disabled people across Africa. This paper locates some deaf people, gesture and formal Sign Language in African histories, to illustrate possible sources and encourage local, national and pan‐African compilation of materials. Documentary evidence of deaf...

As Alexander reached Persepolis in January 330 BC, he encountered a large group of newly released Greek captives who had been severely mutilated during Persian enslavement. Alexander agreed to aid their resettlement. The men debated whether to return to Greece with money in hand and disperse to their old families, who might be shocked by their appe...

Elimination of leprosy as a public health problem appears feasible in South Asia in the present decade through multi-drug therapy, but management of disability in cured leprosy patients will continue through the 21st century, probably with some ongoing stigma. This paper provides new perspectives on leprosy-related disabilities by reviewing the his...

The growth in availability of practical information by which people may manage disability in home and local community, and some problems of transmission and cultural adaptation, are reviewed. There is a growing menace of simplistic globalised packages, promoted by deeply confused 'flying experts', ignoring or dismissing the indigenous concepts, kno...

After 23 years of turbulence the number of disabled Afghans is unknown and formal services are minimal. The great majority live with whatever resources they find in themselves and their families, the normal pattern throughout history. Informal help and some cultural resources of Afghan history and Muslim teaching are noted in this paper, together w...

Hydrocephalus and spina bifida are life-threatening conditions that often result in severe disabilities. Risks are much reduced by immediate surgery and careful management, but neither has been available for most of the sub-Saharan African population. This paper traces the growth of solutions and some socio-cultural resources that historically have...

This brief paper reflects on a camp at 8000 feet in the Himalayas, where children with learning difficulties and multiple disabilities could learn more than expected, and staff from many backgrounds gained new perspectives on social barriers.

This editorial paper gives a broad overview of social responses to people with disabilities in South Asia from about 500 BC to 2000 CE, and suggests that such a heritage can be the foundation for developing more appropriate services and responses in the next millennium.

The paper discusses some historical and current attitudes and practical responses by adherents of the major religions and philosophies toward disabled people. The idea that no formal care was offered to disabled people before the early spread of Christianity or the 19th century Christian missions is historically mistaken. Some implications for deve...

These two radio ?interviews? depict a blind young man talking of his life in an Afghan village and later in town, and how he learnt something about the world, and gained skills to earn his living. They have been slightly revised and updated.

The paper reviews common uses of disability models and terminology, then sketches a few social responses in historical Zoroastrian, Jaina and Daoist philosophies. In a discussion of the ‘merits of uselessness’, Chuang-tzu's holistic social model is reconstructed. A Buddhist tale of ‘hunchback Khujjutara’ suggests that karma may be seen as an educat...

Disability and ‘difference’ in the histories of eastern religions have attracted little formal or comparative scrutiny. A range is sketched here of historical data, viewpoints and attitudes on disability and physiognomic difference in historical Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim texts, which continue to influence the thoughts of half the world's populatio...

The paper reviews brief texts in the Qur'an and hadiths, the Hedaya of al-Marghinani, and some historical Arab education literature, that have pertinence to people with disabilities. The selection intends to be informative rather than definitive.

The paper reviews some significant moments or texts relating to disability in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, as they might impinge on the work of counsellors or community-based therapists in a modern city. Some scientific and philosophical positions are also reviewed.

The bibliography lists historical texts in translation, sometimes with commentary, pertinent to disability and religious belief and practice in the Middle East, South Asia and East Asia, with some secondary journal literature. There are brief annotations relating to disability.

The paper outlines some of the social barriers and difficulties facing disabled children in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan in the 1980s. It describes how some people working with the Church of Pakistan, Diocese of Peshawar, began offering special education, in collaboration with interested Muslim teachers and social workers, and also...

Martin Luther's views on disability have been widely misapprehended and caricatured on the basis of a few items in a dubious edition of shorthand notes of conversations. His written and spoken arguments across 30 years (1517-1546) concerned with childbirth and infancy, devils, superstitions, changelings, prodigies, folly, disablement, deafness, par...

Since Indian antiquity there is documentation of educational practice that sometimes favoured the inclusion of children with impairments. European schools in India, starting c. 1605, brought little recorded innovation until the late 18th century. Admission of a weak‐minded boy to the Madras Military Orphan Asylum by Andrew Bell in the 1790s suggest...

Approaches and pitfalls are described in the nascent field of Asian disability historiography, focusing on mental retardation (learning difficulties) and blindness (visual impairments) in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. More substantial evidence has surfaced for study of responses to disability and disabled persons than for understanding historical...

The paper reviews common uses of models and terminology, then sketches a few social responses to disablement in historical Zoroastrian, Jaina and Daoist philosophies. Accompanying a discussion of the 'merits of uselessness', Chuang-tzu's holistic social model is reconstructed. A Buddhist tale of 'hunchback Khujjutara' suggests that karma may useful...

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. The O...

How are disability and rehabilitation conceived of in different cultures? How can these concepts be made accessible? Studies from the fields of sociology, ethnology and educational science address these questions, whilst contributors from rehabilitation projects in development cooperation and from self-help movements highlight culturally different...

Integration of children with disabilities in ordinary schools and extension of basic health care to rural areas developed slowly during the past 130 years in British India and then Pakistan, along with the rise of urban disability service centres. In the 1980s many centres experimented with outreach projects and varieties of Community Based Rehabil...

Since the 1770s, formal knowledge about conditions later known as mental retardation (learning difficulities/disabilities) slowly accumulated with civil administrators, physicians, psychologists and teachers in East Bengal/Bangladesh. Factors in this growth of knowledge are reviewed. Most people with mental retardation and their families managed wi...

This address begins with a study of self-help by a Mozambican in the 1590s and then imagines a period between the years 2050 to 2150, during which women caring for people with disabilities abolish the need for specialist educational, medical and social services, by multiplying and democratizing the necessary knowledge, skills and design to make the...

This paper uses experiences in Pakistan to address issues in the application of European-based principles of disability-related concepts and services to cultures in South Asia, especially Pakistan and India. Emphasis is on understanding the South Asian conceptual world of disability so that "development" rather than "transfer" of knowledge and skil...

Goitre, cretinism and iodine in South Asia: Historical perspectives on a continuing scourge - Volume 42 Issue 1 - M Miles

The family and community situation of children with mental retardation (learning difficulties/disabilities) is discussed within the Afghan cultural heritage and the current realities of civil war and refugee villages. Some formal services are being developed for children with physical and visual impairments. Mental retardation and hearing impairmen...

South Asia's historical heritage of ideas and practices for educating children with special needs contains many of the approaches that western teachers discovered independently in the past 150 years. These include close observation of children's current abilities, adjusting the curriculum to individual needs, valuing the social benefits even where...

From the 1820s to the present, disability planning in South Asia has faced hard choices, compounded by the submersion of indigenous concepts in well-intentioned western exports of welfare ideologies and eurocentric social sciences. Cultural imperialism continues, with western evangelists insisting that South Asian disability development be seen in...

Public discussion of child abuse, sexual abuse and the sexuality of mentally handicapped people is unwelcome in Pakistan, as in some other Asian and Muslim nations. Formal sex education is not given in schools. Sparse documentation exists in historical sources and the literature of anthropology, law, paediatrics, psychology and psychiatry. Some of...

This paper reviews the literature and presents a bibliography on the situation of people with mental retardation in Bangladesh. It begins with a review of the history of mental retardation in East Bengal, India (now Bangladesh) from the 1770s onwards but focuses on the development of disability information and formal services since the creation of...

Disability in the past of eastern religions has attracted little formal or comparative scrutiny. A range is sketched here of historical data, viewpoints and attitudes on disability in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, which continue to influence the thoughts of half the world's population. Approaches for more detailed studies are suggested, moving towa...

A 1991 questionnaire survey among leaders in Pakistan's mental handicap field is reported and discussed. Most respondents assert that services have increased in quantity and quality. Reviewing recent years, there are divergent views on terminology and public awareness; involvement with self‐advocacy and parent movements; effectiveness of services r...

This paper reviews concepts of mental retardation in Pakistan against an historical Asian and Islamic background, and discusses some hazards of Western cultural hegemony in this field. Evidence is presented from official documents, attitude surveys, a service development project and experiences in teacher training and family counselling. Families p...

Little formal research has been done in special education and rehabilitation in Pakistan because of a lack of basic groundwork and trained researchers. However, the absence of formal structures permits innovative approaches. Several low-cost, action-oriented participatory studies have been carried out at the Mental Health Centre, Peshawar. These ha...

This work reports upon a 1990 questionnaire survey of 16 Pakistani leaders in the field of mental handicap. Results are compared with those of a similar survey conducted in 1982. Most respondents reported that services in this field have increased both in quantity and quality. Differing views were expressed concerning: ease or difficulty of fundrai...

Blind and visually impaired people in rural Asia are largely unreached by modern rehabilitative information, nor are their indigenous skills and experience adequately formulated and shared. The use of many media in communication strategies has led to the reconceptualization of rehabilitation in information terms which offers better prospects of sel...

The severe shortage of skills for handling cerebral palsied children in developing countries means that most families receive no appropriate help for home management. In Peshawar, Pakistan, efforts have been made to identify and transfer the basic necessary skills in group work with mothers and allied professionals, so as to make more effective use...

Conflicts within Afghanistan have severely disrupted the few formal rehabilitation services for disabled Afghans. The unsettled situation, together with prevailing socio-economic underdevelopment, poses massive problems for reconstruction. Realistically, Afghans with disabilities will have to manage their lives largely with traditional skills and c...

DEVELOPMENT OF special education in Pakistan since 1947 is outlined with reference to Government planning and policy documents and independent reports. The rationale for providing special services is discussed, with data on Government and voluntary sector special schools, against the background of chronically weak national investment in education a...

Rehabilitation and special education are usually conceived in terms of methods, gadgets, locations and professions. Generalist planners often have difficulty grasping the essentials of the field, while resource constraints in Third World countries severely limit the extent to which these four features may become widely available. Reconceptualizatio...

The study of disabled children attending ordinary schools in Pakistan reports that 1.9% of the 43,416 pupils in urban primary and secondary schools in the Northwest Frontier were reported by their teaches to have a perceptible disability. The breakdown of specific conditions varied from 32% with speech impairments to 8% with hearing loss. Details a...

[New version and Abstract now available]

Reported attitudes of the public towards disabilities and disabled persons in Pakistan were studied. Responses to interviews and questionnaires completed by 286 men, women, and school children were analyzed to investigate awareness of the 1981 International Year of Disabled Persons, recall of media items on disability, and acquaintance or relations...

Some disabling conditions in South Asia, such as lathyrism, iodine deficiency disorders (IDD), cataract, poliomyelitis, epilepsy and leprosy, have mechanisms and impairment effects that differ substantially. Yet they share socio-cultural features that have promoted their strong resilience in face of efforts to eliminate them as public health proble...