As a response to real or imagined subordination, popular culture reflects the everyday experience of ordinary people and has the capacity to subvert the hegemonic order. Drawing on central ...theoretical approaches in the field of critical disability studies, this book examines disability across a number of internationally recognised texts and objects. While acknowledging that disability features in popular culture in ways that reinforce stereotypes and stigmatise, Disability and Popular Culture celebrates and complicates the increasing visibility of disability in popular culture, showing how popular culture can focus passion, create community and express defiance in the context of disability and social change.
Disability and New Media Ellis, Katie; Kent, Mike
2011, 20110511, 2010, 2014-05-14, 2011-05-11
eBook
Disability and New Media examines how digital design is triggering disability when it could be a solution. Video and animation now play a prominent role in the World Wide Web and new types of ...protocols have been developed to accommodate this increasing complexity. However, as this has happened, the potential for individual users to control how the content is displayed has been diminished. Accessibility choices are often portrayed as merely technical decisions but they are highly political and betray a disturbing trend of ableist assumption that serve to exclude people with disability. It has been argued that the Internet will not be fully accessible until disability is considered a cultural identity in the same way that class, gender and sexuality are. Kent and Ellis build on this notion using more recent Web 2.0 phenomena, social networking sites, virtual worlds and file sharing.
Many of the studies on disability and the web have focused on the early web, prior to the development of social networking applications such as Facebook, YouTube and Second Life. This book discusses an array of such applications that have grown within and alongside Web 2.0, and analyzes how they both prevent and embrace the inclusion of people with disability.
Introduction I. At the Crossroads 1. Universal Design in a Digital World 2. iAccessbility from iTunes 1.0 to iPad 3. Building Digital Stairways: Nice View, But What About My Wheelchair? II. How Did We Get Here? 4. We Want You in Our Network: Universal Design V Retrofitting the Web 5. (Physical) Disability Is a Form of Social Oppression? 6. Does That Face-'Book' Come in Braille? Social Networking Sites and Disability III. Where to Next? 7. Avatars with Wheelchairs, But No Virtual Guide Dogs: Disability and Second Life 8. Challenges and Opportunities: The Road Ahead for Disability in a Digital World Conclusion
Katie Ellis is a lecturer in Media and Communications at Murdoch University. A film-critic and cultural commentator, she is the author of Disabling Diversity (VDM 2008). She has mentored filmmakers with disability and published a number of articles on cinema and new media addressing both issues of representation and active possibilities for social inclusion.
Mike Kent is a lecturer in Internet Studies at Curtin University. His current research is focused on disability and the internet. His articles have appeared in Fast Capitalism, Nebula, Online Opinion, AQ – Australian Quarterly and M/C Journal (Media Culture). Dr Kent has taught media studies, cultural studies and e-commerce at universities in Australia and the UK.
Background
There are concerns about the capacity of healthcare providers to adequately counsel women on the implications of noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS). Studies suggest that more ...resource‐efficient counselling methods are needed for broad adoption.
Aims
We prospectively examined the effectiveness of alternative methods of prenatal counselling on a patient's knowledge and understanding of prenatal testing choices, with a focus on NIPS. We also evaluated prenatal test choice and emotional well‐being after making this decision.
Methods
Women from a low socio‐economic population were offered NIPS at no additional cost along with typical prenatal screening and diagnosis. Study participants underwent prenatal counselling via a web‐based video consultation or a telephone consultation with a genetic counsellor. Participants were asked to complete pre‐counselling and post‐counselling questionnaires.
Results
Of 1000 women enrolled, 600 completed both surveys in full and were included in the analysis. Of these, 354 (59%) underwent counselling via a telephone consultation and 246 (41%) via the web‐based video consultation. Both counselling methods led to a significant increase in patient knowledge (P < 0.01). NIPS uptake was equivalent between groups. Patients expressed a high level (90%) of satisfaction with their prenatal screen choice, with no significant difference (P > 0.10) between telephone and web participants.
Conclusions
Alternative methods of counselling such as a web‐based education portal can be highly effective and should be considered to enable informed decision‐making prior to undergoing prenatal screening such as NIPS. Further, web‐based education tools could be beneficial for those in rural areas with limited access to healthcare providers and non‐native speakers.
Disability, Obesity and Ageing Rodan, Debbie; Ellis, Katie; Lebeck, Pia
2014, 20160523, 2013, 2016-05-23, 2016-05-26, 2014-01-01
eBook
Disability, Obesity and Ageing offers an engaging account of a new area of pressing concern, analysing the way in which 'spurned' identities are depicted and reacted to in televisual genres and ...online forums. Examining the symbolic power of the media, this book presents case studies from drama, situation comedies, reality and documentary television programmes popular in the UK, USA and Australia to shed light on the representation of disability, obesity and ageing, and the manner in which their status as unwanted and unwelcome identities is perpetuated. A theoretically sophisticated exploration of television as a translator of identity, and the exploration of identity categories in allied virtual spaces, this book will be of interest to sociologists, as well as scholars of popular culture, and cultural and media studies.
Background
Combined first‐trimester screening (cFTS) for fetal anomalies involves maternal serum screening for biochemical markers and measurement of the nuchal translucency (NT) by ultrasound. ...Noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) analyses cell‐free DNA present in a maternal blood sample for presence of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies.
Aims
To compare NIPS with cFTS as frontline screening in a public hospital in Australia.
Materials and methods
Women were offered NIPS in addition to the usual cFTS routinely offered to all women at a public hospital in NSW, Australia. The cFTS sample was collected at ten weeks' gestation and the NIPS sample at 12 weeks' gestation at the ultrasound appointment.
Results
In a low‐risk population of 997 women, frontline NIPS had a screen‐positive rate of 0.5% (5/997) vs 4.2% (42/997) with cFTS. cFTS correctly identified one trisomy 21 case and one trisomy 18 case; however, there were two trisomy 18 false negatives. Of five positive NIPS calls, four were correctly identified as trisomy 21 (one) and trisomy 18 (three); there were no NIPS false negatives. Overall, the false‐positive rate with NIPS was 0.1% vs 4.0% by cFTS.
Conclusions
The lower screen‐positive rate with NIPS for common trisomies was a result of the significantly lower false‐positive rate with NIPS. Consequently, NIPS as first‐line screening, even if funded by the hospital, may provide cost savings. We believe NIPS should be used from ten weeks' gestation in conjunction with morphology ultrasound for routine first‐trimester prenatal management.
In 2010, 260 children entered secure accommodation. Of these, 51 per cent were placed because they were on remand or sentenced for committing a serious offence. Thirty seven per cent were placed by ...social services for their own protection under a child welfare order and the remaining 12 per cent were placed under both categories concurrently. Secure accommodation is therefore used to simultaneously hold children sentenced for punishment with those who are 'saved' from tragedy by welfare professionals. This paper highlights findings from an ethnographic study conducted with girls in secure accommodation. The research used participant observations and in-depth interviews to explore girls' experiences of being secured and found that all thirteen of the girls admitted from local authority care felt that they were perceived as 'bad kids'—regardless of whether they had committed a crime or not. These feelings were exacerbated by the prominence of case files which followed children between care placements and were described as a source of anxiety and worry for young people. This paper hopes to inspire social work practice to be more inclusive of young people and to be aware of the impact of shrouding the information contained in case files.
False-negative cell-free DNA (cfDNA) screening results involving Down syndrome are rare, but have high clinical impact on patients and their healthcare providers. Understanding the biology behind ...these results may allow for improved diagnostic follow-up and counseling. In 5 different centers offering cfDNA prenatal screening, 9 false-negative results were documented in 646 confirmed cases of trisomy 21; a false-negative rate of 1.4% (95% CI, 0.7-2.6). False-negative results included 4 cases of classical trisomy 21 and 5 cases with a de novo 21q;21q rearrangement. Two out of five rearrangements had molecular studies and were confirmed as isochromosomes. When combined with reports from the cfDNA screening literature, 8 out of 29 (28%) Down syndrome cases with a false-negative "non-invasive prenatal test" (NIPT) were associated with a 21q;21q rearrangement, compared with 2% reported in live born children with Down syndrome. In our laboratory series, evidence for placental or fetal mosaicism was present in 3 out of 3 true-positive cases involving a 21q;21q rearrangement and was confirmed in one false-negative case where placental material was available for study. Isochromosome 21q rearrangements are thus overrepresented among false-negative cfDNA screening results involving Down syndrome. Postzygotic isochromosome formation leading to placental mosaicism provides a biological cause for the increased prevalence of these rearrangements among false-negative cases. For clinical practice, a low trisomic fraction (z-score or equivalent measure) relative to the fetal fraction suggests placental mosaicism. Care should be taken as these cases may not reflect confined placental mosaicism, but rather full trisomy in the presence of a placenta containing normal cells.
This book interrogates trends in training and employment of people with disabilities in the media through an analysis of people with disabilities' self-representation in media employment. Improving ...disability representations in the media is vital to improving the social position of people with disability, and including people with lived experience of disability is integral to this process. While the media industry has changed significantly as a result of digital and participatory media, discriminatory attitudes around fear and pity continue to impact whether people with disability find work in the media. The book demonstrates no significant changes in attitudes towards employing disabled media workers since the 1990s when the last major research into this topic took place. By focusing on the employment of people with disability in media industries, Katie Ellis addresses a neglected area of media diversity, appealing to researchers in media and cultural studies as well as critical disability studies.
Whereas entertainment has featured negatively in the broader NBN debate currently occurring in Australia, within the disability sector it has been recognised as revolutionary. Government, industry ...and technical analysts describe digital television, particularly that delivered via broadband, as potentially enabling to people with vision and hearing impairments through the more widespread provision of accessibility features such as audio description and closed captions. This article interrogates the approach to accessibility taken by two case studies of broadband-based television: Netflix and catch-up TV. Netflix, which is not officially available in Australia, is often presented as the future of television, while catch-up services provide an example of the current broadband-based television paradigm in this country. Although accessibility features may be available on broadcast television or DVD release, each of these forms of broadband-based television has either previously (Netflix) or currently (catch-up) stripped accessible functions to stream online. The discussion reflects on both activist interventions of people with disability and the industry standards.
While iron is often a limiting nutrient to Biology, when the element is found in the form of heme cofactors (iron protoporphyrin IX), living systems have excelled at modifying and tailoring the ...chemistry of the metal. In the context of proteins and enzymes, heme cofactors are increasingly found in stoichiometries greater than one, where a single protein macromolecule contains more than one heme unit. When paired or coupled together, these protein associated heme groups perform a wide variety of tasks, such as redox communication, long range electron transfer and storage of reducing/oxidizing equivalents. Here, we review recent advances in the field of multi-heme proteins, focusing on emergent properties of these complex redox proteins, and strategies found in Nature where such proteins appear to be modular and essential components of larger biochemical pathways. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Metals in Bioenergetics and Biomimetics Systems.
•Bacterial cytochrome c peroxidases and cytochrome cd1 reveal redox-linked conformation changes.•Multi-heme redox proteins of Shewanella show a bias for long range, unidirectional electron transfer reactions.•Hydroxylamine oxidoreductase and cytochrome c554 reveal specificity in multi-electron redox processes.
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