Scapegoat: Why We Are Failing Disabled People

Description

Every few months there's a shocking news story about the sustained, and often fatal, abuse of a disabled person. It's easy to write off such cases as bullying that got out of hand, terrible criminal anomalies or regrettable failures of the care system, but in fact they point to a more uncomfortable and fundamental truth about how our society treats its most unequal citizens. In Scapegoat, Katharine Quarmby looks behind the headlines to question and understand our discomfort with disabled people. Combining fascinating examples from history with tenacious investigation and powerful first person interviews, Scapegoat will change the way we think about disability - and about the changes we must make as a society to ensure that disabled people are seen as equal citizens, worthy of respect, not targets for taunting, torture and attack.

KATHARINE QUARMBY is a campaigning journalist and an award-winning film-maker, as well as an associate editor at Prospect magazine. She has worked as a producer on Panorama and Newsnight, news edited Disability Now, and written for the Economist, Sunday Times, Telegraph and Guardian. She was the first British journalist to investigate disability hate crime and her report for Scope, 'Getting Away with Murder', has revolutionised thinking about the issue. This is her first book for adults.

This is a stomach-turning book - but it must be read. - Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times In Scapegoat, Quarmby documents specific crimes in chilling detail puts them into the broader context of violence and prejudice against disabled people. I cannot imagine reading a more important book this year. - Tom Shakespeare Genuinely authoritative... Quarmby's sobering conclusion is that there needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that disabled people are viewed by society as a whole. - Paul Cockburn, Scotland on Sunday Katharine Quarmby has studied the plight of disabled people in this country over the past century and gathered her findings into a fireball of a book... A shocking, challenging call to action. - Alastair Mabbot, Herald "