Over the past two decades, trends of integration processes in terms of citizens of different ethnicities, different gender and different sexual belongings, etc. has grown thanks to debates and new legislations. A marginalized and discriminated group in society such as women, immigrants, homosexuals, transsexuals and people with disabilities during this time has gained momentum in the community. The curiosity over whether these developments have changed our attitudes and values to the world around us, and if so how, is the reason for this master's thesis in disability studies.The Swedish development forms the basis for my belief on a younger generation of people who would be more tolerant than previous generations, in terms of what is considered to belong to the norm in our society, or not. The purpose of this study is therefore to increase knowledge about what beliefs young people today have about people with disabilities.

People with disabilities constitute a big group of Internet users. Due to great advances in adaptive technology for people with disabilities more and more disabled will have access to Internet. For that reason it is extremely important for a web developer to be aware of different disabilities that complicate or prevent using Internet, different adaptive technologies that facilitate using Internet and different methods, both in design and programming, that make Internet accessible for people with disabilities.In this report we have dealt with three problems:? Which types of disabilities that complicate or prevent using Internet?? Which types of adaptive technologies are available concerning using Internet?? How can a web developer or programmer increase the accessibility to Internet for people with disabilities?To investigate how disabled people use adaptive technologies and which difficulties they experience when using Internet we have interviewed people with various types of disabilities..

The aim of this study is to illuminate images and discourses, in which media describe people with disabilities. The purpose of the study will be fulfilled, by answering the following questions: Is it possible to discern categories of how people with disabilities are described in the media and is it possible to find associations to handicap models? We have chosen to focus on how media describe people with physical impairments and have made a content analyses of articles, based on the theoretic aim of this study, social constructionism, handicap models and earlier research. Underlying the analyses, are six articles from two Swedish news papers. The results of our research are divided in three categories: assumptions which are taken for granted, hidden meanings and contradicted categories.

The last 1½ decade young people with intellectual disabilities have been a part of my life. My now 13 year old son and several pupils I have taught as a teacher in the compulsory school. Their future and what will affect their lives has always been interesting to me. How do I affect them, why do I do the things I do and think the way I think? This study springs out of that curiosity.

The study has answered the questions to what extent people with disabilities are involved in SVT- and TV4- news reports and how people with disabilities are represented in news reports. The material is based on 140 news items.The study has demonstrated that news reports SVT and TV4 have different grades of misconceptions about disabled people. Disabled people are constantly being reinforced by negative disabling terms, the disability being of central importance for the news broadcast and they still occur in stereotypical depictions. Through the image of disabled people forms the bed-rock on which the attitudes towards, assumptions and expectations of disabled people are based on. They are fundamental to discrimination and exploitation that people with disabilities face on a daily basis, and contributes significantly to their systematic exclusion from mainstream society.

This thesis studied which factors affect political participation among people with physical disabilities in Sweden.? The aim of the study was to test how Civic Voluntarism Model should explain the low political participation among people with physical disabilities in Sweden, through deep interviews.? Following research questions has been studied in the thesis:? How can the Civic Voluntarism Model, based on the time, communicative skills and economic resources, explain the low political participation of people with physical disabilities in Sweden??Which other factors, linked to accessibility, discrimination and legislation, are needed to further explain and understand the barriers to political engagement and participation for people with physical disabilities?? Results about treatment, clearer legislation, economic possibilities and inclusion was central. It became important to considered that where is differences in which capabilities where are to political participation. The CVM could partly explain the low political participation among people with physical disabilities. It needs to be complete with external factors; accessibility, discrimination and legalization, to make more inclusive explanations.? .

Siblings of persons with disabilities tend to be sidelined and not get the same attention in the same amount as the child with the disability gets, both by the parents and the society. Previous research in this area is limited and siblings of people with disabilities and their experiences of support needs to be explored. The purpose of this paper is to learn about support for siblings of people with disabilities in terms of both adult siblings own experiences from his childhood and from practitioners experience. Six qualitative interviews with four adult siblings of people with disabilities and two professionals were interviewed. Systems Theory and Bronfenbrenners ecological model has provided the theoretical basis for the essay.

AbstractDuring my university trip to South Africa I visit a black township called Lingehlile. There I examined the life situation and education for children and youth with mentally disabilities. I was interested in knowing more about what basic condition they have, period of school and what kind of support they get outside the school. The subjects that I have handled are a school for all, support for the person with mentally disabilities and their family, the opinion of the society, education and life after school. I got my result by two interviews.

The purpose of this essay was to examine the role of religious beliefs, actions and practice in young people's own description of their identity. An additional goal was to examine how young people describe their identity in relation to their primary and secondary socialization. A qualitative method was used with semi - structured interviews and six young people between the ages of 18 and 23 were interviewed.            The interview results show that three out of the six young people think of themselves as religious while the remaining three emphasize that they are secularized Muslims. The results also show that the young people emphasize that the celebration of feasts in the family is the main focus.  Four out of the six young people point out that they are themselves among friends, their families and in the mosque, while the remaining two feel a communion with their Muslim friends and people in the mosque.       Three out of the six young people consume alcohol and eat pork, while the remaining three refrain from this. The young people emphasize that their beliefs are a personal matter between themselves and God, and that their actions don't define them as being Muslims or non-Muslims..

The aim of our study has been to investigate what kind of space there is to exert influence for adult persons with mild intellectual disabilities who live on group housing. We wanted to investigate what kind of hindrance and possibilities there were to exert influence for people on group housing. Our study has been built on qualitative group discussions with 9 persons with mild intellectual disabilities and 6 care-keepers. We have analysed our discussions on the basis of the theory of empowerment. Our result indicates that there is different kind of factors that affect the possibilities for people with mild intellectual disabilities to increase their influence, and it does not always have to do with the disability how the persons can make their voices heard.

Today many people with disabilities are excluded from cultural activities. The reason for this is that activities and the environment are not adapted to people with disabilities. The aim of this study is to describe the process to make cultural activities accessible and to describe the importance of good communication between cultural suppliers and their customers. Other questions raised are accessibility to cultural activities for people with hearing disabilities, the activities in the marketing process, the interaction between theatre companies and its audience and if the interaction has contributed to the theatre's future development. Qualitative interviews with staff responsible for integration at seven theatres have been performed.

The purpose of the present qualitative study is to create knowledge about librarydigital services and their marketing to patrons with disabilities in Armenia, on theexample of the National Library of Armenia, as well as, to discover opinions of theNLA librarians and patrons with disabilities about the importance of library digitalservices to people with disabilities. Literature review and qualitative interviewing has been employed as methods to collect the empirical data. The results have been analyzed and discussed based on the library-marketing model of marketing research, marketing segmentation, marketing mix strategy and marketing evaluation suggested by Koontz & Gubbin (2010). It has been concluded, that 1) e-accessibility issomething new at the NLA and the NLA does not provide equally available knowledge, resources, services, facilities to patrons with disabilities, because of the following main challenges: lack of continuous funding and support from the state, lack of appropriate facilities and technologies, lack of qualified staff, and historicallyinherited library infrastructure impediments; 2) no library service marketing is conducted to patrons with disabilities at the NLA; 3) the opinions are that provisionwith such services is very important to people with disabilities, since they allow those people to gain access and use information in formats adopted to their various needs, and, of course, they become integrated into the modern society. The important role of a library as a non-discriminator and copyright protector in a developing country when delivering digital library services to patrons with disabilities has also been discovered..

People living with disabilities in our society today are more likely to be without a job compared to the rest of the population. The fact that a high number of people are not given the opportunity to work, and thereby being self-sufficient, is a failure for both the individual and the society. My purpose with the study is to increase knowledge and understanding regarding disabilities in the working life, with focus on the disability dyslexia. In the study, I am investigating the employer?s obligations and rights when employing a person with disabilities.

Most of the information online is difficult for people with cognitive disabilities to understand and assimilate. In this project I have had the expectation that this is possible to change. In cooperation with FUB, a Swedish organization working for people with cognitive disabilities, I have studied how to adapt content, pictures and writing to persons with the levels of mild to moderate cognitive disabilities. I have also taken the perspective ?design for all?, which means that you adapt a design for the weakest persons in the society to make it work for everyone.The purpose of my work is to study how to create a web text where content, writing and pictures are incorporated.To examine how to do this I have conducted qualitative interviews in which I have let the informants look at and read four different texts.

The aim of this study was to examine the possibilities to enter the regular labour market for pupils and young adults with intellectual disabilities. The method used is tape-recorded qualitative interviews with; Two pupils with intellectual disabilities, studying the last year at a special school. Two young adults with intellectual disabilities, former pupils at a special school and at the moment in search of work at a Public Employment Service office for young adults with disabilities. Furthermore were interviews made with two professionals, one student counsellor at a special school and one representative at a Public Employment Service office for young adults with disabilities. For analysing the empirical data, Iris Marion Young's theory about Five Faces of Oppression, Crip theory and Dalrymple and Burkes theory about empowerment was used.