Book Review

Publisher: Building an Inclusive Development Community: A Manual on Including People with Disabilities in International Development Programs

Editor: Karen Heinicke-Motsch & Susan Sygall

Publisher: Mobility International USA, 2004

Available from MIUSA, P.O. Box 10767, Eugene, OR 97440 USA, www.miusa.org

Cost: $40.00 USD

Alternate Formats: Audiocassette, electronic text files, Braille,Êand other alternate formats available upon request.

Reviewer: Liat Ben-Moshe

      This book is a practical manual for development agencies, and others who create related policy, on how to make sure people with disabilities are included in the planning, delivery and evaluation of these programs and services. The manual is divided into seven (7) chapters: Management Practices and Human Resource Development; Legal Policy Issues; Governance; Accessibility; Inclusion of Disability in Delivery of Programs/Services; International and Regional Responses, and Development Topics and Disability (including Gender and Disability; Civil Society; Micro Finance; Disaster and Emergency Relief; Refugees and Disability; Domestic Violence; Women with Disabilities and Health Care; Parenting with a Disability; Community Based Rehabilitation; Inclusive Education; Agriculture, and Mental Disabilities and Development). It also includes a basic checklist to survey the level of inclusiveness of organizations, and several appendices and forms. 
	The book is designed to look like a large textbook, with about 650 pages (page numbers are not marked). It is written in simple language, and is full of examples and tips from around the world, for example, Ôbest praticeÕ sections appear in many chapters. It supplies a plethora of additional resources, mostly web based, that can lead to more detailed information. Many of the chapters have been previously published elsewhere (like Degener & QuinnÕs excellent survey of international disability law, that appears in chapter 2), but their compilation under specific sub-chapters is convenient and time saving.
	The problem with this publication, if one sees it as a problem, is the lack of ideological positioning, especially in regards to the development discourse itself. When protests against the World Bank, WTO, IMF and even the UN abound, one cannot assume that including disability into these and other development organizations with their existing ideology is unproblematic. For instance, chapter 4.1, about assistive technology, discusses the donation of old wheelchairs by people in the U.S. and their delivery to developing countries by various charities. Are wheelchairs the best assistive device all over the world? And will donation by private citizens and reliance on American charities carrry the desirable effects? 
	In conclusion, once one gets past the benelovent imperial discourse, this is a very helpful practical guide on inclusion, in general. Many of the issues covered in the manual can be expanded as effective inclusive strategies of people with disabilities in most realms of life: doing outreach to attract disabled people into the organization; active focus on the inclusion of women with disabilities and other minorities; calculate and budget for accomodation in advance; emphasize and create accessible transit; and evaluate effectiveness of inclusion at every stage of the project, not just at the end. Therefore, this manual does what is sets out to do in its subtitle (A Manual on Including People with Disabilities in International Development Programs) and if taken as a case study, can be further used by various organizations and advocacy groups that are non development-centered, especially in a U.S. setting.