Community Development Journal Advance Access first published online on July 22, 2009
This version published online on August 4, 2009
Community Development Journal, doi:10.1093/cdj/bsp035
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Neo-colonial discourse and disability: the case of Canadian international development NGOs
Address for correspondence: email: swehbi{at}ryerson.ca
Relying on an analysis of documents published by Canadian international development non-governmental organizations (NGOs), this article presents the findings of an exploratory qualitative study that attempted to address the following question: how do international development NGOs address disability issues and people with disabilities? Findings demonstrate that not only are people with disabilities mostly absent from the international development discussion, but when present, they are discussed in ableist ways that reflect and reinforce a neo-colonial discourse. The paper concludes with a discussion of the need for an alternative development discourse.
The original version was incorrect. The list of authors has been updated.