Publications

Study Type:
Qualitative Study

Sample Size:
NA

The Research party:
McMaster University, Ontario, Canada

Main Idea or Research Questions:
The law in Lebanon used to state that no one might be employed if they were not “physically fit and free from deformities and defects” (Coleridge, 1993). This attitude towards people with disabilities revolves around the idea that they are incapable of acting on their own behalf, and must be segregated. This has made it nearly impossible for people with physical disabilities to participate in civil society in Lebanon in the past. For the purposes of this paper, a properly functioning civil society will be viewed as one in which the government acts with concern for moral and societal values, where there is a free economic market, and where society acts according to the law in order to promote the common good voluntarily rather than out of private interest.