Introduction

[Vehkakoski Tanja]

My name is Tanja Vehkakoski and I work as a researcher at the
University of Jyvaskyla in the department of special education. The
purpose of my research is to examine how disability is being
constructed in the discourse of professionals in the field. The
starting-point of the study is the view that disability is a socially
created construct, whose meaning alternates according to historical
time, context, its definers and the societal and economic situation.
The foundation of the concept is thus not only the physical or
mental, medically defined difference, but those social meanings which
are given to it.
My first research data consists of the reports and clinical files
made by the professionals working with disabled people. The research
is a part of my doctoral thesis in special education.

Tanja Vehkakoski
University of Jyvaskyla
Department of special education
Email: tamave at campus.jyu.fi