*Article* **Disability Ethos as Invention in the United States' Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Centuries**

**Emily D. Stones 1,\* and Craig A. Meyer 2**

Received: 24 October 2019; Accepted: 11 January 2020; Published: 16 January 2020

**Abstract:** This article posits that disability activists routinely present a disability "ethos of invention" as central to the reformation of an ableist society. Dominant societal approaches to disability injustice, such as rehabilitation, accessibility, and inclusion, may touch upon the concept of invention; but, with ethotic discourse, we emphasize disability as generative and adept at producing new ways of knowing and being in the world. We identify an "ethos of invention" as driving early resistance to socially constructed "normalcy", leading the push for cross-disability alliances to incorporate intersectional experiences and propelling the discursive move from inclusion to social justice. Through our partial re-telling of disability rights history, we articulate invention as central to it and supporting its aims to affirm disability culture, reform society through disabled perspectives and values, and promote people with disabilities' full participation in society.

**Keywords:** disability; invention; ethos; rehabilitation; accessibility; inclusion; intersectionality; cross-disability identity

### **1. Introduction**

The pervasive disability rights mantra, "nothing about us, without us" accentuates the right of people with disabilities to be included in decisions about disability and the societies in which people with disabilities live (Charlton 1998). Yet, practices and policies of the twentieth century in the United States—specifically those under the interconnected approaches of rehabilitation, accessibility, and inclusion—are lamented in critical disability circles for not fully embracing disability experiences as a means of destabilizing societal actions, norms, and values. Articulated among disability activists and allies is the promise of disability to generate new ways of knowing and being in the world as well as disrupting the ableist attitudes undergirding society. Disability's generative and disruptive potentials reveal an "ethos of invention" that pushes the margins of existing practices and understandings of disability. We employ the phrase "ethos of invention" in a dialectical sense, referencing junctures where people with disabilities have invented an ethos that resists ableist rhetorics and environments but also where people with disabilities have created spaces that allow disability to invent a worldview that breaks down prejudices and reimagines society. In short, an ethos of invention remains tied to the invention of ethos, and vice versa. In this essay, we argue that a dialectical ethos of invention drives the movements—and the rhetorical construction of these movements—leading to a seminal disability legislation and social awareness of disability's contributions to society.

An ethos of invention validates disability's right to claim rights and also sets an ethotic foundation essential to community reflection, expansion, and evolution. The epideictic value and function of an ethos of invention means that it fits well into the "forward looking" ethotic discourse emphasized by James S. Baumlin and Craig A. Meyer in their modern discussion of ethos (Baumlin and Meyer 2018, p. 2). An ethos of invention validates the experiences of people with disabilities and empowers them in the process of self-definition and self-determination. It responds to an oppressive history of ascribing meaning to the physiological conditions of "disability" and society's corresponding tendencies to diagnose and control the lives of people who fall into socially constructed categories. An ethos of invention creates spaces wherein people with disabilities can express individuality, promote understanding, and transform culture.

Although this essay situates a disability ethos of invention as informing past conversations about rehabilitation, accessibility, and inclusion, we recognize that these conversations are ongoing and that invention remains an important element in the contemporary disability rights movement. The promise of a disability ethos of invention underscores critiques of socially constructed normalcy; it informs the push for cross-disability alliances to incorporate intersectional experiences, and it motivates the reconsideration of inclusion policies through a lens of social justice. Importantly, invention shapes scholarship seeking to (re)write the future of disability "in which disability is understood . . . as political, as valuable, as integral" (Kafer 2014, p. 3). It supports the resistance and contestation of normative systems that displace disability (McRuer 2006, p. 3). Invention also informs the "cultural turn" of disability studies that explores the material experience of disability through a new sociocultural context, one that embraces ambiguous experiences and contradictory identities within the dialectical dis/ability complex (Dolmage 2014, p. 100; see also Goodley et al. 2019). In other words, a disability ethos of invention identifies disability as generative, and this quality suggests the potential of disability to rewrite and re-envision our societies.

In what follows, we explain how an ethos of invention emerges in critiques of dominant sociopolitical practices meant to reduce societal barriers and liberate people with disabilities from an ableist society's grasp. We focus on rehabilitation, accessibility, and inclusion, with the understanding that the terms can be used interchangeably; they are not mutually exclusive, nor are they only practices of the twentieth century. For this essay, we understand the terms as follows:

*Rehabilitation* in medical contexts marks efforts to modify, train, and develop individuals with disabilities as to better assimilate them into existing culture. Disability scholars understand rehabilitation through a critical lens, best put by Alfred Ndi as the presumption of "an *objective* condition" and efforts "to make changes on the *body* of the disabled person in order to bring it as closely as possible to the condition of *normality*". (Ndi 2012, n.p., emphasis in original)

*Accessibility* is commonly understood as a legal response to disability discrimination and the right to equal access. More generally, the concept refers to "barrier-free environments" and supports actions that eliminate social, institutional, and structural barriers so that people with disabilities gain entrance to all aspects of society. (Mace 1985, p. 147)

*Inclusion*, as Emily Russell points out, is "an umbrella term, capturing legal battles over public access, mainstreaming in schools, and increased awareness of disability in cultural expression, political agenda, and academic study" (Russell 2011, p. 198). Often, inclusion is evoked to deepen a discussion of barriers and emphasize the goal of equal participation.

All three terms are used frequently in conversations about *and* by people with disabilities, and, therefore, the terms are contextually negotiated and understood. The definitions we offer here start to demarcate a disability perspective. We hope to demonstrate how an ethos of invention expands the definitions to account for fluctuating disability experiences and a commitment to re-evaluating sociopolitical practices in light of evolving disability knowledge and experience.

### **2. Rehabilitation: The Spectrum of Invention (for**/**by) Bodies**

Rehabilitation remains one of the most enduring approaches to disability of the twentieth century, serving as a celebration of modern medicine and a common practice for reducing barriers for people with disabilities and assimilating them into society. However, the medical and educational inventions that characterize rehabilitation stand in contrast to the ethos of invention described in this essay. The ethos of invention emerges as one response to rehabilitation practices that focus on changing individual bodies rather than changing the societal norms that constrain these bodies. The tensions between hegemonic structures/practices of an ableist society and the counter-hegemonic disability perspectives/experiences were quite apparent during the build-up and aftermath of World War I, when social reformers promoted rehabilitation as a means of reducing the stigma of disability, providing for injured veterans, and integrating people with disabilities into the workplace where they could demonstrate the cultural values of economic self-sufficiency. Resistance to these rehabilitative goals came from people who felt constrained by notions of bodily normalcy and who argued that it was the workplace, not people with disabilities, that needed to change.

In the United States, labor constitutes a primary way of serving society, demonstrating cultural values of autonomy, productivity, and self-reliance (Russell 2011, pp. 4–5). This sentiment was evident in the early twentieth century emphasis on "keeping America American", a political phrase that referred to the economic progress and sufficiency of the citizenry (and, by extension, the State) and informed policies designed to identify, reform, contain, and/or keep out people "likely to become a public charge" (Nielsen 2012, p. 108).1 People with disabilities were firmly relegated to this subordinate status, and the problem of "crippledom" was largely framed as "economic dependency" (Byrom 2001, p. 133).

Rehabilitationists believed that a combination of medical intervention and educational training best positioned people with disabilities to defy the stereotypes and stigmas that constrained their opportunities for employment. Culturally deemed unable to work and dependent on charity, rehabilitation gave people with disabilities an avenue to prove their willingness to work and reclaim the status of "useful citizens" (Rose 2017, p. 192). Rehabilitation represented an intentional attempt to build the utility of people with disabilities, since they were deemed passive victims of fate. In the framework of rehabilitation, individuals were viewed as active in their reaction to an unfortunate situation. Indeed, the articulation of a "rehabilitated wo/man" gave said person ethotic standing as a pragmatic, hard-working, and aspirational American—in other words, as an achiever to be socially and culturally admired. The goal of rehabilitation was assimilation, if not in body, then at least in national ideals.

Rehabilitation measures began in the early twentieth century to address the problem of economic dependency of people with disabilities, and then burgeoned when large numbers of injured World War I veterans returned stateside and needed employment to support themselves and their families. Historical accounts suggest that U.S. society viewed disability, due to sacrificing one's body to serve one's country, as culturally credible; in fact, "Wartime made disability heroic" at a time when society often articulated disability as a threat to progress (Nielsen 2012, p. 87). Evidence of this positive attitude towards veterans was reflected in the number of federal pensions, vocational training programs, and services available for the disabled veteran, and the early implementation of these services compared to the civilian population of people with disabilities.2 Though veterans still faced discrimination, they were generally seen as "good" citizens who deserved economic and social support. Rehabilitation focused on integrating certain types of people with disabilities deemed heroic or innocent, and left out other people with disabilities with bodies labelled "defective" and "undesirable" by eugenical thinking, a pseudoscientific movement also gaining momentum during this time (Davis 2010, p. 3).

Henri-Jacques Stiker argued that the rise of prosthetics among WWI injured veterans moved disability discourse away from disability as a health crisis and individual "lack" and toward that of "fill[ing]" and "overcom[ing]" that lack through replacement, repair, and rebuilding (Stiker, p. 124).

1 (Dis)ability has been only one of many ways to dehumanize people and restrict their full enfranchisement and participation in society. Another example would be the term "illegal aliens".

2 Another but far earlier example, Nielsen identifies the Revolutionary War Pension Act of 1818 as the first act that establishes disability "as a legal and social welfare category" (Nielsen 2012, p. 54). However, this act extended services only to veterans who were unable "to perform economically productive labor" (Nielsen 2012, p. 54). One of the first federal programs to provide nonmilitary persons vocational support was the Smith-Fess Act of 1920, also known as the Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act.

Brad Byrom added that the public's increased trust in orthopedic surgery and the rhetoric of their professional journals (which blamed individuals for their dependency) remained central to this shift, constituting the core of what the disability rights movement later identified as the medical model of disability (Byrom 2001, p. 134).3 The social and political priority given to the medical rehabilitation of World War I veterans, combined with the increased publication, practice, and credibility of orthopedic surgery, caused the medical model to engulf the tenuously defined "social model", or those who identified as social rehabilitationists and "emphasized the need for social and cultural change" as the primary mode of solving the problem of disability economic dependency (Byrom 2001, p. 134).

As such, rehabilitation dominated disability discourse through most of the twentieth century and gained prominence, especially during times of war. Rehabilitation represented an invention in relation to disability that stood in contrast to theories of non-invention, such as exclusion or extermination in the name of a eugenical ideal. Meanwhile, those who drew inventive possibilities from *within* disability experience and objected to the use of medical rehabilitation to resolve disability's external "cultural dislocation" began to organize and to lay the groundwork for sociopolitical change (Snyder 2006, p. 39). Some people with disabilities rejected the defective status assigned to their bodies and the idea that their bodies needed to change to be economically productive, aiming instead to focus attention on the environments that remained unresponsive to the economic value of people with disabilities. To put it differently, people with disabilities countered the invention of rehabilitative measures with another notion of invention that centered on the credibility of people with disabilities, rather than a socially constructed ideal.4 For example, a group of New Yorkers, who later called themselves The League for the Physically Handicapped, protested the city's Emergency Relief Bureau with slogans like "We Don't Want Tin Cups. We Want Jobs" and "We Are Lame, But We Can Work" (Nielsen 2012, p. 135). After its formation in 1935, the League fought against "unjust discrimination" and a "calloused and inhuman attitude" toward people with disabilities seeking employment, demanding that the workplace adjust to fit the needs of people with disabilities (Death Watch 1935). Resistance by this so-called "radical" group demonstrated that people with disabilities were beginning to see themselves as an oppressed minority with an underrepresented voice, and a consciousness emerged among some people with disabilities that society must transform its thinking (Longmore and Goldberger 2000, p. 901).

The ethos of invention we identify, as contributing to early twentieth century disability discourse, resisted the "tyranny of the norm" that characterized the disability experience, especially in the workforce (Davis 2010, p. 6). Rehabilitation practices throughout the century reinforced the idea that only "able" bodies enjoyed full citizenship and that "deformed, deafened, amputated, obese, female, perverse, crippled, maimed and blinded bodies do not make up the body politic" and did not contribute to a prosperous society (David 1995, pp. 71–72; see also Russell 2011). Rehabilitation also positioned disability as a failed or mistaken iteration of human form that society was responsible for remedying by re-inventing the disabled body. While the League for the Physically Handicapped "never probed disability's function in modern society" or "reshape[d] the terms of public discourse", it did politicize disability's relationship to the workplace and social policies that glorified normalcy (Longmore and Goldberger 2000, p. 920). Their resistance to the oppression of "normal" and the idea that normality preceded a citizen's right to work advanced a shift in thinking about the sociocultural barriers that excluded (and precluded) people with disabilities. As rehabilitationists speculated ways to re-invent disabled bodies, some people with disabilities defied this approach and demanded that disability be seen as a means of re-inventing societal norms.

3 The medical model of disability posits the difficulties associated with disability as originating with the "medical problems" located within/upon an individual's body and authorizes medical experts to diagnose and treat those problems (Brisenden 1986, p. 176).

4 In addition to challenging their categorization as "unemployable", the deaf community also challenged their categorization of "disabled". As Kim Nielsen pointed out, "Already marginalized, they sought to distinguish themselves from those they considered *the truly disabled*" (Nielsen 2012, p. 136, original emphasis).

### **3. Accessibility: The Limits of a Cross-Disability Identity**

Accessibility measures of the late twentieth century regularly and effectively organized around a *cross-disability identity*, which we define as individuals representing a range of disabilities but who all share experiences of exclusion and stigma. As people with disabilities applauded the tactical effectiveness of cross-disability coalitions in guaranteeing entryways into society's structures and, specifically, bringing to fruition the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, an awareness developed that accessibility laws were based on a homogeneous understanding of disability, social barriers, and types of discrimination. Therefore, in addition to cross-disability solidarity, disability advocates increasingly called for more intersectional and diverse representations of the disability experience (see in particular, Bell 2006; Miles et al. 2017; Shakespeare 2010; Sherry 2016; Vernon 1999). As people with disabilities advocated for accessibility, they drew upon an ethos of invention to both advance the credibility of their claims and also advance the complexity of the accessibility conversation.

Working together, disabled activists amplified the power of their voice and persuasiveness of their demand for societal change. Their cross-disability collaborations established a disability ethos in discourse about societal and economic barriers. Protests and work strikes occurred on job sites and in cities, as the disabled put pressure on the government to insure disabled rights. One notable instance of mid-to-late twentieth century collaboration included the short-lived efforts of the League of the Physically Handicapped already mentioned; another included the Disabled Miners and Widows, which teamed up with The Black Lung Association to reform the UMWA (United Mine Workers of America) and pass the federally supported Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973 (Nielsen 2012, p. 159).5 Parents of children with disabilities also worked together to pass landmark legislation in education, starting with the Education for Handicapped Children Act of 1975. These political coalitions demonstrated the value of organizing around shared experiences of discrimination, rather than specific disabilities, and the impact of that collaboration on the credibility of their claims.

The Independent Movement in Berkeley, California, also required collaboration among people with disabilities who rejected institutionalization as the government's go-to solution for disability and sought, instead, to assert themselves as reliable, creative sources on their own personhood. A cross-disability coalition led the infamous "504 Sit-In" outside The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (or HEW) building in San Francisco in 1977. The group of approximately 150 disability rights activists, supported by other civil rights groups like the Black Panthers, occupied the federal building for nearly a month to put pressure on President Jimmy Carter's administration to sign Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, an anti-discrimination policy which had yet to be enforced since the passing of the act in 1973 (Schweik 2011, n.p.).6 This particular victory paved the way for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, with the help of other cross-disability coalitions who "claimed" and affirmed their shared disability identity (Linton 1998, p. 12).

Arguably, cross-disability coalitions successfully pushed policies that created opportunities and legitimized discursive spaces (e.g., legal, political, social) for people with disabilities to generate knowledge, action, and understanding in pursuit of a just society. The collaborations themselves were inventive, and they opened opportunities for continued ethotic discourse. As what was eventually evident, policies that highlighted accessibility and accommodation often lumped the "disabled" into one homogeneous group. Recognizing this tendency, the disability community—true to its ethotic commitment—sought to complicate their shared disability identity.

The ADA depended largely on the advancement of the "social model of disability" which painted a problematic environment, rather the "problems" of disability, as the source of disability limitation and exclusion. This model, while important, did not fully capture the ways disability experiences

5 The League of the Physically Handicapped dissolved in 1938 (see Longmore and Goldberger 2000, p. 921).

6 The sit-in occurred under the organizational umbrella of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD). The signing of section 504 was the ACCD's first major policy-related victory.

challenged ableist norms, structures, and values. Almost two decades after the passing of the ADA, Tobin Siebers offered a nuanced theory of "complex embodiment", that "understands disability as an epistemology that rejects the temptation to value the body as anything other than what it was and that embraces what the body has become and will become relative to the demands on it, whether environmental, representational, or corporeal" (Siebers 2008, p. 27). Siebers articulated a view of disability, one that we argue was already nascent in disability discourse, in which disability "re-invents" itself and its environments as it interacts and interplays with various milieus. According to Siebers, and those who agreed with his assessment, a theory of complex embodiment captured the ethotic essence of people with disabilities. The resonance with this view of disability is evident in the work that actively sought disability perspectives/knowledges/experiences through intersectional approaches, first-person narratives, and other artistic expressions. Collectively, these efforts not only challenged ableist assumptions that displaced disability, but also nurtured a disability culture that the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 did not explicitly reference (Brown 2015, n.p.). In effect, the community turned inward and called on its members to insert, affirm, and pronounce their diverse experiences of disability, with the faith that these (inter)actions would continue to advance the movement and reinvent the world in which people with disabilities live.

Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the concept of *intersectionality* to explore how issues of power affected one's lived experiences through a variety of overlapping contexts, including disability, sexuality, race, class, and gender (Crenshaw 1991, p. 1245). Disability scholars picked up Crenshaw's seminal theory to show how disability was only one part of our social fabric; and it was complicated by several other factors. The disability justice performance project, *Sins Invalid*, puts this dual imperative well with the statement, "All bodies are caught in the bindings of ability, race, class, gender, sexuality and citizenship. We are powerful not despite the complexities of our identities, but because of them" (Berne 2018, p. 230). Collective action, then, is based on multifaceted experiences and understandings of disability. Intersectionality not only increases our understanding of disability, it also provides more "tools" for dismantling multiple structures and processes of injustice. Indeed, the increased call for intersectional approaches in the years following the passage of the ADA implicitly and explicitly recognized the limits of policies based on a cross-disability identity and sought to expand the scope of disability's influence on sociocultural norms (e.g., Vernon 1999; Garland-Thomson 2005).

Expressions of intersectional, lived experiences take many forms. First-person narratives offer one way of transferring meaning into the hands of those whose stories are being told. First-person narratives provide "a literature of witnessing" that resist normative and ableist constructions of disability experiences (Siebers 2008, p. 47). The subjectivity of first-person accounts are a way to validate disability experiences from the perspective of those living them and to disrupt the march of meaning traditionally sourced from charitable, medical, and scientific communities (Couser 2000, p. 309).7 Notably, Audre Lorde (1980) first person account of chronic illness and disability, Laura Hershey (1993) and Evan Kemp (1981) perspectives of charitable fundraising events, and Harriet McBryde Johnson (2003) reflections about the right to life are a sampling of the seminal first-person narratives that have brought disability perspectives into the public sphere in illuminating ways. In 1999, Michael J. Fox demonstrated the efficacy of embodied lived experiences to push forward disability perspectives when he opted to not take his medicine before testifying in front of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee for increased government funding for Parkinson's research (Michael J Fox Testimony before the Senate 2013). His speech was lauded for its inventiveness, insistence, and persuasiveness and helped build a credibility later dubbed "The Michael J. Fox Effect" (Quackenbush 2011).

7 The recently published *Disability Experience: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives* (Couser and Mintz 2019) provides a scholarly approach to several of these narratives through summaries, excerpts, and analyses.

Performance troupes that provide artistic access to people with disabilities also contribute to the distribution and increased engagement with varied disability experiences. Phamaly Theater Company, Theater By The Blind, and the Axis Dance Company were all founded in the late twentieth century to give people with disabilities access to performance and its myriad of possibilities. Performance troupes take an active, affirmative response to oppressive social systems and relations of power through the naming and challenging of disability constructions. Disability performances provide a vulnerable, embodied critique that offered audience members a new way of imagining the future of disability in the arts and, just as importantly, outside of it. Performance generates new meanings and spaces where "knowledges [can] be re-examined" and often provide a method and mode of dismantling stereotypical representations of disability (Kuppers 2003, p. 3).8 In essence, performance generates a new way of interacting with, and in relationship to, other disabled and nondisabled bodies.

Historically, the disability rights movement mobilized around a cross-disability identity that was especially effective in asserting change. People with disabilities discovered that they were stronger together and could use their collective power to push against the societal structures that had long inhibited them. The further development of the movement and the enrichment of disability culture, however, required the expression of even more varied lived experiences. The sharing of lived experiences through an intersectional awareness, first person narratives, and performance are some of the ways people resist ableist assumptions, generate understanding, and foster a rich disability culture. These practices are very much alive today: as Steven Brown pointed out, a rich culture enables people with disabilities to "generate art, music, literature, and other expressions of our lives, our culture, infused from our experience of disability" and to have those expressions viewed, valued, and incorporated into the public imagination (Brown 2015, n.p.). In effect, disability culture "invents" (i.e., illuminates and articulates) spaces and identities in public discourse that enriches society and expands what is possible.

### **4. Inclusion: Pursuing Social Justice**

The language of disability inclusion draws from social and political theories seeking an equal and participatory environment that embraces a plurality of perspectives (see, for example, Young 2000). At stake for people with disabilities are opportunities to participate in political agenda-setting, to see themselves in cultural spaces, and to authorize their own experiences. Yet, it is not enough "to be included" in spaces where people with disabilities traditionally have been barred. In their critique of contemporary inclusion practices, Eileen Hyder and Cathy Tissot argued that inclusion efforts "can represent a surface approach to inclusion, rather than the true ethos of what is meant." The "true ethos" they reference includes the promise of disability participation to bring about social justice and alter oppressive systems that exclude in the first place (Hyder and Tissot 2013, p. 12). Or otherwise stated, inclusion represents the invention of a disability ethos in previously inaccessible spaces/practices, but remains only a "surface" endeavor when the spaces/practices remain unchanged by disability participation.

The possibilities of inclusion are evident in conjunction with every child's right to a "free and appropriate education", as is designated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 2019). Inclusion under IDEA/DEA represents an intentional effort to reduce the stigma associated with disability. The inclusive education ideal is described by the National Center on Inclusive Education as "characterized by presumed competence, authentic membership, full participation, reciprocal social relationships,

8 It is important to bring attention to the potential "over correction" of narrative. The "overcoming narrative" presents people with disabilities doing something ordinary (such as completing a race or singing in a competition), but, instead of the person being seen through the skill, they are seen as amazing because *even though they have a disability, they can still do this normal thing*. This trope reinforces the "disabled" stereotype and the status quo of disability as being "less than". Obviously, this is problematic.

and learning to high standards by all students with disabilities in age-appropriate general education classrooms, with supports provided to students and teachers to enable them to be successful" (National Center on Inclusive Education 2011, p. 1). Curt Dudley-Marling and Mary Bridget Burns identify proactive inclusion efforts as part of a "social constructivist" perspective that endows students with disabilities the "presumption of competence" and confidently views all children, regardless of their differences, as clever, capable learners (Dudley-Marling and Burns 2014, p. 24).

In practice, however, the social constructionist view regularly collides into a "deficit perspective" of inclusion enabled by the continued existence of general education and special education classrooms. Inclusion is presented as a way to move the marginalized—the underserved, disadvantaged, and oppressed—colloquially, "from the margins to the mainstream." Yet, as scholars point out, this move assumes that people on the margins, such as students with disabilities, are naturally excludable (Baglieri et al. 2011, p. 2123).9 From a "deficit perspective", inclusion is the process of remediating or compensating for these deficits in a "more inclusive" setting (Dudley-Marling and Burns 2014, p. 24). These actions concretize a hierarchy between the "normal" students and the outliers who are "being included" (Dudley-Marling and Burns 2014, p. 24). Additionally, the pervasive perception that special education teachers are "special" (e.g., unusually patient, kind, tolerant) reinforces the idea that people with disabilities are hard to teach and difficult to assimilate into a mainstream classroom (Lalvani 2013, p. 21).

Positioning inclusion as the bridge between general and special education reifies the idea that inclusivity is a choice or an approach to disability, rather than the right of people with disabilities (Baglieri et al. 2011, p. 2125). Some educators mistakenly perceive special education as a contained "place", of being in the same place at the same time, rather than as a service that could be provided anywhere (Lalvani 2013, p. 25; see also, Beratan 2006). This view also limits how student skills are characterized: consider, for example, the idea that children must *earn* their place in an inclusive classroom through intelligence and good behavior (Lalvani 2013, p. 19). This perspective further paints inclusion as achieved, rather than the inalienable right of people who have disabilities and the right to be educated.

In light of continued systematic oppression and misunderstanding, Lalvani suggests that the language of social justice replace and/or accompany inclusive education practices (Lalvani 2013, p. 25). Inclusion efforts often recognize the ethos of people with disabilities and seeks to invent spaces that welcome such people, but social justice discourse expands the dialectic to emphasize that those spaces can and should change as a result of disability participation. A social justice approach means calling on educators for increased flexibility and a co-constructionistic attitude in classroom instruction. In this view, planning is not an autonomous endeavor on the part of the instructor, but requires instructor prioritization of communication and negotiation with people with disabilities—upfront and often. Jay Dolmage argued that in classroom planning the "inclusion of each individual in the discussion forever changes that discussion" (Dolmage 2008, p. 23). Dolmage's insights compliment Hyder and Tissot (2013, p. 2) and Lalvani (2013, p. 21) in adopting the language of social justice in order to emphasize disrupting societal norms and promoting structural change in educational and social contexts. Inclusion, in this critical paradigm, is a steppingstone for actualizing a disability epistemology that "turns experience into expertise" (Nijs and Heylighen 2015, p. 147). These discussions go beyond the classroom to consider how inclusion practices, framed by a social justice imperative, promise not only belonging, but also change.

Although our essay highlights educational settings as a place where an ethos of invention has shifted the conversation from inclusion to social justice, it is important to note that a similar shift has and is occurring in other aspects of society. For example, the circulation of problematic disability

9 "Excludable types" was theorized by Tanya Titchkosky (2007, p. 5), but used in Hyder and Tissot's study of discrimination in a library-based reading group for visually impaired readers (Hyder and Tissot 2013, p. 10).

images has had a profound *othering* effect on disability, with the visual spectacle of freak shows, pseudoscientific eugenics, and charity advertisements putting the disabled body in the public eye, but imbued with ableist interpretations of disability as something to cure, take care of, overcome, or fear (see Garland-Thomson 1997, 2001, 2009; Gilman 1982). Disability advocates who engage in the "politics of appearance" (Garland-Thomson 1997, p. 22) create counter-imagery that dramatizes disability in more varied, experiential, and empowering ways. The intentional participation of people with disabilities in their own representation stimulates public conversations about unmet disability needs, disability rights, and disability's (re)newed place in society. For example, we can see these changes in expressive spaces for sexuality and desirability, like the fashion industry, which has traditionally excluded people with disabilities. The rise of disabled models, designers, and fashion bloggers are destigmatizing disability and assistive devices, and influencing the industry to more creatively consider the bodies and identities of the consumers to whom they sell their products (Pullin 2009; Vainshtein 2012).

Calls to include disability in historical studies of the United States operate along a similar assumption that the addition of disability does more than add information; it changes our understanding of history, past actions, and dominant ideologies. As Douglas Baynton explained, disability is a "cultural construct to be questioned and explored", for "[i]t may well be that all social hierarchies have drawn on culturally constructed and socially sanctioned notions of disability" rather than on the "natural" hierarchies that presume the pages of our history books (Baynton 2017, p. 31). Specifically, history is mired in "ideologies of American individualism" (Russell 2011, p. 199) that paint people with disabilities "as embodying that which Americans fear most: loss of independence, of autonomy, of control" (Longmore and Umansky 2001, p. 7). These conceptions of disability remain relatively unquestioned and uninterrogated in historical accounts. Rewriting U.S. culture, then, means rewriting the ableist norms that continually devalue disability in order to justify inequality. In exhuming disability as a cultural construct, the U.S. can see the role ableism played, for example, in the oppression of women, the justification of slavery, and the discrimination of immigrants judged (Baynton 2017). Indeed, discussing disability through the lens of social justice furthers the pursuit of justice for other marginalized groups whose liberation is connected to society's understanding, treatment, and engagement with disability.

### **5. Conclusions: Disability Inventions and (Re)Inventing Disability**

Central to the disability rights movement is epideictic discourse that affirms and celebrates the expertise of people with disabilities in their own self-definition, self-determination, and awareness of ableist attitudes and environments that create barriers to these expressions. Signs of a disability ethos of invention were already nascent in social movements of the early twentieth century, and they fortified the movement as it grew in numbers and influence over the next hundred years in the United States. Rehabilitation, accessibility, and inclusion are approaches that engage with notions of invention. A disability ethos of invention that includes disability perspectives has the potential to radically change society and disability's place in it. After all, ideology is best critiqued by those—like the disabled—who are excluded from its logic (Siebers 2008, p. 14). This ethos explicitly and implicitly purports that disability experiences (physically, environmentally, and culturally derived) are generative loci of knowledge, understanding, and ways of being.

In this essay, we recounted an anecdotal history of dominant practices designed to advance the rights of people with disabilities under the umbrella terms of rehabilitation, accommodation, and inclusion. These practices improve conditions for people with disabilities, but are also critiqued for falling short in how they engage disability perspectives and experiences. A disability ethos of invention is evoked when practices are perceived as reinforcing ableist norms, temporality, values, and systems. A disability ethos of invention centers disability's potential to transform society, unearth knowledge, and create a just world for people with disabilities. For example, as we have discussed, early twentieth century workers resisted the prevailing definition of bodily normalcy that guided popular rehabilitation practices, demanding that the workplace change to accommodate the needs

and wants of people with disabilities, rather than the other way around. Although these efforts failed to question the conflation of worth with economic sufficiency, they opened a door for people with disabilities to challenge ableist norms. A few decades later, people with disabilities discovered the power of cross-disability alliances to gain favorable political change. Yet, these measures relied on a homogenous understanding of disability, and disability circles responded with a call to balance the power of uniting together with attention to intersectional identities and experiences. Theories of inclusion sought a more equal and participatory society for people with disabilities. Yet, again at times, inclusion practices reduced the movement's goals down to simply "being included" in education, in representational structures, and in the annals of history. Demands for social justice emphasized how inclusion is only truly achieved when it changes normalized, naturalized sociocultural conceptions of disability in public discourse.

A disability ethos of invention asserts that differences produce perspectives useful, not only for the lives of people with disabilities, but also society-at-large. It adopts the stance articulated by Siebers (2008) that a complex understanding of embodiment amplifies the expertise of the disabled body to teach us about human variation. A disability ethos applauds and helps in "establishing imperfect, extraordinary, non-normative bodies as the origin and epistemological homes of all meaning making" and, consequently, embraces varied forms of communication and expressions of identity (Dolmage 2014, p. 19).It allows us to explore the ableist assumptions that underscore our interpretations of a person's abilities, or even more profoundly, as Amanda Baggs (2007) argued, to challenge how society defines personhood. It encourages the experiencing of the world by using different senses and by increasing our reflective awareness of our bodies in different environments. It emphasizes that disability challenges the naturalized correlations between body, language, and society. In sum, a disability ethos of invention puts people with disabilities in an empowered position to identify past injustices, change the present, and pursue future liberations.

**Author Contributions:** E.D.S. created the historical and critical disability framework and wrote the initial draft, while C.A.M. focused on ethos theory and its enabling vocabulary. E.D.S. and C.A.M. combined in researching and editing subsequent drafts. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Acknowledgments:** We wish to thank the peer reviewers for their thoughtful and useful feedback. We also wish to thank the journal's editors and staff. Finally, we appreciate *Humanities* for supporting this project through the Knowledge Unlatched Initiative, which makes this collection truly open-access for all.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **References**

Berne, Patricia. 2018. Ten Principles of Disability Justice. *Women's Studies Quarterly* 46: 227–30. [CrossRef]

Brisenden, S. 1986. Independent Living and the Medical Model of Disability. *Disability, Handicap & Society* 1: 173–78. [CrossRef]

Brown, Steven E. 2015. Disability Culture and the ADA. *Disability Studies Quarterly* 35. [CrossRef]

Kuppers, Petra. 2003. *Disability and Contemporary Performance: Bodies on Edge*. New York: Routledge.

Lalvani, Priya. 2013. Privilege, Compromise, or Social Justice: Teachers' Conceptualizations of Inclusive Education. *Disability & Society* 28: 14–27. Available online: search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN= EJ990204&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed on 25 July 2019).

Linton, Simi. 1998. *Claiming Disability: Knowledge and Identity*. New York: New York University Press.

Vernon, Ayesha. 1999. The Dialectics of Multiple Identities and the Disabled People's Movement. *Disability & Society* 14: 385–98. [CrossRef]

Young, Iris Marion. 2000. *Inclusion and Democracy*. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).


**2. Resources and production methods**

The resources of an element consisting of the available amount in the earth's crust, the oceans and the atmosphere, which could be identified as extractible. The part of these resources, which can be exploited in economic conditions at a given time, represents the reserves. The boundary between resources and reserves varies over time depending on the economic and technological factors of exploitation and the strategy of different states and industrial groups. The average concentrations of the main elements from the earth crust are presented in **Table 1**. As can be observed,

**Table 1.**

*The main chemical elements from the earth crust [19].*

eight elements represent almost 98.5% of the earth's crust. The base elements for geopolymerisation, i.e. oxygen (O), aluminum (Al) and silicon (Si), are situated in the first three positions and occupies almost 82% by weight from the entire earth's crust. However, because one more element (sodium (Na) and/or potassium (K) or lithium (Li)) is needed for activation, the total percentage is increased up to 88%. Moreover, considering the fact that aluminum, iron (Fe) and copper are the most extracted elements, large quantities of those goes to the mine tailing dumps, becoming a resource for geopolymers.

In order to obtain different products, the extracted resources go through a cycle of physical, chemical and mechanical processing called the circuit of materials in the production process. After extraction, the raw material undergoes a series of physical and chemical transformations until the final product is obtained (aluminum, iron, copper ingots etc.). During this transformation process, different parts from the raw material are lost, therefore, those volumes of extracted materials go to waste. Extraction, processing and manufacturing of materials require large amounts of energy and therefore production costs are highly dependent on the price of energy. From an energy point of view, organic materials are much more costeffective, because their synthesis and shaping require much lower energy consumption than metals or ceramic materials. Therefore, to reduce the production costs, the waste can be recycled and capitalized by converting it into raw materials for other products.

In the development of one technology, one material is often substituted for another, for economic or performance reasons. Thus, the car body was originally made of wood - a light material, existing in nature. Then the wood was replaced with steel sheet, a heavier but more resistant material, with controllable properties and easy to process into complex shapes. To reduce energy consumption, we switched to lighter materials. This has led to the use of thin sheets of high-strength steel, as well as very light unidirectional composite materials made of carbon fibers embedded in organic polymers.

#### **2.1 Recycled raw materials**

Anything that is not recycled or recovered from waste represents a loss of raw materials and other production factors used in the chain, in terms of production, transport and product consumption, respectively. Therefore, the environmental impacts of these secondary products are significantly higher than those associated exclusively with the effects produced during the deposition in waste dumps.

Directly or indirectly, waste affects our health and well-being in many ways: methane gas contributes to climate change, air pollutants are released into the atmosphere, drinking water sources are contaminated, crops grow on contaminated land, and fish ingest toxic chemicals, after which they reach our plates.

*The Physical and Mechanical Characteristics of Geopolymers Using Mine Tailings as Precursors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97807*

### **2.2 Coal ash**

The main waste of interest to the industry, resulting from the burning of coal in thermal power plants, is the ash from thermal power plants. The interest shown by researchers in a multitude of fields is mainly due to its hydraulic properties and chemical composition (high content of oxides of silicon, aluminum, calcium and iron). Thus, it has been shown that these pozzolanic powders can become raw materials for the manufacture of technically and economically competitive materials.

Coal-ash (fly ash and bottom ash) is a result of coal burning in thermal power plants for producing energy, which is an important polluter of the environment and lands in the close areas of power plants and coal ash store units/facilities. Since the need for energy is increasing, the power plants will produce more coal-ash which is estimated approximately to 776MT per annum [20]. Because of this enormous quantity, it is necessary to make alternative technology to reduce environmental impact.

Coal ash is a silico-aluminum or low calcium material that can be used in many applications, primarily in the construction industry, e.g. concrete, pavements, recipients for containment and immobilization of radioactive wastes, refractory ceramics and because of its elemental structure, a source of geopolymerisation reaction. Due to these properties fly ash gives great mechanical strength and a good fire and chemical resistance, which influenced the researchers to find a different application of fly ash. Coal ash, especially, fly ash has been intensively studied in the geopolymers technology, therefore, this waste already presents a high interest for the researcher, and it will not be evaluated/presented intensively here [21].

### **2.3 Mine tailings**

The first stage of ore processing consists of hard rock blocks (ore) crushing and grinding up to particles with a diameter of a few centimeters or even micrometers. Secondly, the use phase is separated from the gangue part by specific means (depending on the type of ores and the used extraction technology). Mineral separation is achieved by various methods, namely: gravimetric; magnetic; electric. The surface properties of the mineral phases can also be used in the separation process. Accordingly, the products that resulted from ore processing are the concentrate and the tailings. The concentrate is processed further until the desired metal is obtained, while the tailings are deposited in different types of dumps/facilities.

A tailings dump can be defined as "the site of surface storage and the deposit of tailings extracted from the mine or tailings resulting from mechanical preparation operations". Accordingly, tailings ponds are excavated land surfaces in which liquid waste with a high content of suspensions is deposited, in order to sediment them, while mining tailings dumps are surfaces on which the material resulting from the excavation of non-metalliferous and metalliferous ores has been deposited.

As a result of the way the excavated and piled material is deposited, the piles are in the form of mounds with the appearance of a pyramid trunk, which have an upper part, more or less horizontal, which constitutes the plateau part and is bordered around the slopes.

The mineralogical and granulometric composition of the dumped material is strongly influenced by the dependence on the geological and lithological structure of the territory studied.

Under conditions of Neogene sedimentary formations composed of intercalations of fine sandy marls, sands, gravels, clays interspersed with bundles of layers of variable thickness, the uncovered and non-selectively deposited piled material


*2.2. Characterization*

X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the samples were recorded using a Rigaku RINT 2100 (Tokyo, Japan) diffractometer with CuKα radiation. The operating parameters were 40 kV and 40 mA, with a 2θ step size of 0.02◦. Si (NIST SRM 640c) served as internal standard for cell parameter determination. Crystallite sizes were refined from diffraction peak broadening using a whole profile fitting procedure, as implemented in the Jade software package (version 6.11, 2010, Materials Data Inc., Livermore, CA, USA).

Sample composition was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) using a Varian SpectrAA 240FS (currently Agilent Technologies, Santa-Clara, CA, USA).

Surface area was measured using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) theory [29] using a Micrometrics ASAP 2020 (Micrometrics, Norcross, GA, USA) instrument. Fifteen-point adsorption isotherms of nitrogen were collected in the P/P0 relative pressure range 0.05–0.30, where P0 is the saturation pressure at −196 ◦C. Prior to analysis, each sample was degassed under vacuum at 700 ◦C for 4 h.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) data was collected using an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer ESCALAB 250 (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) ultrahigh vacuum (10−9 bar) apparatus with an Al*K*α X-ray source and a monochromator. The X-ray beam spot size was 500 μm, and survey spectra were recorded with pass energy (PE) of 150 eV. High-energy resolution spectra were recorded using 20 eV PE. To correct for charging effects, all spectra were calibrated relative to a carbon C1s peak positioned at 284.8 eV. Processing of the XPS results was carried out using the Thermo Scientific AVANTAGE program. For accurate surface characterization by XPS, a glove box was mounted on the XPS enter lock chamber to avoid adsorption of any species from the air on the samples. To ensure that all the samples were investigated under the same experimental conditions, all samples were equilibrated for 12 h in the entry lock chamber of the XPS prior to making the measurements.

IR spectra were recorded at room temperature using a Nicolet 6700 (Thermo Scientific, Madison, WI, USA) FT-IR spectrometer with a KBr-DTGS detector in the range spanning 400–4000 cm−1. Mixtures containing 100 mg KBr and 1 mg spinel were compressed at 1 ton to generate thin plates. For each material, 64 scans of the spectrum were recorded and averaged. The spectrometer settings were at aperture of 150 and spectral resolution of 4 cm−1. Peak positions and intensities were determined by OPUS software (Billerica, MA, USA) using the second derivative and standard methods. The averaged spectrum was used to calculate the inversion parameters of the samples, employing the method of Erukhimovitch et al. [10], which uses the intensity ratios of the γ1 and γ5 modes (FTIR peaks located at ~690 and ~830 cm−1).

#### *2.3. Water Adsorption Calorimetry*

The heat of adsorption of the water–spinel surface interactions was measured using a custom-made apparatus, composed of a volumetric sorption system (ASAP2020, Micromeritics, Norcross, GA, USA) and a differential scanning calorimeter (Sensys Calvet, Setaram, Lion, France) [30]. The instrumental design and its operation have been discussed elsewhere. Here, approximately 100 mg of sample powder was put inside the sample tube, providing a total surface area of 1.0–5.6 m2. The tube is than placed inside the calorimeter, it is also connected to the sorption system via a conceive tube. Prior to measurement, a degas procedure was performed. One was cooled to 25 ◦C at the end of the degassing process, whereas the second was exposed to an oxygen atmosphere prior to cooling down (i.e., oxidized/clean). All the samples were exposed to controlled, and incremental H2O vapor doses until the partial pressure reached P/P0 = 0.3. The incremental dose was set to provide 1 μmol of H2O vapor per m2 of sample surface. The heat of adsorption (ΔHads) for each dose was measured. The measurements were repeated 3–4 times for each sample to ensure reproducibility. A baseline run was performed to eliminate environmental and instrumental contributions to the signal.

#### **3. Results and Discussion**

This study focused on the effects of surface composition and state on water–surface interactions for four different MgO•*n*Al2O3 spinel powders. The samples investigated comprised a series of nano-sized (10–15 nm) metastable spinels, with composition (*n*) ranging between 0.95 and 2.45 (Table 1). Their lattice parameters, crystallite sizes and surface areas are summarized in Table 1. The lattice parameter increased inversely with the n ratio, in keeping with literature results [31,32]. The surface areas measured by the BET method differed significantly from those calculated theoretically from XRD crystallite size (assuming spherical approximation), indicating that the samples had undergone extensive sintering during the final stages of their synthesis.

**Table 1.** As synthesized characteristics: lattice parameter, crystallite size, surface and interface areas.

Four types of surface states/conditions were addressed in this work: for simplicity, they will be referred to as "as synthesized" (AS), reduced (RD), clean (CL) and hydrated (HD). The AS condition refers to a sample after calcination. The RD condition refers to samples after the degassing procedure (Figure 2). It can be seen that the powders lost their original white color and became greyish-dark after the degassing procedure, with the samples that were richer in Al2O3 becoming markedly darker in the RD state, indicating that they were more easily reduced. Oxidation of the RD samples by exposure to 1 atm of oxygen at 700 ◦C and cooling to room temperature in a 1 atm oxygen environment resulted in the restoration of the original white color of the samples. It can be concluded that the dark color of RD samples was a result of the formation of oxygen vacancies during the degassing stage, which was reversed in the oxidization step by "refilling" the oxygen vacancies formed by the initial degas, while simultaneously keeping the surface clean. The reoxidized samples were designated CL. Finally, either RD or CL samples were exposed to H2O vapor in the water adsorption experiments to generate the HD states.

**Figure 2.** Different sample colors after degassing procedure showing different reduction level vs n: (**A**) n = 1.07; (**B**) n = 1.15; (**C**) n = 2.45.

#### *3.1. Surface State Analysis*

Typical XPS spectra in the Al2p and Mg2p regions for the four types of surface state (AS, RD, CL and HD) of MgO•*1.07*Al2O3 are shown Figures 3–6. Three types of bonds, specifically M–M, M–O and M–OH bonds (M = Al, Mg), were considered for each spectrum. In the Al2p spectra, these are assigned at ~73.0, 74.1 and 75.2 eV, respectively [33–35]. In the Mg2p spectra, their assignments are ~49.3, 50.9 and 51.8, respectively [36]. The dominant bond in AS samples (Figure 3) is the M–O bond, with less prominent, though not negligible, M–OH bonds. The RD samples (Figure 4) displayed different spectra due to the prolonged degassing procedure. Here, the amount of the hydroxyl surface species was reduced, and the presence of M–M bonds was detected. These M–M Bonds were formed due to oxygen deficiencies in the structure, as reflected in the color changes of the powders (Figure 2). In the CL samples (Figure 5), the M–M bonds disappeared and were replaced by M–O species, with the quantity of M–OH bonds being lower than in the AS samples. As expected, the HD samples exhibited the highest quantity of M–OH bonds, and no M–M bonds were identified (Figure 6). This behavior was found to be typical for all the samples in this study. The data for all samples are given in the Supplementary Materials in Tables S1 and S2.

**Figure 3.** XPS spectra, of an AS, n = 1.07 sample: Al2p de-convoluted to Al–O and Al–OH peaks (**a**), and Mg2p, de-convoluted to Mg–O and Mg–OH peaks (**b**).

**Figure 4.** XPS spectra of an RD, n = 1.07 sample, after degassing and oxidation: Al2p de-convoluted to Al–O, Al–OH and Al–Al peaks (**a**), and Mg2p, de-convoluted to Mg–O, Mg–OH and Mg–Mg peaks (**b**).

**Figure 5.** XPS spectra, of a CL, n = 1.07 sample, after degassing and oxidation: Al2p de-convoluted to Al–O and Al–OH peaks (**a**): and Mg2p deconvoluted to Mg–O and Mg–OH peaks (**b**).

**Figure 6.** XPS spectra of an HD, n = 1.07 sample after degassing, oxidation, and exposure to water vapor: Al2p de-convoluted to Al–O and Al–OH peaks (**a**), and Mg2p, de-convoluted to Mg–O and Mg–OH peaks (**b**).

#### *3.2. Water Adsorption Measurments*

Heat of adsorption measurements were conducted for the reduced (RD) and fully oxidized (CL) samples. Typical heat of adsorption isotherms for MgO- and Al2O3-rich spinel samples are presented in Figure 7. It should be emphasized that in this calorimetric study, water molecules adsorbed with an enthalpy greater than −44 kJ/mol relative to vapor are referred to as "strongly bound", while those adsorbed with the enthalpy of condensation of liquid water (−44 kJ/mol) are considered "weakly bound". Furthermore, we should stress that such assignments are based solely on calorimetric data and do not reflect any structural studies of water adsorbed on the surface [37,38].

**Figure 7.** Differential enthalpies of adsorption as a function of water coverage on CL samples: an MgO-rich sample, n = 0.95 (**a**), and an Al2O3-rich sample, n = 2.45 (**b**). The blue line signifies the transition between strongly bonded and weakly bonded water, and the red line emphasizes enthalpy of −70 kJ/mol, where the site type of strongly bonded water is altered.

The heat of adsorption isotherms can be divided into segments, according to the change in their slope. Each segment of the isotherm may be considered as reflecting a different type of adsorption site, or site group [39,40]. The MgO-rich spinel displayed a four-step behavior (Figure 7a). In the first step, marked in purple (type A), a sharp decrease in the enthalpy of adsorption was seen, up to H2O coverage of ~2 molecules/nm2. From there, a second step was observed up to ~5 molecules/nm2, marked in violet (type B), in which the slope changed direction, and the decrease in ΔHads was moderated. At the transition point between the second and third steps ΔHads reached a value of ≈−70 kJ/mol. From this point of the curve, the blue section (type C), the ΔHads slowly decayed until the measured enthalpy corresponded to that of weakly bonded water. After reaching −44 kJ/mol (the cyan section of the curve, type D), the enthalpy fell to lower values (absolute) of about −39 kJ/mol. In general, the MgO-rich samples showed similar behavior to that of pure MgO, where surface hydroxides (i.e., Mg(OH)2) are formed [41].

In the case of the Al2O3-rich samples, the first two steps observed for the MgO-rich samples were combined into a single step (up to ~4 molecules/nm2, marked in purple, types A + B). After this point, a more moderate slope was identified, up to −44 kJ/mol (Figure 7b, blue colored, type C), with no further decreases.

The heat of the adsorption isotherms for all samples, in their CL and RD states, can be seen in Figure 8. These isotherms are a depiction of the gas adsorption amount (Figures S1 and S2) obtained in each dose with their corresponding energetic value. Table 2 summarizes the integral heat of adsorption of strongly bond water and the water coverage for all samples, as well as the amounts of Mg and Al hydroxides formed on the surface, deduced from the XPS analysis. The columns in Table 2 under the heading "Hydroxides" present differences in the surface hydroxide compositions for the initial RD and CL states and after their hydration. The measured values are in good agreement with the water coverage, except for the n = 0.95 sample. We believe that XPS measurements do not accurately account for the coverage in this sample, possibly due to the presence of surface contamination by adventitious species on the CL/RD samples. Such species are thought to readily adsorb due to the defective nature of MgO rich spinel [16,22–25].

**Figure 8.** Heat of adsorption isotherms for all samples for RD and CL surfaces: (**a**) n = 0.95; (**b**) n = 1.07; (**c**) n = 1.15; (**d**) n = 2.45.

**Table 2.** Water adsorption data for Clean (CL) and Reduced (RD) spinel samples.

The results showed a clear relation between the Al2O3 concentration and the water adsorption in the CL samples, in terms of both water uptake and energetics. In general, as the Al2O3 concentration persisted in the reduced samples (RD), with the exception of the n = 1.07 sample. The possible origins for this apparent anomaly will be discussed below. Notably, each sample in the RD state accumulated more adsorbed water than its CL analogue (excluding n = 1.07), as its surface defect structure was altered. It is possible that some of the adsorbed water may act as an oxidizing agent, but we believe that this role is limited due to the relatively low temperature of the adsorption process.

Water uptake in the RD state was dependent on Al2O3 concentration, but this dependency is not as simple as was observed for the CL samples, even if the n = 1.07 sample is excluded. This, and the

apparently anomalous behavior of the n = 1.07 sample, are attributed to the di fferences in the level of reduction as was seen by the changes in sample coloring. Based on the color di fferences of the Al2O3-rich samples (Figure 2), we concluded that the level of reduction increased with Al2O3 concentration, but the extent of reduction was not quantitatively determined in this work. The e ffects of reduction in enhancing the extent of adsorption were evident in the increased (and similar) extent of water uptake for the n = 1.15 and n = 2.45 samples. However, the integral enthalpy of adsorption of the RD samples was lowered, relative to their CL counterparts, as the defect structure was progressively altered. These alterations, in turn, resulted in changes in the site population and its energetic diversity, the source of which lies in the newly induced material defect structure.

In spinel, water molecules are adsorbed in the vicinity of the metal ions, specifically AlxAl, MgxMg, Al•Mg, and MgAl [42]. As Al2O3 is added in excess, the Al3+ cations progressively occupy tetrahedral sites, substituting Mg2+ and disturbing the charge neutrality. To maintain charge neutrality, cation vacancies are formed, some of which are on the surface of the spinel structure [16,22–25]. Consequently, the quantity of surface cations is diminished and hence also the quantity of available adsorption sites which leads to lower quantities of adsorbed water.

An excess of Al2O3 also influences the proximity of the metal cations to the surface, as it a ffects which of the material planes have a higher tendency to be exposed. Cai et al. [43] calculated the surface stability of exposed spinel surfaces and concluded that in Al2O3-rich spinel 111\_O2(Al) plane tends to be exposed. In this plane, oxygen molecules are slightly elevated over the Al3+ cations, thus decreasing the energy of interaction at the surface. As the material becomes poorer in Al2O3, the 100\_Al(O2) plane is exposed [43]. This plane has a higher surface Gibbs free energy, thereby allowing for interactions at the surface that are more energetic.

It is important to note that the n = 0.95 samples are MgO-rich, and thus, the factors contributing to the defect structure are di fferent. Here, oxygen vacancies compensate for excess Mg, which essentially allows for better exposure of the metal cations. Moreover, MgO is highly hygroscopic, forming a surface hydroxide phase that enables additional, more energetic water uptake [41]. In the RD state, oxygen vacancies were formed, their numbers growing with Al2O3 concentration, with consequent changes in the surface defect chemistry and electronic structure. In the RD samples, a decrease in the integral enthalpy of adsorption was registered, relative to their CL counterparts. To determine the origins of this decrease, a closer analysis of the energetic diversity of the adsorption sites is required.

Figure 9 shows normalized heat of adsorption isotherms for CL and RD samples. In these isotherms, the *x*-axis was normalized to the amount adsorbed at full coverage for each sample. This observation allows us to consider the energetic distribution of the sites. In samples n = 0.95 and 1.15, the isotherms for the RD and CL materials are almost overlapped, with the exception of the very first few sites at low relative coverage (type A), which were more energetic for the CL samples than for their RD counterparts. An inverse relationship was obtained for the n = 1.07 sample. These first few (low relative coverage) sites are very energetic and make a considerable contribution to the overall energetics. The new adsorption sites that were added after reduction are of type C, which suggests water was unable to re-oxidize the surface. Finally, the CL and RD isotherms for the n = 2.45 sample were in almost perfect alignment, suggesting that the energetic diversity of the adsorption sites was maintained regardless of the reduction process undergone by this material. Accordingly, the integral enthalpy of adsorption for this sample in the two states was similar.

At this point, it is important to address the anomalous behavior exhibited observed for the sample n = 1.07. This material has near stoichiometric composition, and, as is evident from Figure 2, was barely reduced by the degassing procedure. Nonetheless, some changes in the defect structure did occur. Jia et al. [42] showed computationally that for stoichiometric ZnGa2O4 spinel, such reduction-related defects do not always enhance water adsorption [42]. We assume that a similar explanation is appropriate here because of the proximity of the n = 1.07 sample to stoichiometry. This implies that in order for the reduction process to enhance the surface reactivity, the composition should not be near stoichiometric.

**Figure 9.** Heat of adsorption isotherms for all CL and RD samples. The coverage is normalized to the full coverage of strongly adsorbed water for each sample. (**a**) n = 0.95; (**b**) n = 1.07; (**c**) n = 1.15; (**d**) n = 2.45.

#### *3.3. E*ff*ect of Anti-Site Defects*

As discussed above, the spinel system is subject to extrinsic and intrinsic defects. The former, which can exert a considerable effect on water-surface interactions can, however, be influenced by controlling the composition of the material. The spinel system also presents intrinsic, anti-site defects that are not controllable or that are controllable only to a certain extent and require specific study and understanding. Thus, to assess the effects of anti-site defects on adsorption behavior, a MgO•*2.45*Al2O3 (*n* = 2.45) sample was heat-treated in the presence of a constant electric field (EF). FTIR spectra in the 400–1000 cm−1 range of the sample before and after the heat treatment are presented in Figure 10. The aim of the electric field treatment was essentially to rearrange the defects caused by the *residual* inversion without otherwise affecting the material. The thermal treatment was performed at 800 ◦C, a temperature lower than the calcination temperature of the sample (850 ◦C) so that any changes in the material as result of the heat treatment in the presence of the electric field can be attributed solely to the effect of the EF. The function of heating (to 800 ◦C) is to provide sufficient thermal energy to assist cation rearrangement, driven by the applied electric field. As a result of this treatment, highly disordered samples (*I* = 0.44) with *n* ratio of 2.45 underwent significant reordering (*I* = 0.33), as is qualitatively demonstrated in the FTIR spectrum by the decrease in the intensity of the γ5 mode (~830 cm−1) (Figure 10) [10].

**Figure 10.** FTIR spectra of MgO•2.45Al2O3 before and after application of an electric field.

After the heat treatment and subsequent inversion parameter (i) decrease, water adsorption of this re-ordered sample was measured in the same way as for all the preceding materials. The adsorption enthalpy isotherms of the two spinel samples, before and after heat treatment with the electrical field are shown in Figure 11. From the data listed in Table 3, it is apparent that following reordering, the enthalpy of adsorption decreased, as did the coverage. The extent of formation of hydroxide bonds was determined using XPS (Table 3), and the results are in agreement with the results of the heat of adsorption experiments. Heat treatment together with the application of an electrical field led to significantly less hydroxides being formed, with the change in Al–OH bonding being more marked than that for Mg–OH. These experimental findings can be explained by the existence of excess charge when the Al+3 cations are located in the tetrahedral sites.

**Figure 11.** Differential enthalpy of adsorption as a function of water coverage of MgO•2.45Al2O3 samples before and after heat treatment in an electric field.

**Table 3.** Water adsorption by MgO•2.45Al2O3.


**2. Guarding our information**

Most businesses today would recognize the need to follow the most economical path to maximum profit. Frequently an organization's profit margins form the primary indicators as to their success. Even government agencies must admit to being somewhat cost-driven. With the recent economic downturn and increased competition to stay one foot ahead, businesses may be tempted to consider security as an afterthought, rather than an integral part of their business models and practices. In this Chapter we will look at some of the devastating implications of this error and why every genre of organization must place security at the forefront of business planning and practice.

Cyber Security 21

The balance between usability and security is a fundamental concept that encourages security professionals to be mindful of the user needs. Even so, the visualization of social interactions using technology presents a new challenge for those responsible for cybersecurity planning. Understanding the possible motivations and means behind a cyber-attack can better equip enterprises to prepare for and respond to an attack. Research has shown that on average, the cost of cyber-crime is reduced by 38% by companies which implement Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) measures across their enterprise

The mistake of assuming security is someone else's problem often comes with tragic consequences. It is not the responsibility of engineers, consultants, IT professionals or even management to undertake alone, but is the responsibility of every user. Granted, there are many specific roles required in security planning, but if the plan does not include each and every user as a member of the security team, it will be doomed before it has even been

The domain of cyber-security is highly subject to external pressures. These definitional forces include the following (Agresti, 2010): 1) *Rebranding exercise* – the former term "information assurance and security" is being replaced by "cyber-security", as the term "cyber" creeps further into many technologies of our era; 2) *organizational imperative* – the Internet has become essential for most modern companies; 3) *cyberspace domain* – this portion of our lives is now ubiquitous and pervasive and must be understood from that perspective; and 4) *national defense priority* – our potential vulnerability to cyber attacks is of increasing

Focusing further on the last of these definitional forces – *national defense priority*, Agresti

"Progress in cybersecurity depends on attaining a richer, more quantitative, and more visually rendered understanding of cyberspace's size, scope, contours, composition, architecture, properties, traffic patterns, oversight, end points, and – ultimately – its

"The national defense sector faces the entire spectrum of security challenges: defects and malicious code in software on individual workstations, insider threats, vulnerabilities in

In 2010, the US government received on average, 60 million attempted cyber-attacks per day. This problem is not limited to government; Facebook recently announced that it receives over 600,000 attempted cyber-attacks per day (Enzer, 2011) although this is small compared to their one billion daily logins. Staggering as these numbers are, they show the volume of attacks that companies and even individuals now face while connected to the Internet. Managers, IT professionals, and IT security professionals must take a holistic view of security in their planning. This is crucial if a company is to survive amidst today's

The cyber-security arena has expanded dramatically. Cyber-security now includes mobile phones, embedded computers (widely employed in our infrastructure), cloud computing,

(Ponemon Institute, 2011).

implemented.

importance.

vulnerabilities to malicious activities.

**4. The cyber-security arena**

onslaught of cyber-attacks.

networks, malicious intent, and attribution." (Agresti, p. 103)

states:

Consider the owner of an expensive luxury vehicle who, each day outside his workplace, leaves his doors unlocked, with the keys in the ignition. The foolhardiness of the owner is apparent, and some readers may go so far as to suggest he would deserve to have his vehicle stolen. Yet in our modern information-driven organizations, corporations and agencies that depend on their information and data in their day-to-day operations often omit security entirely from consideration. At best it is an afterthought, akin to putting a 'do not steal' sign on the aforementioned vehicle and hoping this will deter all potential criminals.

In 2010, for the first time, the worldwide cost of information and electronic data theft (excluding piracy) rose 9.3% from 2009 to surpass all other theft (Kroll, 2010). In the UK alone, the cost of cyber-crime to businesses, individuals and government cost \$43 billion US dollars (2010). In the 2011 series of cyber-attacks against Sony, some analysts believe the long-term costs to be in excess of \$24 billion (Sebastien, 2011). Staggering as these figures are, the truth remains that most of these breaches could have been prevented had security been integrated into the victim's plans and policies.

It may be hard to understand why cyber-attack costs can reach such staggering figures. It can often come as a surprise to a victim that the true cost of an attack can far exceed the cost of hardware technology assets, or an annual IT budget. Indeed, the failure to comprehend the true risk of attacks and associated costs is in part what has led to such a prevalence of successful breaches. To be secure requires more than a retrofitted firewall installed merely as an afterthought. Organizations must understand the true cost, impact and consequences of cyber-attacks in order to identify what steps should be taken to protect their most valuable assets.