Simo Vehmas

About me

Resuming activities at the department from July 2025 (On research leave academic year 2024-2025 at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study)

I am professor of special education and I have focussed in my own research on theoretical and ethical issues related to disability. I have discussed issues such as the ontological formation as well as the moral and political significance of disability. In recent years, I have engaged with empirical research concerning persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities.

Selected list of publications

• Vehmas, S. (2024). Floating Signifiers: Managing Disability Language in Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 26 (1), 16-27. DOI: 10.16993/sjdr.1071
• Vehmas, S. & Mietola, R. (2022). Vaikeasti kehitysvammaisten arki ja ihmisyys [Everyday life and humanity of people with profound intellectual disability]. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
• Vehmas. S. & Mietola, R. (2021). Narrowed Lives: Meaning, Moral Value, and Profound Intellectual Disability. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. https://doi.org/10.16993/bbl
• Watson, N. & Vehmas, S. (eds.) (2020). Routledge Handbook of Disability Studies: Second Edition. London: Routledge.
• Mietola, R., & Vehmas, S. (2019). 'He Is, After All, a Young Man’: Claiming Ordinary Lives for Young Adults with Profound Intellectual Disabilities. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research 21(1), 120–128. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16993/sjdr.590
• Vehmas, S. (2019). Persons with profound intellectual disability and their right to sex. Disability & Society 34 (4), 519-539. DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2018.1545110
• Mietola, R., Miettinen, S. & Vehmas, S. (2017). Voiceless subjects? Research ethics and persons with profound intellectual disabilities. International Journal of Social Research Methodology 20 (3), 263-274.
• Vehmas, S. & Curtis, B.L. (2017). Profound Intellectual Disability and the Bestowment View of Moral Status. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 26 (3), 505-516.
• Vehmas, S. & Watson, N. (2016). Exploring Normativity in Disability Studies. Disability & Society 31 (1), 1-16.
• Curtis, B. & Vehmas, S. (2016). A Moorean Argument for the Full Moral Status of those with Profound Intellectual Disability. Journal of Medical Ethics 42 (1), 41-45.
• Vehmas, S. (2015). The Sociological Straitjacket and the Ethics of Exclusion. In P. Jones & S. Danforth (Eds.), Foundations of Inclusive Education Research. Emerald, 223-241.
• Vehmas, S. & Shakespeare, T. (2014). Disability, Harm and the Origins of Limited Opportunities. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 23 (1), 41-47.
• Vehmas, S. & Watson, N. (2014). Moral Wrongs, Disadvantages, and Disability: A Critique of Critical Disability Studies. Disability & Society 29 (4), 638-650.
• Vehmas, S. (2010). Special Needs: A Philosophical Analysis. International Journal of Inclusive Education 14 (1), 87-96.
• Kristiansen, K., Vehmas, S. & Shakespeare, T. (Eds.) (2009). Arguing about Disability: Philosophical Perspectives. London: Routledge.
• Moberg, S., Hautamäki, J., Kivirauma, J., Lahtinen, U., Savolainen, H. & Vehmas, S. (2009). Erityispedagogiikan perusteet [The basics of special education]. Helsinki: WSOY.
• Vehmas, S. & Mäkelä, P. (2008). A Realist Account of the Ontology of Impairment. Journal of Medical Ethics 34 (2), 93-95.
• Vehmas, S. (2005). Vammaisuus: Johdatus historiaan, teoriaan ja etiikkaan. Helsinki: Gaudeamus. [Disability: Introduction to history, theory and ethics].
• Vehmas, S. (2004). Ethical Analysis of the Concept of Disability. Mental Retardation 42 (3), 209-222.
• Vehmas, S. (2002). Parental Responsibility and the Morality of Selective Abortion. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 5 (4), 463-484.
• Vehmas, S. (1999). Newborn Infants and the Moral Significance of Intellectual Disabilities. Journal of The Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps 24 (2), 111‑121.