Book excerpt: This book focuses on two areas of substantial and growing importance to the human development and capability approach: health and disability. The research on disability, health and the capability approach has been diverse in the topics it covers, and the conceptual frameworks and methodologies it uses, beginning over a decade and a half ago in health and more than a decade ago in disability. This book shares a set of contributions in these two areas: the first set of chapters focusing on disability; and the second set focusing on health and the health capability paradigm (HCP), in particular. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.