Cripples, Idiots, Lepers, and Freaks: Extraordinary Bodies / Extraordinary Minds

Sticking.

Deep. In a Piled higher (and) Deeper kind of way.

I will read the rest of the comments with interest.

Who knew such conferences went on?

I hope it’s ok to post this – I’m a disability studies student in the UK. There’s an old debate in the area about why we do disability research – my school broadly seems to come down on the side of disability research only being justified when it aims to improve disabled people’s experiences/can be used as a tool against disabled people’s oppression in society. One of the reasons I follow blogs like this one (apart from Single Dad’s excellent writing skills!) is to try and get a better sense of the day to day realities of life with people with multiple impairments. I come from a social policy background rather than sociological – and sometimes wonder about stuff like the above, particularly in the context of cognitive disability. I wonder how far this conference strives to be accessible to people from a non-academic background, disabled or not, but all the efforts I’ve seen towards inclusivity in research would seem to fall short where individuals like Pearlsy are concerned. I wonder if anyone would mind sharing their thoughts on what meaningful inclusion in disability studies research for people with severe cognitive impairment might look like?

Thanks for this info – a couple of my disabled friends are writers, and may be interested in this.

And *hugs* if you want them 🙂

Hey, all.

I’m one of the conference organizers and came across this blog quite by accident, but wanted to respond to a couple of things.

Debs515–Your question is the one that got me into disability studies in the first place. My brother is severely autistic and at one point had back surgery that left him paralyzed for some time (his mobility has improved vastly over the past ten years). We’re very close, and when I was first exposed to disability theory in college I felt strongly that much of it didn’t account for (or even leave any room for) his experience, either of severe autism or of having multiple severe impairments. The question of inclusion when it comes to severe cognitive impairments is a difficult one but an important one, and one I hope that people in disability studies will consider more often. (It’s a topic I’m very much hoping someone will address at the conference, in fact, and encourage you to submit an abstract if you think you might be able to make it to NYC.)

Elizabeth and Barbara–When I first got into disability studies I found it unbelievably overwhelming because the field addresses questions that hit so close to home, and, I thought, sometimes got it really wrong. But I do believe it’s important work and has the potential to effect real changes in the lives of people with diverse impairments and experiences.

For me, the important thing is to talk about disability, even if people disagree, and to question the place of “disability” in society. I think that one of the main reasons that modern societies are structured as they are (i.e. not very inclusively) is because of how disability is and has historically been represented, how we are taught (and encouraged) to think about disability, and how we are taught (and encouraged) to talk about disability. These are central topics to those of us who are engaged in disability studies, and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that if we (collectively) begin to think differently about “disability” we can more easily and fully effect real social change re. disability. (e.g. I suspect that a legislator with no intimate experience of disability who also grew up seeing standard representations of disability on television, in the newspaper, etc., would be hard pressed to understand why equal education for a disabled student could be thought of a right and not “special help” given by a compassionate society. And if disability studies continues to open up conversations in the college classroom and in the media, this might begin to change.)

So for me, any chance to talk about disability–in a conference, in the college classroom–is a chance to raise difficult questions and talk about issues related to disability. Of the many students I’ve taught as part of my graduate work, I’m not sure how many walked away with a totally changed view of disability. But I do know that they had to spend a lot of time talking about, writing about, and thinking about the ways that “disability” is viewed in society, the ways that they’ve reacted to and viewed disability themselves, and some of the ways that disabled individuals experience disability. And they also had to grapple with the idea that people like my brother are just as human as they are–which I can only hope may make a difference if one of my former students encounters disability in the future, as is bound to happen.

I could keep writing all morning–and into the night–but I’ve got to get to work. One last comment, though–

Lila, our intention with the call for papers was to keep things broad because we all believe that there’s a wide, wide, wide diversity of experiences of disability, and agendas, and perspectives–and we want to encourage people to talk about things that don’t usually get talked about in disability studies venues. It seems that didn’t come through in the call for papers, but I hope it will in the way that we put the conference together.

Emily