Where I started….

I entered this quarter with no knowledge of Disability Studies but with experience surrounding disability. I had little to no expectations for the content I would encounter. I assumed I would enjoy learning about the discourses surrounding disability. Then we watched “The Kids are Alright” and I remember thinking, “Oh my god! am I an evil, horrible ableist?” I was immediately untrusting of the content and creator which sparked a small internal crisis. At this point, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride the rest of the quarter.

The journey, itself.

I believe about every other week something we discussed in class triggered me. Sometimes I hid it well, other times I think it was obvious I was incredibly upset. This was a class that I either viscerally hated or was enamored with. This is mostly my fault. I engaged with a topic that triggered me repeatedly, sometimes bringing it into readings where it was not present. I am, of course referring to focus of my project, normalcy.  I have identified it to be almost the root of evil but also the supporting structure for most things we discussed. This only reinforces my first main takeaway from the quarter, understanding the audience is key to effective communication. There have been a few instances where I have misjudged my audience this quarter. Our discussions in class have made me more conscious of how “[a] message changes or gets lost very easily depending upon the audience” and my way of approaching my intended audience. I tend to dedicate a lot of energy to considering my audience’s needs, agenda, and values. I dedicate even more energy towards this as learned I need to consider a potentially unintended audience. There has have been a couple issues such as Masquerade, Prosthesis, and language that have highlighted that occasionally it is the unintended audience who hold more power over the discourse or situation surrounding an issue than the intended audience. Thus, it is negligent to just simply ignore a potentially unwanted interpretation of your message. This is also why contextualization is important, especially when engaging critically with a text. As demonstrated by anything written by Dolmage, context is vital when dealing with abstract concepts. In a particularly comedic moment, I gave another classmate a quote with a contextualizing sentence attached to help them interpret an abstract sentence. I had wanted to hear someone else’s thoughts on the concept he was referring as it seemed very out place in his rhetorical flow. They asked for context. I had thought I had given context, but it was not enough. To be honest I am not sure I could have given this classmate anymore context because the context I gave was all I had myself.

Arriving at the Destination.

I am happy the journey is over. I am really exhausted. It was a fun but tiring trip. Lastly, I want to touch back upon “The Kids are Alright”. My concern over holding abelist veiws was not unwarrented. It would be odd if I did not hold some abelist veiws because I have grown up in a violently abelist society. This is something we all will have to struggle against and engage in self-critique to overcome.