Navigating Disability Studies So Far:
The field of disability studies is one that embraces intersectionality. Given the vast reach the field has and its roots in theory-based work, I cannot promise a precise definition, but I believe that it does not require one. One small example being the tie between disability studies and queer studies. Author Tim Dean summarizes it best in the claim that “What the field of queer studies shares most fundamentally with disability studies is a critique of the effects of normalization on embodiment, desire, and access” (Dean 144). It seems to hold core concepts and values that are apparent to anyone, that is what I would like to focus on. Disability studies is first and foremost representative of all communities, of all identities. This idea brings us to what is known as intersectionality. Since disability studies typically recognize the disability community as a rich culture itself, it is sure to include and explore identities within whether it be race, sexuality, gender and more. That is to say that the discipline highlights different bodyminds from different backgrounds. Secondly, I find representation being another key component tied into intersectionality. What I enjoy most about the study in my early introduction to it is the inclusion of mental health as well. While some may want to argue that a mental health survivor is/isn’t disabled, the discipline and those in it are not concerned with that. Terms and definitions can be extremely helpful when they are not being used to identify others in the upkeep of normalization and seclusion. The discipline represents a space for empowerment and encouragement through the critiques described by Dean. This unique study lends itself well to challenging the status quo and engaging audiences regardless of their knowledge on the subject.
What Is Still to be Explored:
There are still numerous unanswered questions I have about this subject, which is expected considering my novice status. I think where my interests lie is learning in more detail how ableism functions, how it’s upheld both implicitly and explicitly. While it has been mentioned and described, I think it just left me wanting to learn more. In addition to that, I want to know what solutions are being tried out or exist in response to ableism and the harm it creates. I think a history type lesson might help here. I would love to be taught about the past, present, and future of disability studies given I still don’t exactly understand how it came about. For anyone else learning about it, I think that approach answers why it is important that disability studies exists in the first place.
Disability in Relationships
Relationships in this context includes romantic, sexual, friendships, and family. Reading the novel Disability Visibility gave some insight on relationships in the disability community but it’s worth acknowledging that the community can appear family-like as well. S.e. Smith in their chapter titled “The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People” reminds us that “Members of many marginalized groups have this shared experiential touchstone, this sense of unexpected and vivid belonging and an ardent desire to be able to pass this experience along.” (Smith 272). Community and all the smaller social circles that make up a community or culture can be an entire topic itself. However, through every piece I got to read I couldn’t help but feel that there is important relationships established or made here to begin with. Smith is right, being a part of the LGBTQ+ community this feeling is an important one. What one example like this tells me is there are quite literal friendships formed in communities as well as more casual ones built on unspoken, mutual understanding. I don’t believe it is an understanding of “We have the same experiences physically” but more so a powerful moment where someone is seeing another’s humanity and granting them emotional safety possibly for the first time.
Family can have different associations for everyone. For example, the idea of chosen family over biological is not foreign to me and one that saved me mentally in the long run. What I liked about my learning journey for disability studies so far, is the possibility of this ringing true for some disabled community members as well. Family experiences are going to range for anyone but two stories in particular stuck with me when it came to family. In “When You Are Waiting to Be Healed” June Eric-Udorie discusses how her disability was viewed by her family as they came from a religious background. June says “At home, conversations about my nystagmus were sparse, except when discussed as a thing God would “deliver me” from.” (Udorie 55). What I gathered from this piece was that June might have felt further pressure from family to conform to a new body that was not possible. While I want to make clear these are others’ experiences and not my own, I recognize that from the story there comes greater pain when normalization is encouraged by loved ones. There’s an interesting push and pull. I believe the family did love their daughter but did not show it in the correct way. June already recalls accounts of being confused by messages of religion, I can’t imagine how hard it was when your support system enables part of that even accidentally. From how she chose to end her story, I think one of the strongest relationships she had was with God and realizing she did not need any saving or “delivering” from anything. In contrast, in the short narrative “Imposter Syndrome and Parenting with a Disability” by Jessica Slice the topic relies on how strong her relationship is with her son and understanding motherhood through a lens that is never discussed. When closing on what makes her a good mom and create such a healthy bond with her son, Slice says “I like to imagine that soon he will find comfort in the fact that I’m so often around, steady and patient, ready to listen.” (Slice 132). My favorite part of Slice’s story is the emphasis on her emotional bonding skills with her son. I think many people in the world can be there physically for their kid, I get that closeness is important. Where many parents fall short is losing the emotional tie because they do not actively/reflectively listen. When that kid grows up and becomes an adult it might be even harder to discuss real issues or sensitive thoughts.
Rhetoric Fueling Disability Studies
This topic is a challenging one and one I still would like to do more work with. Most people have a certain image or short description ready in their head when they see the word rhetoric. Initially, I did too, and I assumed I was mostly right. While rhetoric may include the traditional persuasive aspects we come to know in essays and political debates, there is so much more to it. A better question then is how does it work within and for disability studies?
Rhetoric reaches across verbal and written communication as everything can be rhetorical. A way I tend to view it is rhetoric as energies. Everything has rhetorical energy. Rhetorical energy can come from a person or an object in which people interact with. Not only objects, but our environments in general. I believe there is usually a mutual transfer of this energy from rhetor to audience, rhetor to environment or rhetor to object too. Acknowledging that rhetoric exists inside and outside the world of verbal and written forms opens a lot of doors for those who are disabled. When majority of society leans toward one or two forms of communication in specific outlines for each, people are bound to fail. The normalization mentioned previously is apparent here as it creates a binary of passing and failing. In their book Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History O’Toole makes a point in line with this concept of strict rhetoric stating “Not only are disabled students presumed incompetent, but also students who speak English as a second language” (O’Toole 22). I think the way that schools typically have this issue simultaneously displays how people in general ignore the power of rhetoric in our environments. The same way a politician can give a speech on why disability rights and inclusion matter while sharing rhetorical energy with the audience is the same way a set of stairs can with its own “audience.” If a university is all uphill with only stairs and gates that sends a message. It is not intended for people with a disability because the people who designed it gave them no thought. Whether it is implicit or explicit in its expression, there will always be a rhetorical energy found in the things we create or interact with. O’Toole highlights this when they discuss the exclusion of the disabled community in media and history. They write “We are ignored, overlooked, mislabeled, discounted, omitted, and sometimes intentionally not discussed.” (O’Toole 39). The act of saying nothing can hold the most rhetorical power since it says a lot. Not saying anything can cause a world of violence on a small scale like individual cases to a larger scale like dangerous policies being enacted (or taken away for that matter).
Bodyminds in a Medical-Focused World
One of my favorite topics in disability studies so far has to be the inclusion of realizing medical-based ideologies often conflict with the people in which the medical community treats. I’ve personally been more invested in psychological healing like therapy more so than learning about biology treatments and the medical field. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that doctors sometimes fail to be there emotionally for a patient or use proper language of inclusion. Of course, they are trained on ethical and moral issues, but that does not mean they make no mistakes. A medical model of disability is aimed at resolution of the body to reach, once again, a standard of normalization. I bring back s.e. Smith into the conversation as they clearly explain the context we choose to frame those with a disability and the spaces we give them to exist. Smith writes “For disabled people, those spaces are often hospitals, group therapy sessions, and other clinical settings.” (Smith 272). How the majority frames any minority actively has long term effects on how they live and usually the quality of life they live. Specific language used in disability communities is not acknowledged by the medical community whatsoever. We rarely see or talk about disability as a cultural experience and the introduction to disability studies is the first time I have viewed it as such. O’Toole claims “That information is rarely known by nondisabled medical professionals, who are almost always disconnected from the broader disability communities.” (O’Toole 17). The burden of change rests not solely on the medical community but on all of us. When someone is exposed to disability circles, real social settings for their community their quality of life is changed because for once they do not have to justify their existence. I think it is up to everyone outside of disability circles and communities to recognize that different bodyminds are not left for doctors to discuss. The conversation does not start and end in medical settings.
Work Cited:
Adams, R., Serlin, D., & Serlin, D. (2015). Keywords for Disability Studies (Keywords). Chapter author: Tim Dean. “Queer”. New York: NYU Press.
Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories From The Twenty-First Century, edited by Alice Wong, Vintage, June30th, 2020.
O’Toole, Corbett Joan. “Celebrating Crip Bodyminds”, Fading Scars: My Queer Disability History, 1st ed., Autonomous Press, June 9th, 2015.