Abstract
Disempowerment and discrimination cling to the word disabled. When confronted by difference, the first reaction is to judge it. That judgement often involves demeaning, ridiculing and being frightened of the person carrying the difference. Most of our agents of culture—parents, teachers, religious leaders, employers and politicians—teach us to belong, be quiet and position our body in a very narrow framework of acceptable movements. Challenging the parameters of this oppressive normality—that is rarely defined—is difficult. But if activated, then the binary oppositions of belonging and exclusion, normal and different, can be decentred and deferred.
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Notes
- 1.
The medicalization of non-standard bodies also creates disabling environments. Cooper stated that, “Disabled people are disabled not by the fact of their impairment, but by disabling prejudice and discrimination. Many survivors call themselves disabled, however, if one experiences events that are disabling, is not that person or group then disabled? I consider the experience of being fat in a fat-hating culture to be disabling, which in addition to medicalization and restricted civil rights, suggest to me that I am disabled,” from Cooper (1997).
- 2.
Crow (1996).
- 3.
Deaton (2013).
- 4.
EverydayAbleism, Twitter, https://twitter.com/EverydayAbleism.
- 5.
I particularly wish to note the critique from Oliver (2009), where he described those with hearing impairments as part of a “linguistic minority,” rather than part of a wider group of disabled people. Inverting the issue, the key is not that deaf people do not speak, but that the majority of the population does not speak their language. Put another way, deaf people are excluded from aural culture, but this exclusion builds both a community and a linguistic and cultural minority.
- 6.
Probyn (1996).
- 7.
Watchorn et al. (2013).
- 8.
Pallasmaa (2005).
- 9.
Burke (1990).
- 10.
Creighton (1978).
- 11.
McLuhan (2005).
- 12.
Ong (2002).
- 13.
Smith (2004).
- 14.
An early book on digital storytelling that underplayed the ‘amateur’ use of the genre was Miller (2004). This early text blurred gaming and digital storytelling and underplayed the empowering process involved in creating alternative narratives, stories and histories.
- 15.
Howarth (1998).
- 16.
Lambert (2002).
- 17.
For example, Decodaliteracy, “Literacy and Digital Storytelling,” YouTube, April 12, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9LBA4qcnGY.
- 18.
Disability Confident, https://www.youtube.com/user/DisabilityConfident.
- 19.
Disability Works, https://www.youtube.com/user/WhereDisabilityWorks.
- 20.
Disability Support Group, https://www.facebook.com/DisabilitySupportGroup?fref=ts.
- 21.
Tremain (2008).
- 22.
C. Drinkwater, “Supported living and the production of individuals ,” ibid., p. 229.
- 23.
Wattenberg (2004).
- 24.
Dong and Lucas (2013).
- 25.
Stuckler and Basu (2013).
- 26.
Ibid., p. 143.
- 27.
Hevey (1992).
- 28.
Palmer (2013).
- 29.
This key discussion emerges in Weller (2011).
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Brabazon, T. (2015). Difference and Judgment. In: Enabling University. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12802-3_8
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