Disability Studies Quarterly
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq
<p><em>Disability Studies Quarterly</em> (<em>DSQ</em>) is the journal of the <a href="http://disstudies.org/">Society for Disability Studies (SDS)</a>. It is a multidisciplinary and international journal of interest to social scientists, scholars in the humanities, disability rights advocates, creative writers, and others concerned with the issues of people with disabilities. It represents the full range of methods, epistemologies, perspectives, and content that the multidisciplinary field of disability studies embraces. <em>DSQ</em> is committed to developing theoretical and practical knowledge about disability and to promoting the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society. (ISSN: 1041-5718; eISSN: 2159-8371)</p> <p><strong>2022 DSQ Book reviews have been published in a community blog <a href="https://thedscblog2.wordpress.com/book-and-media-reviews/">here. </a> </strong>They are published, like all DSQ material since 2016, under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license</a> unless otherwise indicated.</p> <p> </p>The Ohio State University Librariesen-USDisability Studies Quarterly1041-5718<p>This agreement takes effect upon acceptance of the Submission for publication.</p><p>By submitting this agreement, the author hereby grants to The Ohio State University, on behalf of its University LibrariesEditors’ Introduction
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/9755
<p>No abstract available.</p>Jeffrey A. BruneDonald A. Grushkin
Copyright (c) 2024 Jeffrey A. Brune, Donald A. Grushkin
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.9755A Recent History of Activism for Accessibility in Japan (1981–2006)
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/7706
<p><strong> </strong>In this article, I consider how Japanese activists for accessibility localized concepts born out of American and European advocacy, reinterpreted them in light of domestic conditions, and then used them to pass policies for some physically disabled communities between 1981 and 2006. My analysis, which examines newspapers, magazines, state records, and documents from disability organizations, highlights how Japanese activists negotiated global understandings of Independent Living and capitalized on local concerns about the nation’s aging population to convince policy makers to promote the creation of barrier-free facilities and implementation of Universal Design. I conclude that the study of disability in Japan and other parts of the world must include the study of successes and failures of activism for accessibility in differing cultural contexts, and that further research on Japan is needed to continue improving the inclusivity of our increasingly global society.</p>Mark R. Bookman
Copyright (c) 2024 Mark R. Bookman
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.7706Becoming Mermaid: Exploring Human and More-Than-Human Relationality
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/8678
<p>The mermaid is a hybrid being, a product of human imagination that has dual potentiality; she can either uphold or challenge heteropatriarchal and able-bodied norms. She also has the potential to highlight human relations with more-than-human life. This paper explores the process of becoming mermaid in four performances that reinforce and/or challenge normate embodiment to varying degrees. One, at Weeki Wachee Springs, remains firmly tied to normate white heteropatriarchal values. Another, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, is a multivalent performance that both affirms and challenges dominant norms of embodiment. The others, solo performances by Amber DiPietra and Hanna Cormick, highlight the humanity of disabled people and the kinship among human animals and our more-than-human kin.</p>Elizabeth Currans
Copyright (c) 2024 Elizabeth Currans
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.8678Copying not Diagnosing: The Case of Hugh Blair of Borgue
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/8811
<p>This article re-evaluates the case of Hugh Blair of Borgue (1747-8) from the standpoint of neurodiversity pride. This case was brought by John Blair against his older brother the laird Hugh Blair of Borgue. John successfully argued that Hugh was an Idiot incapable of marriage. As a result, Hugh’s marriage to Nickie Mitchell was annulled and their children disinherited; John and his descendants now stood to inherit Hugh’s estates. Some modern criticism has suggested that Hugh was autistic. During the court case, Hugh’s life and way of behaving and communicating, were often painfully critiqued. Exploring an autistic reading of Hugh that emphasises his creativity and love of imitation, I argue that attempting to “diagnose” him with autism using modern diagnostic criteria can replicate some of the harsh judgements that the court made against him. I end by suggesting that, as Hugh loved to copy, we might spend some time in our lives imitating Hugh.</p>Laura Seymour
Copyright (c) 2024 Laura Seymour
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.8811Food, the Production of Normalcy, and the Archive of Autism
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/9144
<p>In the 1970s, precursors to present-day autism therapies were often centered around food. Psychologists and other professionals forced children to fast, fed them mega-doses of vitamins, and/or forced them to cooperate with therapeutic protocols in order to earn the right to eat. These actions were performed in the name of “curing” their neurological condition and making them “normal.” Mistreatment of autistic people has often been couched under the misleading guise of “treatment,” yet there are numerous parallels between autistic subjugation and that of other minoritized groups. Examining this history brings food studies and disability studies into productive conversation, revealing the correlation between food control and social standing. The archive that documents this history includes clinical case studies, therapeutic and diagnostic manuals, and the life-writing of non-autistic observers. These materials document observed behavior without demonstrating curiosity about or awareness of autistic interiorities. Scholars have the obligation to read these sources creatively to piece together autistic histories, and the vast autism medical-industrial complex has the opportunity to use these insights to reevaluate current autism therapies, which often have the same ideological underpinnings of these earlier techniques and make autistic access to food conditional.</p>Jennifer Jensen Wallach
Copyright (c) 2024 Jennifer Jensen Wallach
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.9144Designing is Imagining: What Futures and Identities Do Activists With Developmental Disabilities Imagine When Designing For Learners With Developmental Disabilities?
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/8879
<p>As learners engage in learning environments, they constantly co-develop ideas about who they are (their identities), and who they can become (their futures). Designers of learning activities make assumptions about what learner identities and imagined futures learners will ultimately take up. Learning activity designers with developmental disabilities who identify as activists may make assumptions about learners with developmental disabilities that other designers would not. Working from a critical disability praxis orientation, the research was led by a person with a developmental disability. This study utilized a grounded theory approach to discourse analysis to analyze the design talk between two adult activists with developmental disabilities while they engaged in a co-design process to create a learning activity intended for learners with developmental disabilities who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The activity was a game that explores inductive logic. Discourse was analyzed to understand what imagined futures and learner identities these activists assumed learners with developmental disabilities might take up. These activists imagined learners with developmental disabilities who use AAC as being inquisitive, interdependent, and ableism literate, and capable of achieving futures that were validating, inquisitive, accessible, and ableism-literate. These futures and identities suggest that future participatory design research with adults and youth with developmental disabilities might yield innovative curriculum designs.</p>Marrok SedgwickStephanie Fuller
Copyright (c) 2024 Marrok Sedgwick, Stephanie Fuller
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.8879Disability in Narrative Inquiry: A Case of Methodologically Unusable Data from a Participant with Intellectual Disability
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/8516
<p>This paper considers methodological and ethical implications of qualitative interview data deemed unusable for research analytic purposes because the interviewee had an intellectual disability. Critical disability studies theory is used to reimagine the utility of one case of so-called unusable qualitative data. Excerpts from this qualitative data that came from a pilot study interview of a PhD project are full of possibility for learning. Yet, among conclusions drawn, rhetoric about disability inclusion appears undermined by ableist normativity. Specifically, the problems associated with valuing abled ways of speaking within wider narrative research and scholarship will be the focus of this article.</p>Susan Flynn
Copyright (c) 2024 Susan Flynn
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.8516Bipolar in the Academy: A Case of Testimonial Smothering
https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/8491
<p>This paper explores my active suppression of my bipolar identity as a case of “testimonial smothering” (Dotson, 2011) in the academy. Dotson theorizes testimonial smothering as a distinctly epistemic injustice. I explicate concepts of epistemic injustice—both testimonial and hermeneutical injustice (Fricker, 2007)—and testimonial smothering and argue that the pervasive nature of stereotypes and overarching discourses about Madness in society may lead a person who identifies as Mad to smother their identity. Following a discussion of the ways that people who identify as Mad are subject to epistemic injustice that wrongs them in their capacity as knowers, I point to the necessity of being understood as a “knower” in academia. Subsequently, I argue that having to “pass” as sane constitutes epistemic violence and further explore the distinctly hermeneutical dimensions of the injustice that shapes the often invisibility of Mad people in the academy. Discussion about the complexities of decisions about passing and disclosure follows. I ultimately assert that visibility and representation of Mad people and the recognition of the epistemic value of Mad perspectives are crucial to moving forward.</p>Juliet Hess
Copyright (c) 2024 Juliet Hess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
2024-03-012024-03-0143210.18061/dsq.v43i2.8491