2007-08-31 - 11:21 p.m.
My first week of classes went well. I�m taking three courses. Really, two and a half. My Tuesday class is DIS501 �Disability Studies I�, an introductory class on the subject. In the first session, we tried to define just what exactly �disability studies� is. It�s a very nebulous idea and not at all immediately graspable. The teacher noted you need both an academic definition and a �pub talk� definition (she�s Australian) to explain to friends, who might know very little about disability, what it is you study.
I suggested you could sort of avoid a definition by saying disability studies was like African-American studies. People often think they know what �African-American studies� means, but they probably really don�t. I have a friend with a doctorate in African-American studies and even she isn�t quite sure what it is. Obviously she can tell you all about her own research, which is basically historical studies. In a way, she really has a doctorate in �history�. But I guess because it�s history relating to black people, it gets called �African-American studies�.
Similarly, I can explain my own research interests easily. Why and how are different cities so disparate when it comes to the accessibility of the built environment? For example, Chicago is relatively easy to navigate in a wheelchair (curb cuts everywhere, simple-to�board-in-front buses, most front doors to stores and restaurants sloped rather than stepped), but in New York it�s almost impossible to even get a wheelchair cab. Everyone can relate to that. Defining �disability studies� as a whole is a bit trickier, however�
My Thursday class is DIS561 �Disability and Community Participation: Policy, Systems Change, and Action Research�. This is co-taught by the professor I�m working for. Again, we discussed in the first session what �participatory action research� means. Basically, it�s a fancy term for �getting stuff done� or �changing things�. Advocates sometimes get a bad rap for screaming and protesting but not actually accomplishing much. Academics sometimes get a bad rap for theorizing and pontificating, but also not accomplishing much.
Participatory action research is an effort by a group to determine what�s important to them and then figure out a way to move things in that direction. Sometimes the actions taken to change things can be extreme. In the 1980s, the group ADAPT showed how inaccessible government buildings were by having people who normally use wheelchairs crawl up the steps to the Capitol in Washington. You can�t really say much about a crip crawling up stairs to get in and in 1990 the federal Americans with Disabilities Act was passed, mandating (among other things) entrance ramps to public buildings.
ADAPT will be here in Chicago in a week to do as-yet-unspecified actions to further the cause of integrated housing. This means people with disabilities living in the world-at-large among people without disabilities, as opposed to being institutionalized or otherwise exiled to �gimpland�. This is an issue quite close to me, as Nya and I live in what I guess is integrated housing. Although I�ve never thought of it that way � it�s just our condo, our home. At any rate, none of our neighbors use wheelchairs and I�ve never felt like an outsider or anything.
My half class is DIS595 �Interdisciplinary Seminar in Disability Studies�, which meets every other Wednesday morning (it�s only a one credit, pass/fail course). There are a number of guest speakers coming, professors from other schools and noted disability advocates. There are also several films being screened. Mostly foreign works, documentaries about dancers and politicians with disabilities. Hopefully they�ll present disability in a good light. Because really how many films have you seen that paint a positive picture of disability? (I can only think of Coming Home with Jon Voight.)
It�s funny; I was thinking of considerably tapering down writing here, figuring I�d be too busy with school. But part of my homework for DIS595 is writing down thoughts on disability. About 15% of the entries here are about disability in some way, so I already do this and will keep doing it. I do want to cut back a bit to perhaps 3 entries each month, as opposed to the 5 I�ve been averaging recently (this month I�ve done more in part to make up for missed entries earlier in the year).
So I�ll keep doing this. As always, I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
Sign My Guestbook!
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
�
