Tanya Tichkosky’s paper Disability images and the art of theorizing normality

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09518390802581893

After reading Tanya Tichkosky’s paper Disability images and the art of theorizing normality I was immediately struck by how much I as a disabled person had normalised the imagined ideas of disability in public discourse. On how we seem to not consider disabilities as normal and that it is always culturally attached.

She touches on the juxtapositions of disability in messaging, on how people who have an acquired injury serve as a warning to normal or able bodied people to watch out, to stay safe or you too could end up like this. Disability in these discourses she points out is used to depict a life of misery, of hardship and difficulty due to accidents etc. She also points out that its not just accidents that causes these disabilities though, that in war for every three people who die, one will end up with disability due to injury, injuries which were probably not their fault for one reason or another. Often people who end up with injuries as a result of these scenarios are considered heroes, to have sacrificed. They are not depicted as subjects that serve as a warning. Her comment on the idea that even in UN,s ratio of 3 to 1 death to disability places disability and death together in connection with one another. This goes to further create a negative connotation of disability even with the idea that people who end up with disabilities as a result of war may be seen as heroes.

Her paper addresses the idea of placing disability in a position of inspiration. A way for those without disability to feel lucky or grateful for their own circumstances and to think of disabled people doing everyday things or even more challenging things as incredible or amazing. This she implies further creates the connotation of disability as a bad thing and that those with disability do things in spite of disability and that this some how should be seen as inspirational.

Tichkovsky goes further in describing how we have come to accept the messaging of disability and accessibility as further evidence of I consider a form of ignorance. The idea that we need to have signage or messaging to let us know that there is accessibility somehow lets us get away with actually making accessibility the Status quo as opposed to it almost being a feature of a building or piece of our built environment. I am reminded of my own observations of how we can make supermarkets and retail establishments accessible with very few reminders of where or where is not accessible within them. Why is this?

The paper to me is both deeply thought provoking and considered and reveals the problems that will continue to be prevalent in accepting disability as an important factor in diversity and inclusion. For as long as we have a form of uncanny valley reaction to disability or treat people who have managed to live a life well with disability as exceptional we will continue to use messaging that allows us to without realising it continue to exclude them/us in a meaningful way from from the diversity and inclusion conversation. This will be detrimental to the lives of every human who lives long enough to become disabled, as we all will be in our old age.

Moodboard

Images and quotes to inspire my thesis

For my mood board I found some quotes and comment from people with disabilities that echo my own experiences as well as images that inform some of my own opinions about how people with disabilities are treated and perceived.

Dream Review

Diss/Ability

I came away from this experience with feelings and not thoughts. I would like to say I enjoyed this experience, but I did not. And that is the point! I am not supposed to enjoy this. The piece has achieved its goal of triggering feelings that we try to avoid having at all costs.

What I felt was anger at the idea that I could not have the full experience of this piece of work.

There was a feeling of pity for myself because this version of myself could not participate.

The feeling of being left out and somehow lesser as a human because I was not considered.

I felt helpless in my situation.

I never want to feel these things again, all these feelings I am sure I have felt in other contexts and scenarios in other stages of my life.

By putting myself in the position of having these feelings I capture a tiny glimpse into my own future and I don’t like it.

Disabled people, this case in particular people with mobility issues such as wheelchair users face a world that is not conducive to their capabilities or needs, they find ways to adapt and survive in environments that were made for the average person in most cases. They achieve their own forms of ability that do not exist outside their sphere of existence. The protagonist attempts to capture elements of an experience that can only be managed or used by a wheelchair user. What this does is places everyone able bodied trying to experience the piece in a position of disability.

It’s a new twist on creating awareness as it tries to make us feel and not to think. It doesn’t try to be clever or abstract, it doesn’t need to be!

By feeling what I felt, I will always think when faced with frustrations what my future holds. Disability is in all our futures. And that’s why we need to change our attitudes about disability. Because for as long as we deny our own future fallibility we will not have a truly diverse and inclusive society.