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ERIC Number: EJ1044051
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1534-9322
EISSN: N/A
Where We Are: Disability and Accessibility--Moving beyond Disability 2.0 in Composition Studies
Wood, Tara; Dolmage, Jay; Price, Margaret; Lewiecki-Wilson, Cynthia
Composition Studies, v42 n2 p147-150 Fall 2014
The authors' perception, as specialists at the intersection of disability studies and composition studies, is that disability has arrived--in the sense that it is now on most peoples' radar. Most have come to think of it as "Disability 2.0": the state where acceptance of disabled students and teachers as belonging in our classrooms is seen as an asset rather than a deficit. Where does teaching go next? The authors state that, instead of rules or norms flowing from teachers to students, educators need to see classrooms as spaces where teachers, along with students, explore, discuss, and write to audiences with the knowledge that disability is "us." This kind of classroom discussion could be as minute as what pronouns include or exclude implied audiences, or as far ranging as what a writer needs to do to make a particular project accessible to people with a range of disabilities, and why should I make it accessible? This last point requires teachers to inject some history, art, and writing by and about disability, so that most realize that moving beyond "Disability 2.0" requires educators to start with teacher training. Composition teachers no longer consider giving students a list of do's and don'ts as the best practice for the teaching of writing, but rather want students to engage in inquiry, research, conversation, and critical thinking and to experiment and write as they make rhetorical decisions about what to say, what forms their writing should take, and how to reach broad or selected audiences. The authors conclude that the approach to disability should likewise move beyond mere lists and individual accommodations, to engaging students in researching and thinking about disability in relation to writing, audiences, purposes, and access via various modes of dissemination.
University of Cincinnati. Department of English, P.O. Box 210069, Cincinnati, OH 45221. Tel: 513-556-6519; Fax: 513-556-5960; e-mail: compstudies@uc.edu; Web site: http://www.uc.edu/journals/composition-studies.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A