Look Mom, a Pirate! Can Disability Studies Disrupt Malevolent Representations of Physical Difference?

• In Event: 72.049 - Roundtable Session 34
  In Roundtable Session: 72.049-16 - Producing In/Exclusion: Uncommon Narratives of Discourse, Voice, and Representation

Abstract

In response to the theme of equity and the call “for enduring change that eliminates barriers to opportunity, engagement, and success,” this work seeks to improve the deleterious narrative of disability. Scholars of disability studies can promote art that challenges this story; and those who have the nerve, impulse, and talent may be able to create something disruptive too. This paper considers this possibility and includes an excerpt of my take on Peter Pan, a revision driven by disability studies and a respect for literary tradition. These changes do not suggest that the entire narrative is flawed, but they shed light on the original plot and characters from a disabilities studies perspective.

Author

• Dorothy M. Bossman, University of Nebraska