Towards a Sociology of Impairments: Experts, Intellectual Disability, and Complex Embodiment

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 8:00 am Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Structural Analysis of Issues in College Student Learning (Table 12)

Abstract

The paper is a philosophical review of predominate theoretical approaches within disability studies, focusing on their constructions of impairments. We argue present theoretical frameworks have an underdeveloped sociological theorization of impairments and contribute Tobin Seibers’ (2013; 2019) theory of complex embodiment to do so. We focus on students with intellectual disabilities as a specific case for discussing impairments. We also focus on the role of the expert informing the understanding of impairments within the predominant models. Complex embodiment provides an explicit understanding of expertise in relation to impairments with the concept of embodied epistemology. We argue each model has its own merits but wish to challenge researchers to address the sociological framing of impairments within their chosen frameworks.

Authors

• Andres A. Arrazola, Florida International University

• Daniel Saunders, Florida International University