Pushing Barriers: The Place of Disability in Politics and Political Science Mini-Conference: Challenges for Political Science: Disability and Misinformation

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Part of Mini-Conference

• Pushing Barriers: The Place of Disability in Politics and Political Science

Session Description

Political science pays extremely little attention to disability, and indeed is well behind many other disciplines ranging from English and design to history and sociology, all of which have been studying disability for the past three decades. This roundtable aims to highlight and explore the relevance of the conference theme to the role of disability in society, politics, and political science.
A variety of misinformation and disinformation are promulgated about most, if not all, disability conditions. The nature of disinformation regarding disability is not always the purposeful proliferation of misinformation as a means to gain political advantage, but rather has an appearance of innocence and good intentions grounded in nineteenth-century philosophies of charity. Such misinformation harms the rights of persons with disabilities (PWD) who are excluded from schools, jobs, social events and even the voting booth because of ignorance of the facts about specific disabilities and what disabilities do and do not restrict and enable for PWD. Because of this exclusion, accurate knowledge about disability, and the knowledge gained by the experience of disability, is also excluded. However, disability is intrinsically political and affects issues of representation, political participation, equality, and civil rights as articulated not only by the Americans with Disabilities acts but the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. And political science has unique contributions to contribute to truthful knowledge about disability throughout the world.
The roundtable will include members of different rank and subfields who will talk about how to define disability and dispute misinformation and disinformation about it, different ways that political scientists are currently conducting research on disability, as well as future possibilities for the field. Moreover, we will use this roundtable to convene disabled members of our discipline to move towards establishing a Status Committee. According to membership applications, 2.8% of APSA members (305) identify as having a disability; additionally, 3.7% prefer not to answer, and 22.8% leave the question blank, suggesting that if political science were more attentive to disability as a research topic--and political scientists potentially had accurate information about what these categories mean--more members with disabilities might feel more comfortable identifying as such.
This roundtable is planned as part of a mini-conference on Disability and Political Science, but it is of interest and relevance to the entire discipline, as we call for political science to include attention to disability as a political category and a category of knowledge.

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Cosponsors

• Division 2: Foundations of Political Theory

• Division 36: Elections and Voting Behavior

• Division 37: Public Opinion

Chair

• Nancy J. Hirschmann The University of Pennsylvania

Presenters

• Dara Z. Strolovitch Yale Univerisity

• Ann Kathleen Heffernan University of Michigan

• April A. Johnson

• Claire C. McKinney William & Mary

• Monica C. Schneider Miami University

• Jane Mango Angar University of California, Berkeley