Disability Discourse (Disability, Human Rights, and Society)

Drawing upon personal narratives, rhetoric, material discourse, discourse analysis, cultural representation, ethnography and contextual studies, this text seeks to emphasize the multi-dimensional and multi-functional nature of disability language in an attempt to further inform our understanding of disability and to locate disability more firmly within contemporary mainstream social and cultural theory. It considers such questions as: why has the discursive turn been sidelined in the development of a social theory of disability, and what has been the result of this?; and how might a social theory of disability which fully incorporates the multidimensional and multifunctional role be described?

The late Mairian Corker was a freelance researcher, writer and trainer on all issues affecting the lives of deaf and disabled people. She published widely in the areas of deaf education, psychology and support services and was Editor of Deafness and an honorary editor of Disability and Society. Mairian, who was deaf herself, was a trained counsellor who used a flexible, integrated approach. She was also a seminar leader on the Counselling Skills and Attitudes Course for Deaf Trainees at Westminster Pastoral Foundation in London.