Communicating Disability: Metaphors of Oppression, Metaphors of Empowerment

Abstract

This chapter frames the literature on communication and disability within six metaphors, identifying how those metaphors oppress or empower persons with disabilities. Disability as a medical problem suggests persons with disabilities must be repaired. This metaphor disempowers persons with disabilities, although more recent conceptualizations may provide useful tools for empowerment. Disability as cognition focuses on the influence of attitudes toward disability or individual differences in personality traits that influence disabled-nondisabled interaction, moving away from objective notions of disability to subjective ones. Disability in culture examines the influence of culture on what constitutes disability, highlighting the ways that cultural definitions oppress and disempower persons with disabilities. Disability as culture views persons with disabilities as forming distinct cultures or cocultures, underscoring the empowering potential of disability as a cultural identity. Disability as politics recognizes the importance of empowering relationships in public and private discourse. Finally, disability as community incorporates several perspectives to provide a more complex view of disability and communication. This metaphor of disability, particularly with its focus on new communication technologies, most clearly demonstrates empowerment strategies that provide an avenue for persons with disabilities to participate fully in the social construction of their life experiences.