Trauma-informed disability politics: interdisciplinary navigations and implications

Abstract

The article explores the concept of ‘disability as trauma’ and discusses the ways in which this metaphor has implications for developing a more nuanced understanding of the complexity and idiosyncrasies of disability experience. Disability is not trauma, but disability and trauma share tangled histories as they can be constitutive elements of disability experiences. The hitherto disciplinary ghettoization of disability studies and critical trauma studies has treated disability and trauma as two distinct experiential entities, thereby preventing theorizations of the ways in which disability intersects with, emanates from and results in trauma, and impacts the ways in which disability is experienced. The sheer complexity of disability experience necessitates the development of a more comprehensive interpretative framework to elicit the ways in which disability relates to trauma. These theoretical interstices have implications for problematizing policy responses that silence the traumatizing ramifications of human rights violations and structural inequities in disability politics. Points of interest The article explores the role of trauma in developing a better understanding of disability experience. Even though disability is not trauma, disabled people can experience ‘trauma’ due to discriminatory treatment. The ‘voices’ and ‘lived’ experiences of people with disabilities have played an important role in understanding the ways in which disability relates to trauma. Policies and professional practices need to take into consideration the relationship between disability and trauma.