Communication and «The Good Life»
Series:
Edited By Hua Wang
This volume illuminates the complexity of our modern era, exploring how society can leverage exciting new opportunities whilst recognizing the complex challenges we face in a time of constant change. It helps us understand how we have come to this point and where we may be going so that we may study the opportunities and the dangers, the chances and the risks, that digital media pose in our quest for some version of «the good life».
Chapter Twelve: Reimagining the Good Life with Disability: Communication, New Technology, and Humane Connections
Extract
← 196 | 197 → CHAPTER TWELVE
Reimagining the Good Life with Disability
Communication, New Technology, and Humane Connections
MERYL ALPER, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, USAELIZABETH ELLCESSOR, INDIANA UNIVERSITY, USAKATIE ELLIS, CURTIN UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIAGERARD MICHAEL GOGGIN, UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
Many deeply cherished notions of “the good life” are based on limiting notions of humans, things, and their environment. In particular, “the good life” is often imagined as a realm beyond illness, impairment, and especially, disability. This view is informed by deficit models of disability, which individualize disability rather than explore the “socio-cultural conditions of disablism” (Goodley, 2011, p. 29). With contemporary communication and new media, disability is even more seen as an impediment, barrier, or tragedy, to be overcome with digital technology. Regrettably, the widely shared experience of disability and its complex relationships with communication are only rarely seen as a resource for how we achieve “the good life,” in our own lives and societies, now and in the future.
Indeed while the field of communication increasingly engages with questions concerning marginalized populations—including issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and diasporic populations—the study of disability and its relationship with social, cultural, and political life is stagnant. New media are often hailed as a great “equalizer” for people with disabilities. Such arguments though tend to obscure the complex ways in which disability and technology intersect for better and for worse in the lives of people with various disabilities from diverse backgrounds....
You are not authenticated to view the full text of this chapter or article.
This site requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books or journals.
Do you have any questions? Contact us.
Or login to access all content.