Author: mhofmann

Terrencia Johnson, Miranda Colbert, and Megan Hofmann’s Major Project – Disabled vs. Able-Bodied Gameboard

(Word Count: 525)

For our major project we constructed an image that showcases the unfair advantages abled-bodied people have over a person with disabilities. There are two players in the board game. One being an able-bodied person and the other with disabilities. Although both players are starting the game off at the same place, the path to “win” is not the same. The curvy path a person with disabilities has been much different from the straight path an able-bodied person has. At first glance you can see that it is unfair and not equal. This is the reality for people with disabilities all over the world. On each game square there are different elements that describe issues the player must go through in life. For the disabled person, their squares are more difficult. For example, one square says, “Not every place is accessible.” This connects to Good Kings Bad Kings when Yessenia “Yessie” Lopez had to get help from Pedro for her to use the bathroom. To Pedro, his apartment was accessible to him, but for someone in a wheelchair it was not accessible.  Another square says, “People obsess over the disability rather than the heart.” This connects to the Weise poem when the speaker was going to have intercourse with someone else, but the other person was more interested in the prosthetic leg. This ruined the speaker’s mood and made her rather be anywhere else than in this room with this person who is obsessing over her leg. In addition, another square has the single word, “inferior” displayed in it. This label can be interpreted in multiple ways, however, in this specific case the board game relates the label back to the concept that people with disabilities are often viewed as inferior, resulting in non-disabled individuals praising small, everyday tasks completed by the individual who has the disability. This exact concept is clearly portrayed in John Lee Clark’s poem, Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain. In Lee’s poem, the poetic speaker exhibits frustration at the fact that because he/she is Deaf and blind, non-disabled individuals become astonished when they see the disabled person accomplishing every day, mundane tasks such as walking from one destination to the next. Finally, the last example is the labeled box that says, “forgotten about.” Like inferior, this label can be explained in a variety of ways concerning people with disabilities, but for the purpose of this project the label is related to the capitalist workforce and how disabled persons are oftentimes cast aside. The concept of disabled individuals being forgotten about in relation to the workforce is clearly depicted in Marta Russell and Ravi Malholtra’s theory article, Capitalism and the Disability Rights Movement. A quote from the text states, “Without job accommodations to meet their [disabled] impairments, [disabled individuals] were—less “fit” to do the tasks required of factory workers and were increasingly excluded from paid employment” (3). As a result of being disabled, some individuals face discrimination regarding the workforce and employment opportunities. In conclusion, this board game highlights only a few examples of how disabled individuals face more discrimination and challenges than their able-bodied peers on the “path of life.” 

Work Cited

Clark, John Lee. “Deaf Blind: Three Squared Cinquain by John Lee Clark.” A Cup of Poetry, 15 Apr. 2013, https://acupofpoetry.tumblr.com/post/48052546867/deaf-blind-three-squared-cinquain-by-john-lee. 

Nussbaum, Susan. Good Kings Bad Kings : A Novel, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/umw/detail.action?docID=3419359. 

Ravi Malholtra, Marta Russell. “Introduction’ to Capitalism and Disability .” Dokumen.pub, 2019, https://dokumen.pub/strategic-innovative-marketing-and-tourism-7th-icsimat-athenian-riviera-greece-2018-1st-ed-978-3-030-12452-6978-3-030-12453-3.html. 

Weise, Jillian. “Nondisabled Demands.” PDF on dis/lit course website. Fall 2021.

“We Pledge” – Terrencia Johnson, Miranda Colbert, and Megan Hofmann

Megan Hofmann’s Class Summary for Thursday, September 16th

Class, of course, began on Thursday with a quiz. Once the morbid quiz was complete, Dr. Foss reviewed the schedule our class would be following and named the readings we would be analyzing. The authors included Jasbir Puar, Chris Bell, and Toni Morrison. The class focused mainly on the two theory readings, and discussion involving these authors and their correlating articles proceeded in the same order as formerly stated. Through group discussion involving the two articles, our class concluded that white individuals remain the focus of disability studies due to a long history of marginalization towards minority groups in the field.

Class proceeded by Dr. Foss giving students adequate time to review Jasbir Puar’s article, “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” from The Right to Maim. My groupmates and I discussed whether both disabled and debilitated aligned individuals fall under the same category of “disability.” Although we did not come up with a definitive answer, the group concluded that individuals with disabilities in debilitating circumstances battle unique hardships due to lack of resources. In addition, the group discussed how individuals in power remain in authority by targeting minority groups and disabling them through the act of maiming. We specifically focused on Puar’s claim, “This is what I call ‘the right to maim’: a right expressive of sovereign power that is linked to, but not the same as ‘the right to kill.’ Maiming is a source of value extraction from populations that would otherwise be disposable” (18). The group concluded that Puar point stands true, when someone becomes disabled by being maimed, they are less likely to be a threat to the group in power.

Dr. Foss then brought the class together to discuss the article as a large group. He started by stating that over 50% of police shootings are towards black bodies, supporting this claim by giving specific examples of local tragedies where black individuals have been targeted by local police. Foss then went on to discuss one of Puar’s points that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict also revolves around the intentional debilitation of a population and how individuals with disabilities in the Middle East face challenges such as transportation due to issues associated with the area’s infrastructure. The class moved on to discuss the topic from a historical stance, stating that throughout history, minority bodies were expected to attain physical disabilities, such as the bodies of enslaved people. This conversation concentrated on the topic of white fragility and how similarly to the topic of race, white fragility can relate to disability studies as well because the topic of disability can cause anxiety amongst white populations, especially when related to minority groups.

Dr. Foss then gave the class small group time to review Chris Bell’s article, “Introducing White Disability Studies: A Modest Proposal.” My group discussed Bell’s obvious sarcasm towards the topic of disability, and how disability studies solely focus on white disability. The group specifically considered Bell’s ten-step list that sarcastically informs the reader of easy strategies in how to keep disability studies fixated on white disability instead of becoming more inclusive. The group quickly noticed that Bell’s article, like the central points in Puar’s article, focuses on the topic of white fragility. This conversation turned to large group discussion that revolved around Bell’s ten-step list. Classmates highlighted Bell’s use of reverse psychology, claiming that by stating, “Make no effort to be more inclusive in your scholarship. Do not start today, do not start tomorrow. Wait for someone else to do inclusive work” (281), Bell is calling society to action.

Lastly, the few remaining minutes of class were used to briefly discuss Toni Morrison’s, Sula. Dr. Foss emphasized different characters and their correlating disabilities such as Eva who has one leg, the triplets who are hinted to have an intellectual disability, and Plum who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. The class discussed Toni Morrison’s intentions of wanting the reader to be exposed to differing perspectives, but whose intentions instead were at times inappropriate and insensitive towards cultures that she was not educated enough to speak for. The discussion was then concluded with a duck joke and class was dismissed.

“I pledge” – Megan Hofmann