Join us for a session at the 2017 Conference on College Composition and Communication Annual Convention
“Past the Law: Moving from Legal to Just in Disability Accommodations”
Thursday, March 16, 12:15-1:30 p.m.
See your #4C17 convention guide for location
Chair: Brenda Brueggemann
Presenters:
Sushil Oswal
Tonya Stemlau
Description:
Much of the discussion about accommodations to give disabled people access focuses on legal requirements set by laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act. The speakers on this panel will argue that passing laws such as the ADA is not enough; equity and social justice require rhetorics and action that move past the law. Advocacy that fails to move beyond old rhetorics of disability as deficit, of accommodations as an add-on obligation, will fail to achieve social justice; this panel will provide examples of a new rhetoric that focuses on advocacy over obligation and question the ableist discourses of accommodations because these relatively recent bureaucratic disability service discourses, not unlike their predecessors—medical and rehab discourses—are becoming ipso facto knowledge-bearers of disabled bodies in the academy.
Rhea Kennedy Morgenstern, writer 