Disability Rhetoric

Title Page, Copyright Page

Disability Rhetoric Critical Perspectives on Disability Steven J. Taylor, Beth A. Ferri, and Arlene S. Kanter, Series Editors Books in the Critical Perspectives on Disability series, launched in 2009, explore the place of people with disabilities in society through the lens of disability studies , critical special education, disability law and policy, and international human rights. The series publishes books from such disciplines as sociology, law and public policy, history, anthropology, the humanities, educational theory, literature , communications, popular culture studies, and diversity and cultural studies. Other titles from Critical Perspectives on Disability Acts of Conscience: World War II, Mental Institutions, and Religious Objectors Steven J. Taylor Disability and Mothering: Liminal Spaces of Embodied Knowledge Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson and Jen Cellio, eds. Picturing Disability: Beggar, Freak, Citizen, and Other Photographic Rhetoric Robert Bogdan with Martin Elks and James Knoll Disability Rhetoric Jay Timothy Dolmage Syr a c use Un iver sit y Pr ess This research was supported by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Copyright © 2013 by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York 13244-5290 All Rights Reserved First Edition 2013 13 14 15 16 17 18 6 5 4 3 2 1 ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our website at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: 978-0-8156-3324-2 (cloth) 978-0-8156-5233-5 (e-book) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dolmage, Jay. Disability rhetoric / Jay Timothy Dolmage. — First Edition. pages cm. — (Critical perspectives on disability) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8156-3324-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8156-5233-5 (e-book) 1. People with disabilities. 2. Rhetoric—Social aspects. I. Title. HV1568.D65 2013 305.9'08014—dc23 2013039624 Manufactured in the United States of America The cover image of this book is a photograph of a sculpture by the Japanese artist Haroshi. The sculpture is called Screaming Feet. The image shows two feet pointing in opposite directions . The feet are sculpted out of dozens of multicolored broken skateboard decks, glued together. It seems like the legs are broken off around the calf, and you can see splinters in the wood where the legs stop. Sculpture by Haroshi. Photograph by Taro Hirano. Reproduced with permission of the artist and photographer. For Matt Dolmage talk with two sets of hands, two mouths one of mine and one of yours this is all of language one person’s word has to touch another person’s word the touch is language, not the words you have to pause to talk you can put all of the meaning in the talk . . . or you can put most of the meaning in the pause in the patience, the moment and this is like eating dessert first Matt—who talks to me in toasters, birds, horns, wide-wale corduroy, the wind of passing trains, the texture of each syllable Matt—who talks to me in applause, laugh tracks, dishes, shoulders, over glasses, through the perfectly broken speakers of an old keyboard this poem takes 6 ‘C’ batteries I remember your hand on mine shifting gears and pressing elevator buttons and instantly it’s not a memory so long as I count the gears and floors out loud writing on your computer my job sometimes was to press the space bar—you’d grab my hand that space is the best character it’s there between the subway platform and the subway car between 6:59 and 7:00 between the clouds and the sun between trying and helping I can write the words . . . but I forever miss you in and I’m so glad to see you in and look at all the friends we invited in the space between. Jay Timothy Dolmage is Associate Professor of English at the University of Waterloo. He is the founding editor of the Canadian Journal of Disability Studies and has published award-winning articles in Rhetoric Review, Cultural Critique, College English, Disability Studies Quarterly, and other journals. ...