Mark Anthony Castrodale, Daniel Zingaro Abstract
In this article, the authors discuss friendship as a method of qualitative inquiry. After defining friendship and positing it as a kind of fieldwork, the methodological foundations of friendship as method are established (Tillmann-Healy, 2003). The purpose of this narrative woven autoethnographic study is to examine the role of friendship in describing disabling physical and attitudinal access barriers in a university setting. Friendship represents a critical analytic lens through which disabled/nondisabled individuals alike may examine their positions, understandings, regimes of practices, and particular knowledges. Friends --Mark and Dan -- discuss their experiences of disablement and reflections on dis/ability. The authors draw from their experiences of friendship and disability in higher education and their allied identities to discuss and examine questions of access, disclosure, and inclusion. Rather than acknowledging friendship as a critical space to unpack and problematize dominant ableist norms, much research concludes that friendships between able-bodied and disabled individuals typically do not form in the first place. For example, De Boer, Pijl, and Minnaert (2012) state "why students with disabilities experience difficulties in making and keeping friends is not quite clear" (p.380). Similarly, Mason, Timms, Hayburn, and Watters (2013) contend that friendships may be elusive for persons with learning disabilities, though this study draws on the voices and experiences of disabled persons. In the literature review by Shany, Wiener, and Assido (2012), many papers focus on what is lacking in friendships involving persons with learning disabilities, rather than discussing affordances of those friendships. Such broad strokes fail to appreciate how friendships can empower those involved to challenge the status quo. Paraphrasing Derrida (2005), friendship provides advantages, the greatest of which is unequalled hope towards a future which goes beyond death. By its very nature friendship is active. Friendship requires renewal, a constant return to the shared understandings and state of becoming friends. Bunnell et al. (2012) state: "friendships require -- and may even be defined in terms of -- active, ongoing and necessarily reciprocal work" (p.493). Thus, friendships represent fluid relationships perpetually revisited and reborn. According to Tillmann-Healy (2003): "When friendships do develop across social groups, the bonds take on political dimensions. Opportunities exist for dual consciousness-raising and for members of dominant groups...to serve as advocates for friends" (p.731). Friendships may encourage allied positions to be taken up with a shared desire to promote social justice (Tillmann-Healy, 2003). Full paper can be read at: http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/3762/3827 -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
