 |
 |
Dear all The social relations of research production work to favour non-disabled researchers as employees, particularly in the current climate. Given that many disabled people face barriers in education and are likely to have a non-normative career trajectory. Late entry to HE and the likelihood of having spent intermittent periods as 'job seekers' (for example) means disabled people are less likely to present as the ideal candidate for research and other academic posts, adding to the multititude of assumptions that are made of how impairment or appearance affects your ability to do the job. Non-disabled researchers seem to be seen as a safer (and easier) bet (with no adjustments to consider), judging on the number and quality of experiences I have heard about. I'm guessing that women entering gender or women's studies are much less likely to face these obstacles (unless they are disabled). It seems to be the more unconscious assumptions of what we expect a normal 'researcher' to be (alongside age, class and ethnicity,) which work towards screening disabled people out of research. Although there a number of very important questions to be asked about how we can speak for other people with the same or other impairments, it seems wrong to get too distracted with this if it means that we ignore the very real barriers that keep disabled people outside, or on the margins of, academic institutions.This would seem to have significant implications for the type of disabled 'voice' expressed in research literature and the ways we anticipate this to be mediated by the 'situated knowledges' of paid researchers. Best Wishes Alison Wilde ________________End of message________________ This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies). Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask] Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.