{"id":2273,"date":"2012-09-05T10:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T08:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=2273"},"modified":"2012-08-22T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2012-08-22T10:19:06","slug":"disability-and-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=2273","title":{"rendered":"Disability and discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"
Disability and discourse<\/strong>: Analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities. By Val Williams<\/strong>. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. 272. ISBN 9780470682661<\/a>. $104.95 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Abby Forster<\/a><\/strong>, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee<\/em><\/p>\n

A persistent tension in disability studies, especially those focusing on intellectual or learning disabilities, is between the need for support services for everyday tasks and the desire to respect individuals\u2019 autonomy in making major decisions about their lives. Using conversation analyses of interactions between people with disabilities and their support workers (as well as a variety of public encounters), Val Williams shows that this central tension emerges from the conversational work of identity and power.<\/p>\n

The book contains fifteen chapters consisting of two introductory chapters and two main parts, which are each introduced by self-advocates (i.e. people with intellectual disabilities who are involved in disabilities advocacy). Ch. 1 introduces major areas of scholarship from disability studies that are relevant to the book, including the social model of disability. Ch. 2 gives an overview of conversation analysis that is accessible to a newcomer to the area. W discusses the general theories of interaction and identity in talk.<\/p>\n

Part 1 focuses on individual voices. Using ample selections of dialogue from videotaped interactions, it highlights conversational interactions between people with disabilities and their support workers. Ch. 3 shows how disempowerment happens in talk with people with disabilities as when a turn to talk is taken over by a support worker or when people are repeatedly pressured to talk when they do not want to. Ch. 4, on the other hand, focuses on how supporting someone to be competent occurs through talk. Examples include when support workers give advice or keep someone on task. Ch. 6 looks at how support workers and people with disabilities use friendliness in talk to equalize their power. Ch. 7 shows how autonomy is accomplished in talk, for example, in decision-making practices.<\/p>\n

Part 2 shifts focus to the collective voice of people with disabilities as it is fostered through advocacy groups and inclusive research projects. Ch. 9 shows how self-advocacy talk occurs in group situations when self-advocates bring private experiences into public. Chs. 11 and 13 focus on the complexities of labeling. Being labeled \u2018disabled researchers\u2019 brings particular disempowering challenges to research, which are explored. Additionally, W shows that the label is also used as a tool of power that calls on a collective voice. W calls attention to the contrast between the largely supported interactions in Part 1 and the strong self-advocacy and leadership exhibited by people with disabilities in the collective situations analyzed in Part 2. In her concluding chapters, W provides self-reflections on her methods and the implications of her research for change.<\/p>\n

This book is targeted toward scholars of disability studies, and each chapter offers practical implications for support workers. It is also of interest for its methodology. The book provides a clear introduction to conversation analysis for those who are new to it. Furthermore, interesting for its in-depth use of inclusive research, W highlights the valuable insights self-advocates contributed to her research. Inclusive research may offer a balance between autonomy and support because, as W argues, through respectful support, people with disabilities can have a powerful voice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disability and discourse: Analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities. By Val Williams. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. 272. ISBN 9780470682661. $104.95 (Hb). Reviewed by Abby Forster, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee A persistent tension in disability studies, especially those focusing on intellectual or learning disabilities, is between the need for support services for everyday tasks and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2275,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2273\/revisions\/2275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}