Student Focus - Julie-Ann Scott – January / February 2009
Julie-Ann Scott
Disability as Diversity
Julie-Ann Scott knows about high unemployment among people with physical disabilities. She’s familiar with workplace policies and medical terminology focusing on what physically disabled bodies can’t do.
Scott would rather focus on what they can do.
As part of her doctoral research in communication at the University of Maine, Scott interviewed 26 professionals with physical disabilities who are not just surviving, but thriving in high-level careers — from doctors of philosophy to doctors of medicine. She hopes that the results will help shape educational and workplace policy.
“That means helping people understand disability not as a deficit, but as one more aspect of diversity, about what it means to be human,” says Scott, who received an award for the top poster at the Society for Disability Studies annual conference last year. “That’s not how we look at race or gender.”
In her research, Scott uses performance of identity analysis, which is based on the premise that a story both shapes and is shaped by the teller and the listener.
“Julie-Ann is very interested in the ways in which we tell our stories, the sense in which we talk about experiences,” says Kristin Langellier, a UMaine professor of communication who specializes in performance study, and Scott’s academic adviser. “Telling that story, we’re in a sense also producing the possibilities of who we are. It adds to the work in disability studies because it opens up the possibility that things aren’t already determined.”
Scott’s physical disability, spastic cerebral palsy, gave her an unanticipated advantage. Before meeting with her, many of those she interviewed asked if she was disabled. That common ground allowed her to do her research more effectively.
“When I write my dissertation, my conclusion will be taken out of the theoretical and translated into (language that educators and human resources managers can incorporate into academic and corporate disability guidelines),” Scott says.
Most of the people she interviewed explained how they navigate a world that is not designed for people who move like they do. As a result, they developed valuable professional skills, such as the ability to relate to people, communicate effectively and problem-solve. They were able to do this, in part, because of the support networks they established and the adaptive technologies they incorporated into their lives.
Those with progressive conditions were constantly thinking ahead, planning for a time when they may not be able to walk or get to work on their own.
Scott says everyone should plan for physical limitations — even those who don’t have a disability or progressive disease.
“Disability really does apply to everyone,” she says. “Your body is always changing, and disability is part of those changes.”
