Book Review: Titchkosky, Disability, Self, and Society

Tanya Titchkosky.
Disability, Self, and Society.
University of Toronto Press, 2003. 296 pp.
24.95 paper (0-8020-8437-0), $55.00 hardcover (0-8020-3561-2)

This contribution to the field of disability studies was approached with honesty and insight. The greatest strength of this work is found in the examination of those simple, taken-for-granted interactions that stream through our lives without commanding attention. Through the use of narratives – a conversation with a cab driver, interactions with colleagues, observations made while ‘passing’ as blind, living between her dyslexia and her partner’s blindness – Titchkosky exposes the reader to an alternative discourse on disability. She joins the voices of many other disability studies scholars in arguing that disability must be interpreted as a sociopolitical phenomenon, rather than as an individually experienced biological event.

This book is a quest for the meaning of disability as it is created by culture, others and within self. After decisively locating disability as a cultural phenomenon, Titchkosky explores a series of dichotomies surrounding disability: expected vs. unexpected people in environments, cultural mapping of disability vs. normalcy, old vs. new disability studies. She then focuses her attention on the dominant discourse around disability. As a health professional, it was startling (and refreshing) to have the gaze of disability fall on me as a member of the dominant culture. Rather than viewing the medical model or even traditional sociological approaches to disability as unquestionable authorities on disability, Titchkosky reserves the role of expert teacher for disability itself. When disability takes center stage, the voice of this teacher is familiar; it has been there all along, masked beneath the volume of the dominant discourses. Embodied as teacher, disability illuminates meaning-making within culture and starkly points out the consequences of this designation. Disability is a space well-suited for unmasking the hegemonic nature of our culture in the creation of meaning.

Four significant themes course through this book: cultural mapping of disability, the experience of between-ness, the problem of pragmatism, and the conflicting representations of disability in dominant and marginalized academic discourse. Maps, a representation of and guide to the world, are used by Titchkosky to describe the disability experience. Disability is mapped by categories, interactions, and statistics; however, she notes that society does not typically acknowledge that disability offers anything beyond these details. These maps are commonly used by professionals from many disciplines to seek out spaces for intervention and to remedy deviance. Titchkosky emphasizes the utility of a map where disability is located in a place of ‘social significance.’ Goffman’s (1963) work, Stigma, is presented as a flashpoint, marking the difference between these conflicting cultural maps of disability. Use of traditional cultural maps creates a state of ‘between-ness’ for disabled people. This state exists between the cultural ideal of ‘normalcy’ and the lived experience of marginality of disability. Titchkosky argues for the necessity of being receptive to those unique and unexpected lives disability offers and to the thoughts they provoke.

Titchkosky presents the logic of pragmatism as a shield against the demand for social and environmental accommodation of disability within society. Pragmatism defends the logic of practicality as the only reasonable approach to inclusion of disability. The presence of disability within inaccessible environments highlights the message that the environment was not intended for disabled people. Titchkosky notes that had environments been designed as inclusive settings initially, there would be no need for a pragmatic approach to accessibility today. She concludes her argument with a compelling statement. “To put it bluntly, it is often not pragmatic for a disabled person to move, live, and work in some environments, but it is valuable.”

The power of academic discourse can be witnessed in the treatment of disability within culture. Titchkosky critiques the medical model viewing disability as pathology and the traditional sociological approach to disability as deviance. Although the framework for each discourse is unique, they share the same perspective: disability is a problem in need of remedy. There is intense pressure for people working within these models to gain more and more expertise around the ‘problem’ of disability. Titchkosky’s work is a rejoinder to that of others in the field of disability studies, presenting an alternative discourse on this phenomenon. She recommends the replacement of the professional storyteller with the disabled storyteller as one means of moving away from traditional discourse.

It is with great urgency that Titchkosky presents the ethical issues confronting disability studies in the current academic environment where the eugenics movement has great influence. It would seem that disability studies is marginalized within academia in much the same way that disabled people are marginalized within society. She argues that disabled people are indeed the largest minority group within North American society, yet have severe under-representation in this body of literature. She presents her views on the alternative discourse offered by disability studies, that of multiple valid disability perspectives. Titchkosky’s locates disability as a worthy teacher, one skilled at studying ‘the meaning of our world and its people.’

Titchkosky is a master storyteller, employing hermeneutics to seamlessly blend rich narrative accounts of her lived experience between dyslexia and blindness with society’s mapping of disability. She acknowledges that stories change with telling, yet feels this is a reasonable compromise given that ‘lives change in the telling and retelling of stories.’ She provides generous access to her own thoughts and to the nuances of her lived experience between dyslexia and blindness. Her writing has a sense of vulnerability that makes this work very accessible. From the subtle representation of dyslexia on the book’s cover through the structure of certain segments of this work, Titchkosky appears to have ‘stayed with disability’ rather than denying it as a central feature in her life. This prompted me as a reader to review certain sections to clarify the rich meaning they contained. She offers a strategy for deconstructing everyday experience in a quest for the meaning embedded in apparently simple moments or actions. She makes an extraordinary effort to deconstruct the ordinariness of life’s moments.

Titchkosky grounds her work in the ‘new’ disability studies genre, analyzing the sociopolitical aspects of disability as they exist in everyday life. The work is organized and flows well from topic to topic. She emphatically reminds the reader that disability is indeed a minority group that discriminates against no one. It is quite likely that both the writer of this review and the reader will gain personal access to this community during our lifetimes, making this work relevant to each of us. I agree with Titchkosky that society must look to disability as both a teacher and as an authentic space for social inquiry.

Nancy Salmon
Dalhousie University

Nancy Salmon is an occupational therapist and a doctoral student at Dalhousie University. Her work is grounded in disability studies, with an emphasis on the friendship experiences of disabled youth.


	Canadian Journal of Sociology Online November-December 2004 Tanya Titchkosky. Disability, Self, and Society. University of Toronto Press, 2003. 296 pp. 24.95 paper (0-8020-8437-0), $55.00 hardcover (0-8020-3561-2) This contribution to the field of disability studies was approached with honesty and insight. The greatest strength of this work is found in the examination of those simple, taken-for-granted interactions that stream through our lives without commanding attention. Through the use of narratives – a conversation with a cab driver, interactions with colleagues, observations made while ‘passing’ as blind, living between her dyslexia and her partner’s blindness – Titchkosky exposes the reader to an alternative discourse on disability. She joins the voices of many other disability studies scholars in arguing that disability must be interpreted as a sociopolitical phenomenon, rather than as an individually experienced biological event. This book is a quest for the meaning of disability as it is created by culture, others and within self. After decisively locating disability as a cultural phenomenon, Titchkosky explores a series of dichotomies surrounding disability: expected vs. unexpected people in environments, cultural mapping of disability vs. normalcy, old vs. new disability studies. She then focuses her attention on the dominant discourse around disability. As a health professional, it was startling (and refreshing) to have the gaze of disability fall on me as a member of the dominant culture. Rather than viewing the medical model or even traditional sociological approaches to disability as unquestionable authorities on disability, Titchkosky reserves the role of expert teacher for disability itself. When disability takes center stage, the voice of this teacher is familiar; it has been there all along, masked beneath the volume of the dominant discourses. Embodied as teacher, disability illuminates meaning-making within culture and starkly points out the consequences of this designation. Disability is a space well-suited for unmasking the hegemonic nature of our culture in the creation of meaning. Four significant themes course through this book: cultural mapping of disability, the experience of between-ness, the problem of pragmatism, and the conflicting representations of disability in dominant and marginalized academic discourse. Maps, a representation of and guide to the world, are used by Titchkosky to describe the disability experience. Disability is mapped by categories, interactions, and statistics; however, she notes that society does not typically acknowledge that disability offers anything beyond these details. These maps are commonly used by professionals from many disciplines to seek out spaces for intervention and to remedy deviance. Titchkosky emphasizes the utility of a map where disability is located in a place of ‘social significance.’ Goffman’s (1963) work, Stigma, is presented as a flashpoint, marking the difference between these conflicting cultural maps of disability. Use of traditional cultural maps creates a state of ‘between-ness’ for disabled people. This state exists between the cultural ideal of ‘normalcy’ and the lived experience of marginality of disability. Titchkosky argues for the necessity of being receptive to those unique and unexpected lives disability offers and to the thoughts they provoke. Titchkosky presents the logic of pragmatism as a shield against the demand for social and environmental accommodation of disability within society. Pragmatism defends the logic of practicality as the only reasonable approach to inclusion of disability. The presence of disability within inaccessible environments highlights the message that the environment was not intended for disabled people. Titchkosky notes that had environments been designed as inclusive settings initially, there would be no need for a pragmatic approach to accessibility today. She concludes her argument with a compelling statement. “To put it bluntly, it is often not pragmatic for a disabled person to move, live, and work in some environments, but it is valuable.” The power of academic discourse can be witnessed in the treatment of disability within culture. Titchkosky critiques the medical model viewing disability as pathology and the traditional sociological approach to disability as deviance. Although the framework for each discourse is unique, they share the same perspective: disability is a problem in need of remedy. There is intense pressure for people working within these models to gain more and more expertise around the ‘problem’ of disability. Titchkosky’s work is a rejoinder to that of others in the field of disability studies, presenting an alternative discourse on this phenomenon. She recommends the replacement of the professional storyteller with the disabled storyteller as one means of moving away from traditional discourse. It is with great urgency that Titchkosky presents the ethical issues confronting disability studies in the current academic environment where the eugenics movement has great influence. It would seem that disability studies is marginalized within academia in much the same way that disabled people are marginalized within society. She argues that disabled people are indeed the largest minority group within North American society, yet have severe under-representation in this body of literature. She presents her views on the alternative discourse offered by disability studies, that of multiple valid disability perspectives. Titchkosky’s locates disability as a worthy teacher, one skilled at studying ‘the meaning of our world and its people.’ Titchkosky is a master storyteller, employing hermeneutics to seamlessly blend rich narrative accounts of her lived experience between dyslexia and blindness with society’s mapping of disability. She acknowledges that stories change with telling, yet feels this is a reasonable compromise given that ‘lives change in the telling and retelling of stories.’ She provides generous access to her own thoughts and to the nuances of her lived experience between dyslexia and blindness. Her writing has a sense of vulnerability that makes this work very accessible. From the subtle representation of dyslexia on the book’s cover through the structure of certain segments of this work, Titchkosky appears to have ‘stayed with disability’ rather than denying it as a central feature in her life. This prompted me as a reader to review certain sections to clarify the rich meaning they contained. She offers a strategy for deconstructing everyday experience in a quest for the meaning embedded in apparently simple moments or actions. She makes an extraordinary effort to deconstruct the ordinariness of life’s moments. Titchkosky grounds her work in the ‘new’ disability studies genre, analyzing the sociopolitical aspects of disability as they exist in everyday life. The work is organized and flows well from topic to topic. She emphatically reminds the reader that disability is indeed a minority group that discriminates against no one. It is quite likely that both the writer of this review and the reader will gain personal access to this community during our lifetimes, making this work relevant to each of us. I agree with Titchkosky that society must look to disability as both a teacher and as an authentic space for social inquiry. Nancy Salmon Dalhousie University Nancy Salmon is an occupational therapist and a doctoral student at Dalhousie University. Her work is grounded in disability studies, with an emphasis on the friendship experiences of disabled youth. http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/cjscopy/reviews/disabilityself.html November 2004 © CJS Online Click here to download PDF file