The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning

by Tanya Titchkosky

Values such as 'access' and 'inclusion' are unquestioned in the contemporary educational landscape. But many methods of addressing these issues — installing signs, ramps, and accessible washrooms — frame disability only as a problem to be 'fixed.' The Question of Access investigates the social meanings of access in contemporary university life from the perspective of Cultural Disability Studies. Through narratives of struggle and analyses of policy and everyday practices, Tanya Titchkosky shows how interpretations of access reproduce conceptions of who belongs, where and when. Titchkosky examines how the bureaucratization of access issues has affected understandings of our lives together in social space. Representing 'access' as a beginning point for how disability can be rethought, rather than as a mere synonym for justice, The Question of Access allows readers to critically question their own implicit conceptions of disability, non-disability, and access.

Genres: Disability, Disability Studies, Nonfiction, Academic

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2011

Reviews

[Carlene Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to star. Definitely worth reading but it would have been condensed to a chapter of a book as it rarely said anything new.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Titchkosky's work on space fascinates me. I am especially entranced by Titchkosky's analysis of bureaucratic time, the politics of wonder, and the nature of accessibility, although I'm uncertain if I buy Titichkosky's claims about person-first language as a term that denies people with disabilities their personhood even if I understand and agree with parts about her claim. [Language imposes constraints on communication after all- but language itself is not immune to scrutiny.] I do not have training in disability studies- so I do not know if Titchkosky's approach here is commonplace in her field- but the connections between The Question of Access, queer phenomenology, and critical race approaches to space are bountiful. I do find myself, however, wishing there was more here- more: specific claims, analysis of different texts, theorizing. This work is important.