Narrativas da deficiência

issues regarding academic writing from experience

Abstract

Academic and non-academic narratives about people with different types of disabilities are still strongly marked by ideas of lack and deficit. The erasure of narratives produced from the experience of disability, both in the cultural field and in academic productions, indicates that society values certain experiences, considered normal, to the detriment of others. Ableism still predominates in much of the research on disabilities. The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of narratives based on the experience of disability. The narrative of academic writing is highlighted in the discussion, as well as the possibility of accessing experience through the composition of researchers with and without disabilities. The article analyzes theoretical, methodological, ethical, and political issues in research around disability, through the discussion of the problem of academic ableism and compulsory able-bodiedness. Initially, it addresses aspects of the research journey of the authors as sighted researchers conducting research with blind individuals. Based on the methodological policy of ResearchWITH, the person with a disability is considered an active subject with whom research is conducted, rather than an object of research. In this direction, it discusses the use of explicitation interviews and the conditions created to favor the production of embodied speech from the experience of the interviewees. In a second moment, arising from the emergence of the physical disability experience of one of the researchers, the study analyzes feminist-based academic writing methodologies in authors such as Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Djamila Ribeiro, and Stacy Simplican. We conclude that, although there is a gap in the way of accessing experience, the composition of resources from researchers with and without disabilities for academic writing is fruitful. In both cases, it is essential to create conditions for the production of narratives from the experience of disability. It is important not to homogenize narratives and to invest in the power of encountering differences, always seeking non-hierarchical and non-ableist articulations between people with and without disabilities