Steaming, Compressed Air
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Keywords
Parkinson’s, disability, facilitated communication
Abstract
This essay, composed over a span of eight months, was developed through a collaboration meant to redefine notions of writing that excludes people with disabilities. As post-colonial/collaborative composition theory suggests (Davies, 1992), the author and the writer of the narrative are two distinct people. While the author constructed the words verbally through a series of ongoing dialogues, the writer transcribed, edited, and re-ordered the text. Douglas Biklen’s book, Communication Unbound (1993), inspired us to explore these non-traditional ways of “writing” that, while grounded in conversation and collaboration, also disrupt models of efficiency and individualism.
References
Davies, C. B. (1992). Collaboration and the ordering imperative in Life Story production. In S. Smith and J. Watson (Eds.), De/Colonizing the subject: The politics of gender in women’s autobiography (pp.3-19). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
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Devera Gordon
Devera Gordon has lived with Parkinson’s since 1987. She is a resident of a long-term care rehabilitation hospital in Baltimore, Maryland USA. She is 74 years old.
Zosha Stuckey
Zosha Stuckey may be contacted at: [email protected]