Understanding Disabled Being in Terms of Corporeal Variability, Access, and Meaning

Abstract

Many people conceive of disabled Being as a disadvantageous and undesirable way of existing but these characteristics are neither inherent nor immutable. Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenology framework, with emphases on his notions of care and meaning formulation and revelation, guided the current exploration of disabled Being. In addition, the author consulted critical and crip phenomenology along with data gleaned from the lives of disabled people. The results of the exploration illuminated how interactions between bodies and entities impact access. In turn, access, defined as the ability to use entities in their intended manner, affects revealed meanings. Atypical bodies and entities generally do not mesh well which hinders access and leads to revealing negatively oriented and devalued meanings. In contrast, using entities in the intended manner to complete personally relevant activities and projects contributes to positively oriented meanings. The article concludes by outlining two concomitant actions that foster more favorable views of disabled Being. First, creating inclusive practices of care and second, promoting thoughtful, collaborative discourse that seeks valued meanings of and roles for impairments in people’s lives.