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Part of
Disability in Dialogue
Edited by Jessica M.F. Hughes and Mariaelena Bartesaghi
[Dialogue Studies 33] 2023
► pp. 149–169

Unearthing the concepts that bury us

ORCID logo | The Alliance for Citizen Directed Supports

This chapter begins with the claim that the prominent definition of dialogue as co-present speech is insufficient, if not damaging, to non-neurotypical persons. Not only are people with disabilities excluded from socially relevant dialogues about their own experiences, but the dialogues between people with disabilities are not granted the status of dialogue. As an autistic individual, filmmaker, and activist, my aim is to first, deconstruct the assumptions at the base of this exclusion and, most importantly, replace them with my own experience of multimodal intersubjectivity. My analysis of a transcript I created from my own film is the data for my argument. I advocate for a multi-sensory, multimodal approach to communication and disability.

Keywords: disability, neurotypicality, dialogue, multimodality, multisensory communication, transcription
Article outline
  • 1.Unearthing the concepts and tools that bury us
  • 2.A re-definition of dialogue
    • 2.1The limitations and dangers of a narrow definition of dialogue
    • 2.2Toward a more expansive definition of dialogue
      • 2.1.1Multimodal communication
      • 2.1.2Multimodal intersubjectivity
      • 2.1.3Multithreadedness
  • 3.Transcribing more expansive understandings of dialogue
    • 3.1Transcript 1
      • 3.1.1Transcript 1
      • 3.1.2An insider’s perspective based on transcript 1
      • 3.1.3Transcript 1’s shortcomings
    • 3.2Video recording and transcript 2
      • 3.2.1Transcript 2
      • 3.2.2Unpacking transcript 2
  • 4.Compare and contrast transcript 1 and transcript 2
    • 4.1What of greater importance emerges
  • 5.The insider’s perspective versus Shotter’s writing from within the moment
    • 5.1Lingering residue
    • 5.2Seeking out other ways forward
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.33.07sav
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