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This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries] On: 20 November 2014, At: 04:19 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Disability & Society Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cdso20 Disability and discourse: analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities Jan Walmsley a a London South Bank University , UK Published online: 20 Dec 2011. To cite this article: Jan Walmsley (2012) Disability and discourse: analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities, Disability & Society, 27:1, 154-156, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2012.631807 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631807 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

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Page 1: Disability and discourse: analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities

This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries]On: 20 November 2014, At: 04:19Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Disability & SocietyPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cdso20

Disability and discourse: analysinginclusive conversation with people withintellectual disabilitiesJan Walmsley aa London South Bank University , UKPublished online: 20 Dec 2011.

To cite this article: Jan Walmsley (2012) Disability and discourse: analysing inclusiveconversation with people with intellectual disabilities, Disability & Society, 27:1, 154-156, DOI:10.1080/09687599.2012.631807

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631807

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Disability and discourse: analysing inclusive conversation with people with intellectual disabilities

instead of just taking the idea of deaf people not being disabled as is. For example,in counselling, deaf people are oppressed because of language barriers, and peoplewith physical impairments are oppressed because counselling rooms are often notwheelchair accessible (Reeve 2000). In order for therapists to facilitate the empower-ment of deaf people, they must understand that part of their oppression is from thembeing separated from groups that could support them – otherwise there will be fur-ther isolation (Corker 1998). This book could have included a chapter that exploredin-depth issues with deaf people and identity, including experiences of deaf peoplewho do not sign, the commonalities of oppression of deaf and people with otherimpairments, the benefits of having both a Deaf and a disabled identity, and waysthat people from different disadvantaged groups can work together for change.

Overall, this book provides helpful information about deaf people from diversegroups. While it could have explored deaf identities further, it offers many impor-tant tips for counsellors working to promote the welfare of deaf people. This bookcould be useful for counsellors working with deaf people or for anyone who isinterested in social and psychological experiences of deaf people.

References

Corker, M. 1998. Deaf and disabled, or deafness disabled? Buckingham: Open UniversityPress.

Reeve, D. 2000. Oppression within the counselling room. Disability and Society 15, no. 4:669–82.

Holly SiegristUniversity of Leeds, UK

[email protected]� 2012, Holly Siegrist

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631806

Disability and discourse: analysing inclusive conversation with people withintellectual disabilities, by Val Williams, Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell, 272 pp.,£65.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-47-068266-1, £29.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-47-068267-8

Recent years have seen an increasing number of researchers using discourse andconversational analysis to consider how learning disability is socially constructedthrough ‘talk’ and discursive practices (for example, Rapley 2004; Antaki, Finlay,and Walton 2008). Val Williams continues this tradition with this unusual and crea-tive book. Essentially this book covers Dr Williams’s career in research, a careercharacterized by a strong commitment to working alongside adults with learningdisabilities whilst undertaking research about people with learning disabilities, anapproach termed in this book ‘inclusive research’. I will return to this theme laterin the review, but the first task of a reviewer is to suggest who might want to readthe book.

Ideally this book should be read by people who are employed or volunteer tosupport a person with a learning disability. As Dr Williams comments, there are sig-nificant gaps between the policy commitment to personalized services and practice

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on the ground. Her argument is that, to change this, people working as supportersneed to become more effective at communication, and more expert at understandingwhat type of communication is likely to increase the power and control people withlearning disabilities can exercise. The book gives numerous fine-grained examplesof interactions between adults with learning disabilities and support workers of vari-ous kinds in contexts as varied as drawing up a shopping list, making a cup of teaand undertaking a research interview. These examples certainly help to explain whypeople with learning disabilities are usually answering rather than asking questions;responding rather than initiating; receiving rather than giving advice. Her argumentis that it is not just the impairment at work, it is the way conversations are con-structed and managed. Constructs well known in conversational and discourse anal-ysis such as identity work and rescue work are taught in this book to enable thereader to appreciate how ‘talk’ (including at times ‘talk without words’) can limitor liberate. As someone who is not expert in these areas, I found the explanationshelpful and enabling. However, whether the people who should read the book willread it is an open question. Sadly, the low salaries and indeed often the educationalbackgrounds of people working in these complex roles are likely to be barriers tothe use of the book by support workers; a shorter, simpler and less expensive pack-age will be needed if the ideas are to have the potential to directly influence prac-tice in this way. However, the book will be expected reading for academics andstudents on disability studies and practice-oriented courses (like nursing) for thedetailed insights it offers into the power of communication to shape identity andbehaviors.

The book draws on Dr Williams’s research over 15 years. It draws primarilyupon the ‘finding out project’ in which four people with learning disabilities set uptheir own research group, with Dr Williams as supporter and teacher. It includesalso examples from the work she did with the West of England Centre for Indepen-dent living on ‘Skills for Support’, considering what ‘good support’ looks like fromthe point of view of people with learning disabilities, particularly in the context ofpersonalized services. She worked with two people with learning disabilities whowere paid researchers on the project, and these researchers, who call themselves‘The Voice’, provide a commentary at various points in this book, including thepreface, explaining why it matters. They write:

If you read the book it will show you how we feel. Then perhaps you will understandhow other ‘users’ feel and why they should have their own voice. (xii)

Thus, although the book is by no means accessible to people with learning disabili-ties, they are constituted as co-authors.

There is somewhere deeply buried in this book a contradiction. If learning dis-abilities are constructed through discursive practices, how do people come to havethat label? And will they lose it if we get talk right? Even to write this bookrequires the construction of two categories, people with and without learning dis-abilities. Talk can reinforce or it can challenge that identity; however, if it is suc-cessful in the latter respect, then its central theme – that interactions can be ‘carriedout on a basis of equality’ (1) – does not quite work. The underlying theory ofchange in this book is that change needs to be initiated by the non-disabled sup-porter rather than the person with a learning disability. That supporter can learn toempower through employing appropriate communication, or choose, consciously or

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unconsciously, to withhold that. Dr Williams does not discuss whether the learningdisability identity needs to disappear, or whether better communication has thepotential to deconstruct the category. Indeed, in the latter part of the book, consider-ing ‘self advocacy talk’, she seeks to demonstrate that this requires people to ownthe label, to wear it with pride, and to change the terms of engagement by so doing.Whatever happens, the binary remains. I do not pretend to have an answer, but thequestion ‘does learning disability remain’ if we learn to do empowering talk betterremains as an elephant in the room.

I hope I have said enough to make you want to read this book. It is thought-provoking and refreshing.

References

Antaki, C., W. Finlay, and C. Walton. 2008. The staff are your friends: Conflicts betweeninstitutional discourse and practice. British Journal of Social Psychology 46: 1–18.

Rapley, M. 2004. The social construction of intellectual disability. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Jan WalmsleyLondon South Bank University, [email protected]

� 2012, Jan Walmsleyhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2012.631807

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