Disabled Archival Users & the Affects of Representation
Disabled people are difficult to find in history, often relegated to asylum documentation, criminal records, and medical files. As such, the history of disability is often considered separate from that of other discourses, institutions, and, therefore, public conceptions of how disabled people have played a part in history. And the way disability has been historicized, in turn, informs how disabled people are seen and treated today: despite the rise of disability justice and activism, disability continues to be predominantly conceptualized in medical terms, which perpetuates stereotypical understandings of disabled people. Considering the abundance of such types of records that tell one side of disability history, this research considers how disabled people use archives and imagine themselves in history through interviews with disabled scholars, artists, activists, and other researchers. Part of this research focuses on the materials themselves and the affective impacts of archival representation: as disabled people witness disabled people—or even their absence—in history, I investigate how they relate to disabled people across time. And part of this research focuses on the affective impacts of archival spaces: the ways in which archival policies, procedures, and spaces are configured as well as the ways materials are treated and processed all impact the ways in which disabled people feel a sense of belonging.
The Labor of Belonging for Disabled Archivists
As a sibling project to “Disabled Archival Users & the Affects of Representation” and in collaboration with Veronica Denison, this research investigates the ways in which disabled archivists navigate the archival field and archival labor. In a field where being required to lift 50 lbs is standard in job descriptions, we investigate the affective impacts of archives on disabled archivists. This research utilizes semi-structured interviews with disabled people to tease out the affective impacts of archives on the disabled people who work within them. We conducted interviews in Summer and Fall of 2021.
Project updates: We are currently working on a number of publications and presentations.
Crip Futures Archive
We are in the beginning phases of planing and building a community-based digital archive (tentatively) entitled, Disabled Pasts, Crip Futures Archive. Informed by conversations with disabled people, this digital archive will build connections with existing repositories and aggregate materials on and about ‘disability’ in existing archives—that may not be labeled or described as such. Additionally, it will also actively collect and digitize materials from disabled activists, scholars, artists, and community members, as to digitally capture history in the making. In thinking about the history of disabled people, this project also points towards our futures—how a community-driven archive can shape how we want to be remembered and understood through records in the future—while also embodying the disability rights slogan, “Nothing About Us Without Us.” The digital platform will eventually provide disabled people opportunities to submit materials for digitization as well as to re-describe or add context to existing records, so that records on and about disability can have complex and multifaceted representation.
Before building the archive, we are beginning with a series of focus groups with disabled people to discuss crip futurity and archiving.
This research, Anti-Ableist Archival Futures: Disabled Desires for Archival Representation / Les avenirs des archives anti-validiste : Les désirs des personnes handicapées pour la représentation archivistique, is supported by the Research Support for New Academics Program grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture (FRQSC).
Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession
Gracen Brilmyer and Lydia Tang are co-editors of Preserving Disability: Disability and the Archival Profession
About the Book: This book addresses disability, ableism, and accessibility as they intersect with the archival profession—through collection development, archival labor, and accessing historical records. Chapters address a wide range of topics at this intersection including:
- Historical overviews of disability and/or accessibility in the archival field and profession
- Overviews of accessibility, legal regulations, standards, and best practices across different types of archives—community, university, government, corporate, etc.
- Critiques of standards and policies that emphasize legal compliance over actual users
- Disability collection appraisal, acquisition, description, and preservation that explicitly addresses the nuances of archival theory and practice
- Disabled users’ experiences of accessibility or inaccessibility of digital and/or physical spaces, archival content, and services
- Calls to action for archives to better support disabled archivists, users, and disability-related collections
And many more! See our Preserving Disability Calendar of Events for upcoming book launch events
Community Archives: Disability & Accessibility
We are part of FOCAS: Faculty Organizing for Community Archives Support, a collective of faculty members representing nine academic institutions across Canada and the United States who are training masters of library and information science (MLIS/MISt) students to respond to the needs of community archives. The collective work of FOCAS promises to empower community archives served by nine programs across diverse regions in the U.S. and Canada to advance their essential work documenting, stewarding, and making accessible the history of underrepresented cultures, knowledges, and peoples. This project entails:
- Establishing a local community archives internship program in Montréal and developing archival education on the unique aspects of community archives. This program aims to equip students with valuable professional skills, including cultural competency, information literacy, and community-centered work through professional opportunities while also giving resources to the community archives to develop and process collections, fundraise, and expand their reach.
- Identify issues and strategies in regard to disability and accessibility across different community archives. We will conduct research at different internship sites in the larger FOCAS program in order to reveal some of the needs, approaches, and barriers to archives accessibility and materials on disability within community archives. The research will center around questions such as: How are different community archives collecting and describing materials on disability that intersect with other marginalized identities? How are community archives making their materials physically and/or digitally accessible? What are the current interests, foci, strategies, and barriers community archives face when doing this kind of work?
Our collaborative work will provide a model for cultivating the next generation of information workers as community archives partners and stewards; support community archives of historically underrepresented groups across North America in preserving and making accessible their important histories; and reinvent archives curriculum resources for Library and Information Science (LIS) educators across North America to better respond to the needs of BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and other minoritized communities.
This project is supported by the Public Knowledge Program from the Mellon Foundation.
Interested in getting involved?
Calls for Participation:
All project-related calls for participation will be posted here. Check back for updates!
Other ways to get involved:
If you’re interested in another possible collaboration with the Lab, please contact us.