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 in the process of co-editing this forthcoming book under contract with Litwin Books!
About the Book: This book aims to address 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
- Surfacing disabled narratives in community-based archives that focus on other identities
- 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!
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.