The 2014-2015 Spalding Lecture on Diversity and Tolerance
Encountering Disability: More than a Problem Disability is often understood and experienced as a problem. This talk will explore the idea of disability-as-problem and how this came to be such a prevalent and influential interpretation of disability in contemporary society. Rod Michalko, making use of his experience of being blind, will introduce this theme. Tanya Titchkosky, using her experience as dyslexic, will then move this exploration to demonstrate how disability is more than a problem. They will show how encounters with disability can provide us with fertile ground for thinking about what it means to be human.
Tanya Titchkosky
Tanya Titchkosky, PhD Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto
Tanya Titchkosky is an associate professor in social justice education at OISE, working in the area of disability studies. In her most recent book, The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning (U of T Press, 2011), she invites readers to question their implicit conceptions of disability, non-disability, and access.
Rod Michalko
Rod Michalko, PhD Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto
Rod Michalko is a retired professor of sociology who has contributed significantly to the Canadian and international conversation in disability studies. Together with his three previous books, he co-edited the critical text, Rethinking Normalcy: A Disability Studies Reader, with Dr. Titchkosky in 2009.
This lecture is endowed by a special fund created by the Spalding Family.