Democratizing Disability: Achieving Inclusion (without Assimilation) through "Participatory Parity". (23rd September 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Knight, Amber
• Is Part Of: Hypatia. Volume 30:Number 1(2015:Spring)
• Page Start: 97
• Page End: 114
• Publication Date: 2014-09-23
• Subjects: Feminist theory -- Periodicals; Feminism -- United States -- Periodicals; Femininity (Philosophy) -- Periodicals; 305.4201
• DOI: 10.1111/hypa.12120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0887-5367

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" id="hypa12120-abs-0001"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>More than two decades after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), people with disabilities continue to live at the margins of American democracy and capitalist society. This persistent exclusion poses a conundrum to political theorists committed to disability rights, multiculturalism, and social justice. Drawing from feminist insights, specifically the work of Nancy Fraser, among others, I examine the necessary conditions for meaningful inclusion to be realized within a deliberative democracy. Using Fraser's concept of "participatory parity" as a proxy for inclusion, I strategize how to overcome informal barriers—economic inequality and misrecognition—that persist even after disabled people are granted the legal right to participate. The analysis concludes that a truly inclusionary and multicultural democracy requires the redistribution of wealth and a more expansive model of political deliberation, one that can recognize unconventional (even nonverbal) modes of communication through practices of translation.</p> </abstract>