Chapter 6: Disability as Educational Rhetoric or Performative Metaphor?: Reflections on Being-Disabled

It has been said that conditions at the edge of a society reveal more about the state of society than conditions at the middle. People with disabilities, as marginalized members of society, reflect the unadorned aims of education and the values of society in general. Disabled people’s exclusion from the full benefits that education and society offer “legitimate” citizens reveals much about the true nature of schooling and society. It is important to analyze the experiences of individuals with disabilities because “conditions at the margin of society for those who are relatively weak and powerless will ultimately influence our responses to social justice and economic equality for society as a whole” (Peters & Chimedza, 2000, p. 245).