Re-presenting Disability Discussion Questions: #6 Behind the Shadow of Merrick and #7 Disability reframed

Re-presenting Disability Discussion Questions: #6 Behind the Shadow of Merrick and #7 Disability reframed: challenging visitor perceptions in the museum

Reading #6 is an essay describing a film maker's motivation and process in creating a short documentary film for the Royal London Hospital Archives and Museum. The subject of the film is Joseph Merrick, better known as 'The Elephant Man'. The film was meant to depict Merrick as he saw himself, and the filmmaker used the method of showing Merrick's experience through the lens of modern day disabled people interacting with artifacts of Merrick's life. I tracked down the video online. Please click HERE to watch it, and consider the following question: How well do you think the film reaches two very distinct audiences--disabled people and people with no disabilities?

Deaf or Hard of Hearing viewers, click HERE to read the script.

Reading #7 is a discussion of a research project designed to evaluate people's responses to nine representations of disability at various museums in England. The authors also describe the Individual Model and the Social Model of Disability. The former is based on the idea that disability belongs to the individual and is a result of a person's specific medical issues. The latter is based on the idea that disability is placed on individuals by society in the form of environmental and attitudinal barriers.

Click HERE for background information about Deafness on Martha's Vineyard in the late 19th-early 20th Centuries. Because of a very high percentage of Deaf residents, everyone used sign language. There were no communication barriers between hearing and Deaf residents. Did disability exist within that community?