Diary of a One Ear Girl: Navigating Writing Studies and Academia Through Human-Generated Accessibility

Abstract

This dissertation examines the role of Human-Generated Accessibility in writing studies and academia through autoethnographic narrative and storytelling in four essays. In this collection of essays, this dissertation engages with various methods within Disability Studies and Disability Justice frameworks to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, importances, and challenges of being, learning, and growing as a disabled student, staff, and instructor in academia. The first essay presents an introduction to myself, my disabilities, and my narrative into the academic sphere as I grapple with graduate school and accommodations. In this essay I also explore the role of the Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) captioner and present some reflections of the rhetorical nature and realities of using CART captioning in the classroom as both a graduate student and composition instructor. In the second essay I put forth a conceptual framework of Human-Generated Accessibility by examining the areas of literature and relationships Human-Generated Accessibility is derived from: (1) the relationship between provider and receiver of access, (2) the relationship between access and disclosure, and (3) the relationship built through access intimacy and carework. By providing this framework in chapter two, readers can better engage with chapters three and four of this dissertation. In the third essay, I offer an autoethnographic chapter detailing my experiences with Hard of Hearing identity formation and how I often had to navigate disability disclosure as a CART captioning user, especially when teaching in the classroom. In the fourth chapter, I conclude this dissertation with an autoethnographic essay exploring Mia Mingus’ concept of Access Intimacy and how this has intertwined with my relationships with my CART captioners. This final chapter also includes reflections on the humanity and interpersonal nature of Human-Generated Accessibility. Overall, the overarching goal of this dissertation is to offer some insight into Human-Generated Accessibility and to continue to bring attention to the humanity within disability.