While the title Pedagogy, Disability and Communication. Applying Disability Studies in the Classroom might suggest that its scope is examining Disability Studies in the higher education (HE) classroom generally, the focus of the volume is much narrower than this, and explores the topic mostly from the perspective of Communication Studies as a discipline. The volume is therefore explicitly interdisciplinary in perspective and blends perspectives from the fields of Disability Studies and Communication Studies throughout. The editor justifies this focus, claiming that, on the one hand, individuals with disabilities may experience specific challenges in the area of communication and interpersonal relationships. Individuals without disabilities, on the other hand, according to him ‘often lack the knowledge and tools to experience self-efficacy in communicating with their differently-abled peers’ (1). Both assertions may seem overly broad and generic, and as a result may be contested by many readers – but this is nevertheless the editor’s broad starting point when explaining the way the various chapters interrelate. As a result, the book may appear slightly eclectic: it showcases various issues around disability in HE but only with respect to Communication Studies departments and courses. There is perhaps a missed opportunity here to consider these topics from a wider, broader campus-wide angle. Instead, we are presented with the individual experiences of Communication Studies instructors who describe what has worked for them in their classrooms.
It is difficult consequently to find any common denominator in this volume, beyond the fact that each of these practitioners is based within a Communication Studies department and seeks to introduce a reflection around Disability Studies into their course. A critical review is therefore inherently difficult and needs to examine each in turn rather than the volume as a whole. Jeffress, as editor, does explain in the preface (15) the anecdotal way the chapters came together. There are 21 contributors and Jeffress takes time to explain how these colleagues connected and came together to produce these chapters. It is more a matter here of networks and professional collaboration between field collaborators and colleagues, than a case of any clear thematic unity.
Chapter 1 discusses Disability Studies within the parameters of the Ethics in Communication classroom. The topic is interesting but is of such narrow scope that it may fail to echo with most readers’ interests. Chapters 2 and 3 represent the heart of the volume’s concerns and discuss the integration of Disability Studies into Communication courses, first through the creation of a Disability and Communication course and then through the examination of relationships between able-bodied students and students with Disabilities within special topic courses and electives.
Chapter 4 is particularly interesting and examines the integration of a reflection on Disability in Communication classes through the design of experimental, non-verbal, ‘high impact’ assessment. This reflection is engaging as it brings the reader towards an exploration of universal design in HE evaluation; this terminology and those specific concepts are not, however, explicitly unpacked by the chapter and it stops just short of a broad discussion on universally design assessments. This is a topic that is of wide relevance to most HE professionals and it would have been good to see the analysis and suggestions go beyond the anecdotal observations made within a Communication class, since – as the author points out – ‘students with …] Disabilities make up the majority of the swiftest growing strata of the postsecondary population’ (49).
Chapter 5 is a stand-alone reflection of sexuality and disability. Its relevance to the HE classroom will perhaps represent a little bit of a stretch for most HE practitioners to grasp. It reflects mostly on this issue within the context of a HE workshop delivered specifically on this topic. Chapter 6, on the other hand, continues this reflection on the intersectionality between gender and disability more widely with powerful references to critical pedagogy.
Chapter 8 discusses health, disability and communication. Again, here the focus is ultra-specific rather than broad and far reaching; it examines ‘assumptions of able-bodiedness in a typical health communication course’ (p97). It seems difficult to comprehend in what ways these assumptions might be dramatically different from those made in the majority of HE courses. The reticence to look at the bigger picture, beyond specific Communication courses, and to make suggestions for change that have pertinence for the HE field at large may grow slightly frustrating for some readers.
Chapters 9–13 are perhaps the most immediately appealing in the volume as they bring to the forefront issues around culture, technology, media literacy and hegemonic power that may play a role at the intersection of Disability Studies and Communication Studies. A bit of a hodgepodge of themes once again, but there is nevertheless some degree of cohesion and an overlap, in the sense that these are at least all contemporary, topical themes that are at the forefront of discussions in the field and are currently often also raised by the press.
The tone of the volume is distinctly theoretical, abstract and primarily conceptual. It is so theoretical in fact that it might appear to most readers as borderline ethereal. Many concepts and notions within Disability Studies are taken for granted and this may make the book impenetrable to the lay reader. The only exception to this may be Chapter 11, authored by Rebecca Miner, which considers how to increase classroom accessibility within a technical communications course. This reflection is hands on and quickly introduces notions of universal design for learning, inclusive pedagogy and access. This is a chapter that most HE practitioners will find very readable and immediately pertinent.
Another general remark that applies to most of the chapters is that the literature reviews incorporate old, if not antiquated, references and sources. This sadly makes the volume, to a degree, out of date from the start, however original it might try to be in its exploration of the intersection of Disability and Communication. Another issue, and this perhaps explains the use of old sources, is that because of the lack of cohesion between the various pieces incorporated, each author seems compelled to reintroduce Disability Studies historically. An initial all-encompassing introductory chapter by the editor might have served to free the other authors from this preoccupation.
This is overall a volume that will establish easy credibility as a reference work; scholars at the intersection of Communication Studies and Disability Studies will extract from it unusual pieces and arguments too often overlooked by both fields. However, there is little cohesion or definite articulation in this volume which might have been best formatted as the special edition of a journal; any attempt to read it linearly is bound to trigger a fair amount of frustration.
Royal Roads University, School of Education and Technology, Victoria, BC, Canada
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