From Medicalization to Participation: Reimagining “Innovation” with and for Disabilities

In this talk, Jody Roberts uses the current political environment in which persons with disabilities have been visibly injected into the fray to reflect on what we seek to achieve when we “innovate” for and with this population. As a science studies scholar and a parent of a child with severe physical disabilities, Roberts uses his own experiences in navigating the oftentimes complicated terrain between critical observer and deeply embedded/interested participant in medicalized social systems to trace a possible path towards the merger of disability studies with biomedical research. From here, Roberts suggests a possible agenda for this merger that seeks to articulate more clearly our intended goals of innovation and intervention – clarifying the distinctions between medical support and support for social/political participation – and the means by which we may get there.

Please RSVP to laf95@drexel.edu.