Disability Studies and Art Education

Overview & Synopsis

This article promotes the field of disability studies as a valuable resource for expanding art education's concept of disability and as a promising venue for interdisciplinary dialogue. While art education has persistently supported special education since its inception, disability advocacy has advanced in the past two decades toward self-awareness, self-reliance, and self-expression. The article demonstrates how disability studies, as the academic manifestation of this trend, can critically elaborate disability discourses in art education, such as those which espouse special education and the uncritical use of pejorative disability metaphors. The article concludes by exploring possibilities for art education researchers to contribute to disability studies and to collaborate on research as an interdisciplinary project to advance both fields. (Contains 3 figures and 5 endnotes.)