Search

As technical communication (TC) instructors, it is vital that we continue reimagining our curricula as the field itself is continually reimagined in light of new technologies, genres, workplace practices, and theories--theories such as those from disability studies scholarship. Here, the authors offer an approach to including disability studies in TC curricula through the inclusion of a "critical accessibility case study" (CACS). In explicating the theoretical and practical foundations that support teaching a CACS in TC courses, the authors provide an overview of how TC scholars have productively engaged with disability studies and case studies to question both our curricular content and classroom practices. They offer as an example their "New York City Evacuation CACS," developed for and taught in TC for Health Sciences courses, which demonstrates that critical disability theory can help us better teach distribution and design of technical information and user-based approaches to TC. The conceptual framework of the CACS functions as a strategy for TC instructors to integrate disability studies and attention to disability and accessibility into TC curricula, meeting both ethical calls to do so as well as practical pedagogical goals.

Although attention to disability is becoming more apparent in first-year composition curricula, too often disability is simply "tacked on" to existing courses. Scholars have argued that composition instructors interested in fully integrating a disability studies perspective into their curriculum would do well, instead, to think critically about every aspect of their classroom spaces, the subject matter they teach, and the ways in which they teach it. This can seem, however, like an overwhelming task, even for instructors interested in incorporating a disability studies perspective into their pedagogy. This may be especially challenging for instructors working within standardized composition programs without much flexibility in the curricula they are asked to teach. Using as an example a sample first-year composition curriculum at a large public university, this article explores how a disability studies perspective can be incorporated into a composition classroom in meaningful, productive ways, without altering the curriculum itself. In so doing, the article provides readers with a number of theoretical approaches to disability studies that may be helpful in reconsidering pedagogical strategies in a composition classroom, and also provides readers with suggestions for concrete, practical applications of such reframing strategies within the context of this particular sample curriculum.