Goggin and Newell wrote a comprehensive look at Disability and how it applies to the Digital world (by digital, they include any and all information sharing technology that transmit information through ones and zeroes over phone lines and other broadband means). This is a wide umbrella that includes television, the Internet, and mobile telephony.
While not directly addressing the issue of blogging (in part because it was still new at the time of publication), the book provides plenty of ideas that can be connected to the Deaf World and blogging.
Goggin and Newell draw an interesting parallel between the notion that disability is socially constructed to the notion that technology is socially constructed as well. They present their arguments well, and neither one depends on the other. It is only in the fact that both arguments are presented sequentially that one can see a possible interrelatedness.
Most Deaf people are already aware of the idea that disability is socially constructed. Goggin and Newell point out that there are two different things- “impairment” and “disability.” Impairment is the actual fact, physical fact of a certain condition, and that is “pre-social” (21). Disability itself is social. People see us as being disabled because we can’t talk. This “disability” would disappear if EVERYONE knew sign language. All that would remain is the simple fact that we cannot hear. Before the advent of telephones, Deaf people would be deemed as valuable office workers- filing, filling out reports, delivering memos, tabulating numbers. Now all offices depend on the telephone, so Deaf people are deemed as “disabled” and less desirable office workers.
Technology is socially constructed as well. As with the example of the telephone, we see how society adopts the technology of the telephone into the daily business of life. Right now we’re seeing a shift in email and SMS phone use as a means of communicating in business. This affects people who are less computer literate but well-skilled in the use of telephones. Goggin and Newell point to the critical work on science and technology to show that the basis of these things are social constructs. Laboratory experiments are tightly regimented, even to the point of not resembling the real world; thereby becoming constructs made by the scientists, based on their beliefs and knowledge.
All of this is aside from the point of blogging, but I found it very interesting.
More to the point, the book acts as an advocate for public policy change. People with disabilities and Deaf people have to be involved in policy making, which traditionally has been done by non-disabled people. Blogging can be a means of empowerment and activism for Deaf people. Their thoughts, desires, and opinions can be easily published for all to see, including those in power.
Also, as part of new media, the Internet has become a new way for Deaf people to create a cultural space for themselves. We already see a fair number of forums and websites used by Deaf people such as AllDeaf.com and MySpace. Blogging, in group form as shown by DeafRead.com, and individually, is a creation of cultural space that did not exist before. One could argue that the Internet is replacing other forms of cultural space used by Deaf people such as Deaf Clubs. Instead of people gathering from a wide metropolitian area to a clubhouse, it is much easier and more inclusive to have people gather online.
Right now, Deaf people are trying to literally create a cultural space for themselves. DeafSun.com, a group of Deaf activists, is trying to get America Online to create a permanent chat room listing “Deaf” alongside the other permanent chat rooms of “African-American,” “Women,” “Gay and Lesbian”… etc. They are trying to move “Deaf” out of the realm of ’special interest/special needs’ and into the realm of ‘cultural group.’
Of course there’s more to say, but these are some highlights that came from my reading of this book.