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In:Disability in Dialogue
Edited by Jessica M.F. Hughes and Mariaelena Bartesaghi
[Dialogue Studies 33] 2023
► pp. 115–148

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Fashion on wheels

ORCiD logo with link | Inholland University of Applied Sciences
ORCiD logo with link | Inholland University of Applied Sciences
Published online: 19 September 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.33.06ber
Abstract
What can fashion and fashion journalism tell us about the actual and possible representations of disability? Unfolding from a dialogue between the co-authors, this chapter takes a Dutch case study as its starting point to map and interpret how creative professionals responsible for communication in an advocacy organization, as well as journalists and television makers, had great trouble freeing disability from limiting frames of reference. The aim of the chapter is to provide insight and tools for inclusive and reflexive practices of representation. Discourse analysis provides the basis for a multi-layered dialogue. Ingrained, standardized routines in media practice are the problem that the best of intentions cannot break. The Dutch Zonnebloem (Sunflower) organization pointed to a way forward when they invited feedback and engaged in dialogue on their failed media campaign to find funding to design fashionable clothing for wheelchair users.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Interpretive repertoires, fashion media, and creative industries
  • 3.Fashion on wheels
  • 4.The data
  • 5.Corpus and thematic analysis
  • 6.Fashion and ableism in the Zonnebloem campaign
    • 6.1Disability/Normality
    • 6.2Counter-narratives and the potential of fashion discourse
  • 7.The benefits of foregrounding dialogue
  • Note
  • Notes
  • References
References (102)
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