An Arts-Based Inquiry of Sibling Disability

This book examines texts and other artistic products rendered by siblings of individuals with disabilities in order to interrogate the impact of disability on the identity of non-disabled siblings. This includes an arts-based analysis of the author's own experiences as the sister of a woman with disabilities as depicted in photo essays and autoethnographic texts. By providing an alternate presentation of the topics surrounding sibling disability it gives readers a deeper and broader perspective of the lived experience of sibling disability by introducing them to some of the knowledge that is specifically, and perhaps singularly available to siblings of people with disabilities. Presenting findings from narrative analysis, visual analysis, autoethnographic and arts-based research related to sibling disability, it challenges the grand narratives that persist in many cultural products and medical discourses around sibling disability. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sociology, childhood studies, family studies and the arts more broadly.

Linnéa E. Franits (she/her) is Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at Utica University, USA. Her scholarly interests include sibling disability, autoethnography, and arts-based research.

0.Introduction. Part I - How Sibling Disability Shows Up In Recent Art. 1.Themes found in art about sibling disability. 2.The impact of medium in text-based art about sibling disability. 3.The impact of medium in visually-based art about sibling disability. Part II - My Arts-Based Research Project. 4.An epistemology of disability. 5.Interdependence. 6.Attempts to unravel myths about productivity and disability. 7.Context and dimensions: Position in space and time as a sibling. 8.Siblinghood constructs identity. 9.Other Findings. 10.Situating and understanding positionality of my exploration of sibling disability.