Gerard Goggin - Digital Disability: The Social Construction of Disability in New Media

Gerard Goggin is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland, Australia. Goggin has published widely on telecommunications and new media. From 1993 to 1997, he was policy advisor for Consumers Telecommunications Network, Australia. After that, he taught media studies at Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia. Goggin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sydney; his doctoral research focused on Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Goggins current research projects include a cultural history of the Internet in Australia, and an investigation of the cultural implications of broadband media technologies.

Christopher Newell is senior lecturer in the School of Medicine of the University of Tasmania, Australia, teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of bioethics and disability studies. He is a person who lives with disability; this life experience influences his active research interests in a variety of areas including new media, telecommunications, bioethics, and biotechnology. He is a member of a variety of boards including the Council of the Australian Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and the Australian Medical Council.

Newell is active with a variety of community and disability organizations and has received several awards for his work including recognition from the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. In 2001 he was presented the Australian Achiever award in the Australia Day Awards by the Prime Minister. In 2001 he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia.

Digital Disability

C RITICAL M EDIA S TUDIES
I NSTITUTIONS , P OLITICS , AND C ULTURE

Series Editor

Andrew Calabrese, University of Colorado

Advisory Board

Patricia Aufderheide, American University

Jean-Claude Burgelman, Free University of Brussels

Simone Chambers, University of Colorado

Nicholas Garnham, University of Westminster

Hanno Hardt, University of Iowa

Gay Hawkins, The University of New South Wales

Maria Heller, Etvs Lornd University

Robert Horwitz, University of California at San Diego

Douglas Kellner, University of California at Los Angeles

Gary Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Toby Miller, New York University

Vincent Mosco, Carleton University

Janice Peck, University of Colorado

Manjunath Pendakur, Southern Illinois University

Arvind Rajagopal, New York University

Kevin Robins, Goldsmiths College

Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago

Colin Sparks, University of Westminster

Slavko Splichal, University of Ljubljana

Thomas Streeter, University of Vermont

Liesbet van Zoonen, University of Amsterdam

Janet Wasko, University of Oregon

Recent Titles in the Series

Floating Lives: The Media and Asian Diasporas,

edited by Stuart Cunningham and John Sinclair

Continental Order? Integrating North America for Cybercapitalism,

edited by Vincent Mosco and Dan Schiller

Social Theories of the Press: Constituents of Communication Research, 1840s to 1920s, second edition,

Hanno Hardt

Privacy and the Information Age,

Serge Gutwirth

Global Media Governance: A Beginners Guide,

Sen Siochr and Bruce Girard

The Global and the National: Media and Communications in Post-Communist Russia,

Terhi Rantanen

Newsworkers Unite: Labor, Convergence, and North American Newspapers,

Catherine McKercher

Digital Disability: The Social Construction of Disability in New Media,

Gerard Goggin and Christopher Newell

Forthcoming in the Series

Critical Communication Theory: Power, Media, Gender, and Technology,

Sue Curry Jansen

Principles of Publicity and Press Freedom,

Slavko Splichal

Internet Governance in Transition: Who Is the Master of This Domain?

Daniel J. Par

Recovering a Public Vision for Public Television,

Glenda R. Balas

Herbert Schiller,

Richard Maxwell

The Party System and Public Service Broadcasting in Italy,

Cinzia Padovani

Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World,

edited by Nick Couldry and James Curran

Harold Innis ,

Paul Heyer

The Blame Game: Why Television Is Not Our Fault ,

Eileen R. Meehan

Elusive Autonomy: Brazilian Communications Policy in an Age of Globalization and Technical Change,

Sergio Euclides de Souza

Film Industries and Cultures in Transition,

Dina Iordanova

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Goggin, Gerard, 1964

Digital disability : the social construction of disability in new media / Gerard Goggin and Christopher Newell.

p. cm.(Critical media studies)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7425-1843-4 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 0-7425-1844-2 (paper : alk. paper)

1. Computers and people with disabilities. 2. Digital mediaSocial aspects. 3. Sociology of disability. I. Newell, Christopher, 1964 II. Title. III. Series.

HV1569.5 .G64 2002

303.48'3dc21

2002009977

Printed in the United States of America

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

For
Denys and Margaret Goggin,
and Jill Newell,

with thanks for your love, encouragement and nurture,
and for all you are and all that you do.

Gerard and Christopher

Endorsing the disability rights motto nothing about us without us, we wish to thank the international disability rights movement who cooperated and supported, and who have provided the inspiration for a piece of research that seeks to bring together in dialogue the academy and a diverse social movement.

Similarly we are indebted to our colleagues in the Australian consumer movement, activists with whom we have shared many meetings and forums on telecommunications and new media, especially Trish Benson, Phil Harper, Elizabeth Morley, and Ian Wilson. Robin Wilkinson, AM, deserves our special thanks for constantly reminding us of why our research is important, and for the gifts of her encouragement and love.

We have been fortunate to have received generous support from many academic colleagues including Trevor Barr, Mike Bourk, Mike Clear, David Holmes, Helen Meekosha, Andrew Jakubowicz, Lelia Green, Jock Given, Justine Lloyd, Baden Offord, Tom ORegan, Trevor Parmenter, Shelley Tremain, McKenzie Wark, and Helen Wilson.

In the telecommunications industry, Robert Morsillo, Margaret Portelli, Ted Benjamin, and Graeme Ward stand out as particularly important, in being willing to enter into frank dialogue. We have learned much and, even when we could not always agree, gained crucial insights into the commercial world of telecommunications.