Zip zip my brain harts

Abstract

Zip Zip My Brain Harts is the result of collaboration between Buckland (a photographer) and HSRC researchers concerned with disability issues. Angie Buckland's remarkable photographs, interspersed with challenging text, are a unique expression of the fullness of human experience, with all its joy, pain and confusion.

There is a tendency for disability to be a secret. The challenges that face families of people with disabilities are also often hidden away. Part of the reason is that disability is still largely seen as a shame, a disgrace, and a source of stigma. Angie Buckland, the mother of a disabled child, Nikki, provides us with a personal account of how she has dealt with the challenge of disability.

Some of the key issues considered are: what if disability was considered ordinary or everyday? What if disability were seen as just one among many differences that there already are between people? What if disability were defined not simply as a physical or mental medical state, but were understood to be a societal problem, in terms of the reaction of other people to disability, or how geographical and social spaces can be discriminatory?

Zip Zip My Brain Harts hopes to open up a space for dialogue about the issue of disability and also to provide families and healthcare professionals with a compassionate, understanding and inspiring guide to ordinary people's real experiences.