Going ‘Off Grid’: A Mother’s Account of Refusing Disability

Abstract

This chapter provides an account of a mother’s efforts to refuse ‘disability’ on behalf of her son. Using queer studies, queer phenomenology and Titchkosky’s recent work on the pedagogic possibilities of the disabled body, this chapter uses a mother’s account of living through and beyond ‘disability’ to highlight how counting as human off the ableist grid is a problematic but necessary risk. It includes, as a performative act of unbecoming, a letter written to the family doctor explaining the mother’s refusal to follow through with a psychiatric consultation for her son in fear of reconnecting with the disabling ableist grid.