Cultural encounters: Construing disability across disciplines and professional discourses in Norway

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Despite recent advances in scientific endeavour and in the public sphere, the gap between basic research and public awareness of disability is still huge. Furthermore, rather than a property of the individual, impairment can be viewed as an interaction between individuals and their environment, and competence as a function of context. In this project we aim to address how disability is conceptualised from the point of view of researchers, clinicians/therapists, institutions, social groups and disabled individuals themselves. We will adopt an interdisciplinary approach, combining methods from linguistic analysis, discourse analysis, natural language processing, psycholinguistics, clinical linguistics, neuroscience, educational science, medical science, philosophy. Within an interactive models format, the focus will be on the interaction of the individual with her environment at the micro-, meso- and macro-level in early development through to early adolescence and adulthood. In this respect Norway is an excellent example of a highly advanced well-fare system which offers excellent opportunities to address the above issues in the domain of public discourse. The idea is to create a network collaborating at the national level, while also engaging substantial international input. We will organize two international, multi-disciplinary conferences and one seminar series, directly involving national and international experts with diverse cultural, national and professional backgrounds. At the same time, we will give voice to stakeholders, including parents of children with disabilities.