Drawing new maps: A radical cartography of developmental disabilities

Developmental disability is explored using a post-disciplinary approach thr ough social construction and cultural cartography metaphors. It is drawn on social maps as a cultural territory created by the totalizing, mystifying science of positivism. People described as "having" developmental disabilit ies inhabit landscapes that are pathologized and marginalized, surrounded b y impermeable label borders created by processes of quantification and numb ering. Although seen as necessary by some in order to obtain adequate servi ces for their survival in schools and other institutions of modernist socie ty, these borders do not benefit those they contain. Instead, cartographies created by special education and other human service practices become reif ied, commodified, and objectified, providing a rationale for continued dehu manization and oppression. Alternative metaphors to labeling and other educ ational practices are suggested as new ways of drawing cultural maps. Polic y implications for those educational and research sites seeking to change p rofessionalized discourse to include labeled, otherized persons are discuss ed.