“Somebody Did Some Work in Your Life”

Abstract

The article presents some personal reflections on being claimed and commodified as a product of rehabilitation. It focuses, in particular, on the experience of working as a public relations spokesperson and fundraiser for an organization that provides rehabilitation and development services to visually impaired adults. This experience involved a relentless demand to perform, and to collude with a narrative that positioned the author as a creation of rehabilitation services and a poster child. Through sharing these personal experiences, the author explores the performances that may be demanded of disabled people, and the silences with which we may be compelled to collude, both in the context of rehabilitation and in society more broadly. The article also highlights the restoration narrative that supports the rehabilitative project in the public imagination and the ways in which this may limit possibilities for blind persons to share authentic and complicated stories about vision loss and blindness.