The Testimonial Double Bind for Disabled People

Disabled people face a testimonial double bind: Either (1) they give entirely positive testimony about their disability, which may not be believed, or (2) they give some negative testimony about their disability, which either (2a) may not be believed, (2b) will risk reinforcing false and harmful stereotypes, or (2c) will risk damaging disability rights. While (1) has been discussed to a significant extent in the literature, (2) has been discussed to a much lesser extent, and a goal of this paper is to explore (2) in more detail. I further argue that this testimonial double bind may cause problems for the tenability of a unified disability identity. That’s because disabled people who are more likely to give more negative testimony may have quite different interests than those who give primarily positive testimony. And if a central component of being disabled is having solidarity with other disabled people, then the existence of different interests is a challenge to there being a unified disability identity. Even worse, this challenge to disability identity can occur both socially and intrapersonally. After having clarified the nature of the testimonial double bind for disabled people, I point towards ways to overcome it.