Representation and Rhetoric of Disability and Disabled People: A Content Analysis of Digital Archives on Disability

This study analyzed the representation and rhetoric of disability and disabled people within three digital archives on disability: the Disability History Museum; the University of California, Berkeley’s Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement Project; and the National Federation of the Blind's Jacobus tenBroek Library. Using qualitative content analysis, I examined how disability is represented in those archives, how Brilmyer’s (2020) critical disability archival methodology shows up in those archives, and how that methodology might be further applied to archives. The data collected came from a close reading of the websites and digital repositories of the three case studies. The study aimed to further the scholarly and practical intersections of disability and archives by influencing future research regarding critical disability archival methodology.