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ScholarWorks > HHS > Social Work > JSSW > Vol. 51 > Iss. 1 (2024)

 

Keywords

disability justice, humor, social work, disabled, equity

Abstract

Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy transformation. First, I share an example of how to use humor as a direct, call-in strategy to confront social worker-initiated ableist interactions. Second, I describe how a mixed disabled/abled couple can laugh together at the manifestation of disability to avoid reproducing power differentials in their relationship. In the third and final example, I demonstrate how to successfully leverage abled bodies and privilege to ridicule institutionalized ableism out of organizational policy. No one thing, including humor, will eradicate abled supremacy. However, social workers can use creative and unconventional approaches to expand how we joyously engage in disability justice work as a sustainable act of love and liberation.

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