Kelly Fritsch, an anthropology and sociology professor at Carleton University, is recording the history of Canadian disability justice. Her upcoming book, Broken Worlds, Disabled Kin: Strategies for Collective Survival, explores future possibilities of moving past systems disabling people, environments, ecologies and infrastructures.
Fritsch, who is also the Government of Canada’s research chair in disability, health and social justice, probes shifts in society’s understanding and attitude towards disability.
With her social justice background and critical disability studies expertise, Fritsch says she looks to foster solidarity, interdependence, compassion and accessibility.
The Charlatan sat down with Fritsch to learn more about her research journey and its significance for Canadians.
The Charlatan (TC): Why did you decide to start researching disability justice?
Kelly Fritsch (KF): I am a disabled person and have been active in social justice movements for more than 20 years. Over the last two decades, disability politics, particularly in Canada, have changed quite a bit.
A lot of what has happened has not been well documented or analyzed. I wanted a chance to understand how the disability justice movement emerged in Canada, identify key actors and examine how people’s understanding of disability has changed.
TC: Why is it important to do this kind of research?
KF: Disabled people are oppressed in Canadian society. Ableism and sanism (the systematic oppression of mentally and cognitively disabled people) are rampant. People are living and dying in poverty.
Research can help show the different social factors contributing to these social problems and illuminate how they can be transformed.
It’s also important because disabled people have politics, culture and histories that aren’t taught in schools or shared in everyday conversations. These are vital to people feeling connected to others and to being able to make change.
TC: How has disability justice brought joy to the disability community?
KF: A lot of disabled people, especially disabled artists, show some of the beauty and joy of everyday disabled life.
When you’re with other disabled people who can understand and share some of your experiences, there can be a lot of joy in that.
Seeing successes in the past also brings a lot of joy. There were lots of hard-fought battles to get some of the conveniences that we now expect — not that they’re delivered perfectly, of course.
TC: Your book, Broken Worlds, Disabled Kin: Strategies for Collective Survival is set to be published in April. What’s it about?
KF: The book is about solidarity and interdependence. It theorizes the ways systems that disable people and debilitate people also disable and debilitate environments, ecologies and infrastructures.
I think understanding these systems beyond humans is really important in times of climate collapse and when governments are actively defunding social supports.
TC: What was your writing process like?
KF: I started the book a few months before the 2020 pandemic took hold. Interestingly enough, it used a case study from the 2000s H1N1 epidemic in Ontario, and looked at how disabled people were abandoned.
When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, it was like history repeating itself. The kinds of hypotheses my book was putting forward played out even stronger.
TC: What developments do you hope to see in disability justice in the future?
KF: I would like disability justice to be taken more seriously by all social actors and institutions.
I think there’s a lot of vocal support paid to inclusion and accessibility without action to back it up. The needs of disabled communities require robust funding and a much deeper commitment to accessibility.
If disability justice were the framework by which we organized society, we would have a very different society.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Featured image by Simon McKeown/the Charlatan
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