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Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 4, 423-436 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X06292768

Finding a New Voice

Writing Through Health Adversity

Ellen Bouchard Ryan

McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

This memorial tribute to James J. Bradac draws on lessons friends and colleagues learned through his witness of living well with serious disability. Analysis of published disability narratives provides the basis for identifying how writing for self and others empowers persons with acquired disability. Acquiring a disability can threaten a person's sense of self and ability to communicate effectively with others. Journal writing allows individuals to rediscover their sense of self, to release complex emotions by naming them, and work their way through the many changes in their daily lives. In particular, a person acquiring a disability must learn how to balance efforts to maintain "normality" with the need to accept changes. Writing for others helps the author clarify personal experience, find meaning, and make a valuable social contribution. Specific benefits of the written social voice are outlined in terms of both process and outcomes. Published illness narratives put a face on disability, engender empathy, advocate for a%"disability-friendly" society, and show how the human spirit can transcend disability.

Key Words: disability • written communication • narratives • empowerment • communication predicaments • selective assertiveness • Alzheimer's Disease


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S. E. Stern
Computer-Synthesized Speech and Perceptions of the Social Influence of Disabled Users
Journal of Language and Social Psychology, September 1, 2008; 27(3): 254 - 265.
[Abstract] [PDF]