Making (in)visible: Marginality, neurodiversity and COVID-19 in urban Saskatchewan

People with disabilities have been coined invisible citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research responds to the ways people with disabilities and other intersecting marginalities were made invisible during COVID-19 in urban Saskatchewan. Using arts-based participatory this research asks, “what are the practices that worked to invisibilize people with disabilities and intersecting marginalities during the COVID-19 pandemic?” To explore this question the project worked with three community-based organizations and individuals with disabilities in Regina Saskatchewan to unpack stories and truths while co-designing a creative outcome focused on lived experiences of COVID-19. Analysis explores the broader contexts in which people with disabilities were made invisible but includes particular emphasis on four focus areas: housing precarity, mental health, food insecurity and substance use. In doing so, the research is grounded in theoretical underpinnings from queer theory and disability justice. Both of which offer frameworks to examine the systems of compulsory able-bodiedness and heterosexuality that codify ideas surrounding normativity and influence pandemic responses. By telling the often-overlooked stories of people with disabilities, participants asserted that these stories are of importance and are fundamental to a collective understanding of how things happened during COVID-19. In such, the paper discusses how stories and artistic contributions from participants require the development of a radical imagination for post-pandemic futures. Keywords: Neurodiversity, COVID-19, Arts-Based Methods, Intersectionality, Invisibilization, Disability Justice

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Master's

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Women's and Gender Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Knopf, Maren Francesca Savarese

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stewart, Michelle

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Carter, Claire
• Muhajarine, Nazeem

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4095

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/16525