ABSTRACT
The possibility that the historic visual narratives of disability might be a mainstream area for research and teaching across the fields of humanities and the social sciences as well as in health and medicine. In their analysis of the painting, Schonwiese and Flieger were concerned with the visual representation of disability, and its relevance to everyday life and to science, from the past to the present. Works with images of disability, disablement, or illness are comprehensively constructed as 'insider' manifestos calling out for disability rights, respect, or even just the simple acknowledgement of the existence and experiences of disabled people. The iconographic-iconologic framework is a particularly useful process for contemplating visual arts narratives of disability. It can be applied as a single 'point in time' activity, or the process might unfold over several years. People's understanding about disability can be reformed by one painting at a time, one conversation at a time.
