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Elanor McIndoe

PhD student - Tracing the Development of Language Concerning Disability, Focusing on Diabetes and Fibromyalgia

01752 636700

mcindoe.e@pgr.marjon.ac.uk


Elanor-McIndoe

Role Summary

I am a PhD student with an interest in disability, identity, and power relations.  The language used to discuss disability has often been detrimental to the self-perception, social identity and societal treatment of the disabled exacerbated through the media and austerity. The emergence of the expert patient initiative by the NHS includes patients with long term disabilities and illnesses has shifted the medicalised power inequality between doctor and patient and has improved the patient is of great interest to me being a disabled woman with several hidden disabilities.  This study focuses on hidden disabilities, specifically Diabetes 1 and 2 and Fibromyalgia and explores the ‘hierarchy of impairments’ related to these illnesses.

Qualifications

  • MRes Masters Degree in Research
  • BA (Hons) Special Educational Needs and Disability

Research

Tracing the Development of Language Concerning Disability, Focusing on Diabetes and Fibromyalgia

This study focuses on hidden disabilities, specifically Diabetes 1 and 2 and Fibromyalgia and explores the ‘hierarchy of impairments’ related to these illnesses.

My overarching aim of the proposed research is to examine the changes to language used surrounding the chronic illnesses of Fibromyalgia (FM) and Diabetes (DM), Type 1 (T1DM) and Type 2 (T1DM), how they are conceptualised within society, and those individuals affected.  Aims within this are This research will endeavour to achieve the following aims and objectives:

  1. Through examining the language surrounding the disabilities of Diabetes Mellitus (DM) and Fibromyalgia (FM) to ask the following question. If adjustments in this language is, indeed, necessary and if so, how would this impact the narrative around DM and FM and the social relationships created of those diagnosed with either DM of FM?
  2. Investigating my own experience of being disabled to ascertain whether my lived experiences are generalizable and replicated within the lived experiences of those diagnosed with DM and/or FM?
  3. To gain a critical understanding of the contribution of ethnographic and autoethnographic research to the development of literature within Critical Disability Studies.

Other Interests

I am a busy mother of 4. I have an interest in philosophy, culture, and read avidly around this in my free time.

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