Magister Artium - MADisability, as a topic of investigation, is considerably overlooked in the discipline of
sociolinguistics. This thesis aims to bridge the gap between disability and
sociolinguistics studies, as I critically explore the role language and multilingualism
plays in the way we understand and construct the discourses of disability.
Based on a year-long ethnographic study at what is defined as a “special needs school”,
I offer a first-hand description of being a researcher with a disability through personal
anecdotes. In these anecdotes, I account for my own positionality to highlight the
importance of reflectivity and positionality when doing ethnographic fieldwork. Aside
from these personal anecdotes, I also capture everyday interactions among young
disabled people. In order to analyse these disabled youth multilingual interactions, I
applied the notions of stylization, enregisterment and embodied intersectionality. In
these examinations, we are able to see how multilingualism is used to negotiate a
position of being seen as disabled. By looking at these personal anecdotes and everyday
interactions as whole, the study provides a more comprehensive view of the way we
talk and represent disability. I conclude this thesis by offering a new direction for
disability and youth multilingualism studies, a direction that emphasises the importance
of positionality when doing research on the agency of disabled people
