My Mother’s Glasses: Reframing Dementia’s Objects

This paper builds on insights in disability studies, queer theory, feminist philosophy, and critical phenomenology to reframe the meaning and value of ordinary, physical objects that are part of the worlds that people with dementia share with their close family and friends. I offer a queer crip critical phenomenological reframing of dementia’s objects to better understand and critique normalized structures of ableism that shape dementia experience, especially when first-person experience of dementia cannot be transparently communicated. I argue that such a reframing of dementia’s objects furthers understanding of how dementia is a disability justice issue and opens possibilities for more just care for people with dementia and members of their care communities.