From “Disordered” Language to Expansive Languaging: Understanding Translanguaging’s Relationship with Disability and Special Education

Bringing together perspectives from disabilities studies, special education, and speech-language pathology, this chapter centers emergent bi/multilinguals labeled as disabled (EBLADs; i.e., linguistically diverse students with dis/abilities) and their relationship to language practices, considering how current educational approaches for this population of learners are, and can be, shaped by translanguaging. As part of this work, we first share how the theoretical and social justice underpinnings of translanguaging create space to understand and reposition “disordered” language practices as expansive languaging. We then present the distinct ways that approaching translanguaging rooted in a unitary linguistic repertoire, as opposed to a cross-linguistic repertoire, can shift perceptions of who can and should have access to bi/multilingual spaces. We subsequently discuss how translanguaging has been taken up in ways that center typically developing learners before showcasing opportunities to enact translanguaging to support EBLADs' linguistic and academic development and growth. We close by sharing future directions—including questions and considerations concerning translanguaging, ableism, crip linguistics, and communicative justice—for researchers, practitioners, and clinicians who support EBLADs and their families across their schooling experiences.