Talk in an Inclusivity Workshop

Abstract

The article analyses extracts of a video recorded in a Russian inclusivity workshop. The participants of the interaction are an instructor, two employees with mental disabilities, and two volunteers. Being involved in a ceramic workshop, they are talking about animals. The main research method is conversation analysis, which is backed up with ethnographic methods, mainly participant observation (the author attended the workplace as a volunteer) and interviews. The article discusses disruptions and delays of progressivity in workplace interaction involving neurodiverse people, as well as how co-understanding is influenced by (a) speech peculiarities, (b) awareness about one’s disabilities label, (c) switching between two courses of action, namely work and talk. The data contain cases of stuttering, missing replies to questions or directives, and abrupt topic shifts. Conversation analysis demonstrates that progressivity disruptions are the result of interaction with all its circumstances, rather than of individual impairments. The same actions (in particular, stuttering, missing second pairs or abrupt topic shifts) can either lead to significant progressivity changes or not, depending on work done by all interlocutors. Progressivity disruptions are mainly caused by switching between the conversation about animals and work, leading interlocutors to fail to provide second pair parts (an autistic person does not promptly react to directives concerning work, while the instructor does not reply to his questions introducing new animals to discuss). Disruption of a sequence – a missing response to a question – is demonstrated by a participant without mental disabilities, and, accordingly, is not associated with incomplete pragmatic competence. On the contrary, similar violation of sequence organization by a person labeled with mental disabilities could be attributed to his label by interlocutors. In general, despite some disruptions, coherent conversation is maintained in the inclusivity workshop, fulfilling its goals and catering for its ideology.