Meet Melody! She's a fifth grader at the Spaulding Street School. She loves music, her dog Butterscotch, and has a great sense of humor (Draper, 2008).

At first glance, some people may ask Melody "What's wrong with you," for which she has two answers.

"I have spastic bilateral quadriplegia, also know as cerebral palsy. It limits my body, but not my mind" (Draper, 2010, p. 168).

"We all have disabilities. What's yours" (Draper, 2010, p. 168)?

How would Melody conceptualize disability, though?

She might do it in one of two ways. First, she might conceptualize disability as being "in the eye of the beholder" (Connor, 2011, p. 2).

Some people only see Melody's limitations, whereas others see her strengths.

For example, Dr. Hugely, viewing Melody through her limitations, found her to be "severely brain-damaged and profoundly retarded" (Draper, 2010, p. 22).

Melody acknowledges that Dr. Hugely can't see inside of her, and therefore doesn't presume her competence.

However, Melody's mother knows her daughter is competent and sees "a flame of real intelligence" in her eyes (Draper, 2010, p. 23).

She elaborates that it is, in fact, Melody who's truly the smart one between her and Dr. Hugely, given her ability to "manage in a world where nothing works right for her (Draper, 2010, p. 26).

Another example can be found between two of her inclusion teachers. Whereas Mrs. Shannon, her ELA teacher, sees Melody's intelligence and ability to be a "star in [the ELA] program" (Draper, 2010, p. 103)...

Mr. Dimming, her social studies teacher, sees Melody's academic success as a "lucky accident" upon announcing her perfect score on the Whiz Kids qualifying test (Draper, 2010, p. 190).

The other way Melody might conceptualize disability is being a product of "everyday interactions and instructional choices [which] work to position children as 'normal' or deficient" (Collins, 2011, p. 409)

Take, for example, the dinner the Spaulding Street team had after winning the Whiz Kids qualifier. Melody acknowledges how she generally has no problem eating at restaurants, as she'll usually ignore anyone who stares (Draper, 2010).

However, she also notes how no one on the team had ever seen her eat, and that everyone at dinner "looked down at their plates with way too much attention" once she started getting fed (Draper, 2010, p. 235).

Outside the context of the dinner, eating is just eating for Melody. Within the context of the dinner, though, Melody is the person "everybody looks sideways at" (Draper, 2010, p. 238). Melody's eating isn't embarrassing or awkward without the situation and interactions, or lack thereof, of her peers, which paints her as deficient.

This coincides with Dudley-Marling's (2004) notion that "having LD does not reside in [individuals with disabilities] as much as in the complex of social interactions performed," another such interaction being her "test" with Dr. Hugely (Draper, 2010).