This presentation is prepared of my PhD Coursework and was presented at the department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Gujarat, India. This presentation throws light on salient aspects of significance and relevance of Disability studies and Literature.

1. Ph. D Coursework Presentation
Department of English
Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University, Bhavnagar, Gujarat, India
Date: March 28, 2018
By Aahuti Dhandhukia
Asst Prof (English), Government Engineering College, Bhavnagar
Research Scholar(Ph.D), M K Bhavnagar University, Gujarat, India

2. To Know, To Think, To Feel
HELEN KELLER LOUIS BRAILLE

3. ‘Equality with Difference’ Matters
It is not tragic to live in a
wheelchair; Disability only
becomes a tragedy when society
fails to provide the things one
needs to live one’s life. Persons
with Disabilities have Right to be
both Equal and Different.
Honourable Justice A K Sikri
Supreme Court of India

4. Presentation in Paper II
Basics of Relevant Subject
Significance of Disability Studies and Literature

5. What is Disability?
•Physical, mental, intellectual, sensory Impairment.
• Disability is an umbrella term covering impairment,
activity limitation and participation restriction. (WHO)
 Impairment is a problem in body function or structure.
Activity limitation is difficulty in executing a
task/action.
Participation restriction is a problem experienced in
environment of life situation.
•Words referring to the Disabled are either Humiliating or
Glorifying ……but Not Humanizing
Impairment
Activity Limitation
Participation
Restriction
“Disability is Past Sinfulness and Karmic Failure”

6. Types of Disability
WHO World Disability Report, 2011
• Blindness, Hearing Impairment, Locomotor
Physical Disability
• Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disabilities like DyslexiaIntellectual Disability
• Behavioural Disorders of thinking, mood, perception, memoryMental Disability
Neurological Disability
Multiple Disability
• Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Thalasemia
• Combination of two or more Disabilities
“Disability is to be Pitied or Punished.”

7. What is Disability Studies?
• Disability Studies is emerging Discipline of study and
research with the aim of developing insightful understanding of
‘ different’ life of disabled people as Human Beings.
• Interdisciplinary studies including disability theory, history,
legislation, policy, healthcare, ethics, arts and Literature.
• Studies social meaning, symbols and stigmas attached to
Disability Identity and inquires how they relate to the disabled
people’s exclusion and find expression in literature.( Siebers
and Tobin, Disability Theory, 2008)
“ Disability is Stigma and Shame.”

8. Emergence of Disability Studies Programme
• Publication of Paul Hunt’s edited book “ Stigma: the Experience of Disability” in 1966:
“ The problem of Disability lies not only in the impairment of function but more
importantly in our relationship with normal people.”
• “ Uncomfortable book “ clearly distinguishing between disability by Functional
Impairment and Social Discrimination gave rise to Activist Movement.
•UK’s Union of Physically Impaired Against Segregation ( UPIAS) 1976.
• International Year for the Disabled Persons, 1981 By United Nations.
• “ Disability Studies Quarterly” became first Disability Journal in 1986.
• US instituted first disability Study Programme in 1994, MLA’s recognition in 2002.
•2003-2008 marked considerable rise of disability programmes from 56 to 108 all over
the world.
Nothing About Us Without Us.

9. Significance of Disability Studies and Literature
• Comprehensive grasp of Human Cultural Development.
• UN in Millennium Development Goals, 2012 in article III
(E) puts disability as “priority issue” for post 2015
Development Framework. Contribution to international
commitment.
• Literature reflects social reality and explores human
experience. Disability is fundamental human experience,
till recently missing from our literary critical
Consciousness.
“Disability is to be Cured or Concealed.”

10. Significance of Disability Studies and Literature
• People perceive disability not through the narratives
on Law, Medical Science, Economy, Sociology or
Psychology but through literature. Thus literature has
wider reach and potential to shape consciousness of
the society for acceptance and inclusion of the disabled
people.
• Further Dynamics to gender, race, class and ethnicity.
They are surrounded by nondisabled in family and
society. Against fixed identity of gender and race,
Disability is Fluid.
“Disabled are Divine or Devilish.”

11. Significance of Disability Studies and Literature
• Actual Experience of disability is complex and
dynamic than represented in literature. “Disability
demands Story “ ( Berube and Snyder, 2002).
Imagination may not give clear reflection of disability,
but intensifies critical thinking about disability and
environment.
•Fictional characters are studied not as metaphors or
tragic victims but complex, active and embodied figures
living everyday life ‘differently’.
Disabled are NOT Metaphors.

12. Significance of Disability Studies and Literature
• Challenges the notions of Beauty, Fitness, Competence
and Independence. Literature generates and spreads
these notions. Special significance in era of Globalization.
•Provides fresh approach to literary text analysis. Proposes
to re-imagine, re-think, re-write literary and cultural history.
• Intersectionalizing Disability with feminism, queer theory,
post-modernism, post –colonialism, environment and
cultural studies.
“Charity to Disabled is Service to God.”

13. Significance of Disability Studies and Literature
• Disability in language and language of disabled in
writing. Tom Coogan’s doctoral research ( 2010), Uni of
Leicester, UK.
• investigates whether disability is ‘marginal’ or ‘central’,
Challenges to reconfigure notion of ‘Normal’.
• Is Disability literary device ?
•Critical and pedagogical aspects enrich humanity.
•Develops disability approach for classroom discussion.
Disability in Literature-Device? Character? Theme?

14. Bibliography
Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie. Extra Ordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature. New
York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Print.
Hall, Alice. Literature and Disability. New York: Routledge, 2016. Print.
Hunt, Paul. Stigma: The Experience of Disability. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966. Print..
MencShetti, Bruce, Gina Plattos and Pamela Carrol. "The Impact of Fiction on Perception of Disability." Alan Review :Fall
(2011): 56-66. Print.
.Oliver, Michael. Understanding Disability: From Theory to Practice. Second . London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print.
Reeve, Donna. "Negotiating Psycho-emotional Dimensions of Disability and their Influence on Identity Construction." Disability
and Society (2002): 493-508. Print.
Siebers, Tobin. Disability Theory. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2008. Print.
Snyder, Sharon, Brenda Brueggemann and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. "Introduction." Snyder, Sharon, Brenda
Brueggemann and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities. Ed. Sharon Snyder, Brenda
Brueggemann and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. New York: Modern Language Associaion of America, 2002. Print.
United Nations. General Assembly."Realization of Millennium Development Goals for Post-2015 Developmental framework."
2012.