ABSTRACT
Disability Studies is a relatively new academic field. It springs in part from the disability rights movement and social change activism spurred largely by people labeled and marginalized as “disabled” in numerous societies (Barnes et al. 2002; Kafka 2003; Malhotra 2001). Like Feminist and Queer Studies, Disability Studies provides a conceptual framework for a critique of law, culture, and society. Disability Studies deconstructs and reconstructs the meaning of disability through investigating the social construction of disability, the power structures that support and enhance ableism, and the idea of normalcy. The basic approach that all disability studies scholars share is that disability is not an inherent trait located in the disabled person’s body and mind, but a result of socio-cultural dynamics that occur in interactions between society and people defined as disabled.
