ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intersection of disability, society, medicine and culture (performance) from the perspective of disability studies. The author worked on a strategic behaviour-change communication campaign in Gujarat that explored negative attitudes towards disability among rural communities. The chapter examines the media strategy of the project and the design, creation and dissemination of appropriate communication outcomes which would appeal to the community’s understanding of lived experiences of disability. Folk song and dance performances at the research locations interrogated the social construction of normalcy and disability and yielded rich insights on the role culture plays in creating stigma and exclusion of the disabled body. The chapter discusses how disability was experienced in and through performance and how these performances proved to be forms of critique and resistance, challenging dominant hegemonic (including medical) ontologies of disability and validating alternate epistemologies and practices.
