South Asia and Disability Studies

Incorporating scholarship that addresses the social, economic, cultural, and historical facets of the experience of disability in South Asia, this book presents the reader with a comprehensive, cogent, and nuanced view of the constructions of disability in this region. In doing so, it focuses on the lived experiences of people with disabilities and their families, analyzing such disabling barriers as poverty, caste, and other inequities that limit their access to education, employment, equity, and empowerment. It addresses the interpretations of disability within different South Asian contexts including policy, family, educational systems, films, and literary narratives. Situated in an interdisciplinary perspective that spans areas such as cultural studies, law, disability studies in education, sociology, and historiography, South Asia and Disability Studies presents a rich and complex understanding of the disability experience in South Asia. The organization of topics parallels the discourse in areas within disability studies such as identity construction, language, historical constructions of disability, and cultural representations of disability.

Shridevi Rao (PhD in special education, Syracuse University) is Associate Professor at the Department of Special Education, Language, and Literacy at The College of New Jersey. She has conducted several ethnographic studies and authored articles that focus on families’, teachers’, and teacher candidates’ constructions of disability. Maya Kalyanpur (PhD in special education, Syracuse University) is Associate Professor in the Department of Learning and Teaching at the University of San Diego. She has authored books and numerous articles on international special education policy and programs in the United States, India, and Cambodia, with a focus on issues relating to families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.