Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-2020
Journal Title
Disability and the Global South
Volume Number
7
Issue Number
1
First Page
1830
Last Page
1851
Version
Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a CC BY License.
Keywords
development, disability, inclusivity, community, epistemological dissonance, universals
Disciplines
Education
Abstract
This paper addresses the epistemological dissonance created by the growing movement to impose universal templates of disability and disability-related practices to countries in the Global South and the subsequent erasure of indigenous understandings of disability. Underlying this dissonance, we argue, are the deeply problematic beliefs in universal notions of disability and global development that are anchored to colonial frameworks of understanding and approaching human differences. We explore the presence of these colonial frameworks in three specific areas: the language of disability; understandings of personhood; and notions of inclusivity. We propose that bringing about transformation in these areas would mean using alternative indigenous strengths-based frameworks of thinking and practices that uncover and value local epistemologies, understanding the complexities of local cultural, historical, and material contexts, and resisting colonial modes of thinking that label these practices as backward
Original Publication Citation
Rao, S., & Kalyanpur, M. (2020). Universal notions of development and disability: Towards whose imagined vision? Disability and the Global South, 7(1), 1830–1851. https://dgsjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/07_01_03.pdf
Digital USD Citation
Rao, Shridevi and Kalyanpur, Maya PhD, "Universal Notions of Development and Disability: Towards Whose Imagined Vision?" (2020). School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship. 80.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/soles-faculty/80
Notes
ISSN 2050-7364