Disability Studies as a Framework for Disability Awareness Programs: A "Magic Carpet" Is Not Enough

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: The Things Kids Say: Dis/Ability Construction in Youth Talk

Abstract

This paper presents and critically discusses a disability awareness program that was addressed to children aged between 6-8 years old in Cyprus. The main aims were to explore how disability studies could inform decisions on structured activities and materials to support children understand disability as condition of life, and at a second stage, recognize disabling practices. Artefacts from children’s work and narratives are presented to inform choices and decisions in relation to the program. The discussion draws on international literature and critically examines how key-aspects of the program (e.g. employing personal experiences of disability, considering the local context and the use of language, using carefully selected cartoons) are linked with issues raised by disability feminists and postmodernists/poststructuralists in disability studies.

Authors

• Simoni Symeonidou, University of Cyprus

• Eleni Loizou, University of Cyprus