Disability Studies recognizes that disability is a key aspect of human experience, and that the study of disability has important political, social, and economic implications for society as a whole, including both disabled and nondisabled people. Through research, artistic production, teaching and activism, Disability Studies seeks to augment understanding of disability in all cultures and historical periods, to promote greater awareness of the experiences of disabled people, and to advocate for social change.
— From the Society for Disability Studies
Often "disability," when viewed from a medical or psychological lens, is considered a distance from the established "norm." The discipline of Disability Studies seeks to challenge the idea of the normal-abnormal binary, rejecting the perception of disability as a functional impairment that needs to be "fixed" or "cured" and instead examining it as a facet of the human experience.
Given that people with disabilities are one of the world's largest minority populations (UN Fact Sheet on Persons with Disabilities) and that becoming disabled can happen to any person at any time, study of disability matters because it forces us to interrogate charged ethical and political questions about the meaning of aesthetics and cultural representation, bodily identity, and dynamics of social inclusion and/or exclusion.
