Disability as a culture that helps to establish identity

Zsuzsanna Kunt and Péter Zászkaliczky

Summary:  Disability is an essential part of society and culture. Nevertheless, the question arises regarding how disability is perceived and represented in diverse cultures, in various scientific disciplines, in law, in literature, in visual arts, and in film, as well as in people’s everyday actions. A new discipline has been established that attempts to address these issues from a radical culture studies perspective. The goal of disability studies is to question the existing categories and descriptions, and simultaneously to encourage changes in reality and culture. Based on cultural and anthropological insights, disability culture has different communicative-theoretical, social-political, and person-oriented esthetic focuses, and it perceives itself as a socio-cultural movement. It explicitly acknowledges the unmistakable contribution that people with disabilities have made to the cultural development of society as a whole. This article offers a systematic overview of – and some critical remarks about – this scientific and social movement.