On 31st May 2021, Nidhi Goyal, our Founder and Executive Director was invited as a resource person for the Disability Studies course at Andrews Visons Center (AVC), Wilson College. She conducted a session on Intersectionality: Gender and Disability with a group of 25 – 30 participants hailing from different walks of life. Through situational examples, they reflected on the stigmatized view of people with disabilities ingrained in the charity and medical model and underlined the rigid ideation of an ableist society. The discussion also highlighted the socially-assigned roles and frameworks for people with disabilities, the glaring problems of representation in social spheres and the general mindset around acknowledging the work and achievements of people with disabilities.
Social conditioning was seen as a cause of internalized stigma among people with disabilities. Moreover, they delved into the act of othering, layers of identities, marginalization through the intersectional approach and the gendered experiences of people with disabilities. Additionally, this was a great opportunity to touch upon the basic understandings of gender, power structures, hypersexuality, asexuality, victim blaming, infantilization, apotheosis and forced sterilization. The session ended with deliberations on violations of consent and agency in the lives of women with disabilities.