"Everyone, including persons with disability, has been created for a purpose. No one is useless. ... more "Everyone, including persons with disability, has been created for a purpose. No one is useless. As persons with disability, we’re often labeled and stigmatized, robbed of dignity and made to feel our difference rather than our inclusion in a shared society. We are portrayed as persons who have nothing to offer. Finding our purpose would help disprove that notion – to ourselves and others. Remember: Disability and Inferiority are not equivalents, nor ever were.
It is therefore so critical that each of us assert ourselves as a person who exists outside someone else’s expectations – you have your own hopes, dreams, values and self-determination. Remember, you don’t have to be a “big” person, such as a lawyer, doctor, journalist, or even particularly wealthy before you can fulfill your purpose. But you do have to feel satisfied with your choices. Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former UN Secretary General, once said, “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
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How is disability conceptualized in Africa in the post-UN Convention on the Rights of Persons wit... more How is disability conceptualized in Africa in the post-UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) era? This dissertation will examine how the disability movement in Africa has appropriated the CRPD, critiquing the pragmatic applicability of disability models grounded in Northern conceptualizations of disability and disability advocacy. As a Critical Global Disability Studies project, it will be argued that these exported/imported epistemologies negate the body in disability and are therefore unable to account for the complexity and heterogeneity of disability in Southern contexts. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, this dissertation will undertake a case study analysis exploring how disability experiences are shaped and lived by the members of the African Youth with Disabilities Network (AYWDN).
"Everyone, including persons with disability, has been created for a purpose. No one is useless. ... more "Everyone, including persons with disability, has been created for a purpose. No one is useless. As persons with disability, we’re often labeled and stigmatized, robbed of dignity and made to feel our difference rather than our inclusion in a shared society. We are portrayed as persons who have nothing to offer. Finding our purpose would help disprove that notion – to ourselves and others. Remember: Disability and Inferiority are not equivalents, nor ever were.
It is therefore so critical that each of us assert ourselves as a person who exists outside someone else’s expectations – you have your own hopes, dreams, values and self-determination. Remember, you don’t have to be a “big” person, such as a lawyer, doctor, journalist, or even particularly wealthy before you can fulfill your purpose. But you do have to feel satisfied with your choices. Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former UN Secretary General, once said, “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
"
How is disability conceptualized in Africa in the post-UN Convention on the Rights of Persons wit... more How is disability conceptualized in Africa in the post-UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) era? This dissertation will examine how the disability movement in Africa has appropriated the CRPD, critiquing the pragmatic applicability of disability models grounded in Northern conceptualizations of disability and disability advocacy. As a Critical Global Disability Studies project, it will be argued that these exported/imported epistemologies negate the body in disability and are therefore unable to account for the complexity and heterogeneity of disability in Southern contexts. To bridge the gap between theory and practice, this dissertation will undertake a case study analysis exploring how disability experiences are shaped and lived by the members of the African Youth with Disabilities Network (AYWDN).
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It is therefore so critical that each of us assert ourselves as a person who exists outside someone else’s expectations – you have your own hopes, dreams, values and self-determination. Remember, you don’t have to be a “big” person, such as a lawyer, doctor, journalist, or even particularly wealthy before you can fulfill your purpose. But you do have to feel satisfied with your choices. Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former UN Secretary General, once said, “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
"
It is therefore so critical that each of us assert ourselves as a person who exists outside someone else’s expectations – you have your own hopes, dreams, values and self-determination. Remember, you don’t have to be a “big” person, such as a lawyer, doctor, journalist, or even particularly wealthy before you can fulfill your purpose. But you do have to feel satisfied with your choices. Kofi Annan, Ghanaian diplomat and former UN Secretary General, once said, “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.”
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