* This post is simply a small excerpt from a comment paper I wrote for class:

(A paraphrased excerpt from a conversation with Sharon-dale Stone)

“Well, how many Universities do you know of that offer courses on Disability studies”? Asked Sharon-dale Stone. Stupefied I sat in the chair across from her without a hint of an answer, though I figured the number must be quite low. “Courses on Queer studies are becoming more common, it is all because of an increasing number of faculty and tenured professors that may have identified themselves at some point as, queer or as lesbians or as gay or as ‘disabled’ that these courses are coming into existence. These professors have fought long and hard battles to gain the right to teach these perspectives.” In that comment I felt sincerely grateful for the efforts that have been made before me. For the point of entry at which I have embarked upon due to the efforts of others, in that I feel challenged to add to a critical body of knowledge.


One of the last films at this years Bay Street Film Festival, Revolutions, was about music and communist revolutions in Sweden in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s through political music. A line from that film stood out to me in regards to possible intended effects that critical writing in disability studies may hope to achieve, “you can’t change people, you can only hope to change the environment in which people are exposed to and interact with.” This quote fits quite nicely with the overarching or underbelly of the progressive theme of what I can so far understand as disability studies, “Nobody can predict the amount of tragedy of happiness a person will experience in life and yet people feel confident to make such predictions about disabled people” (Swain & French 2001. P.742).