Beyond the classroom walls: using popular culture to promote disability equality

This paper will reflect on the content of traditional disability equality training and critique the western bias towards presenting 'social model' approaches as the 'right and proper' way of thinking about disability. It positions disabled people, NGOs, practitioners, policy makers, researchers and educators as equal negotiators in disability dialogues and asks for a more culturally sensitive ground up approach to promoting inclusive communities. It will suggest that one of the ways this can be done is by drawing on popular culture for 'critical moments' which can be unpacked and debated by participants. It maintains that the establishment of effective and sustainable partnerships can only happen when all sides have a stake in the debate.(Presented at Perspectives on Inclusive Development: Embracing Diversity and Creating Disability-sensitive Communities Conference, July, Kuching, Malaysia)