01385nas a2200217 4500000000100000008004100001653001700042653001900059653001500078653001500093653001500108653001900123653001100142100001300153700002300166245007700189856008500266300000800351520079400359022001401153 2017 d10aSouth Africa10aRepresentation10adiscourses10adiscomfort10aDisability10adecolonization10aAfrica1 aSwartz L1 aMarchetti-Mercer M00aDisabling Africa: the power of depiction and the benefits of discomfort. uhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02684527.2017.1400240?needAccess=true a1-53 a

Despite the fact that the vast majority of disabled people live in low and middle-income countries, the field of disability studies is dominated by research on disability in wealthy contexts. Although there are encouraging signs of this pattern changing, there are challenges to researchers about how to represent and think about disability in African contexts, and it is difficult not to reproduce unhelpful stereotypes. We use the example of an encounter we had with an expatriate Deaf South African to reflect on the complexities of representation facing people working on disability issues in Africa and what has been termed the Global South. We suggest that an appreciation of the productive value of discomfort about issues of representation may help move the field forward.

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