Critical Disability Studies

An interdisciplinary academic field that examines disability as a social, cultural, and political phenomenon rather than solely a medical condition. Critical disability studies analyzes how disability is constructed through language, institutions, power relations, and cultural practices, drawing on frameworks from sociology, philosophy, cultural studies, and poststructuralism. In accessibility research, critical disability studies challenges researchers to examine not just whether technologies work, but whose interests they serve, what models of disability they embody, how they distribute power, and whether they reinforce or challenge ableist structures. The field urges moving beyond functional outcomes to consider the ideological and ethical dimensions of disability technology.