Disability studies as a dedicated academic field came into existence in the 1980s in the West. It gained momentum through the civil rights movement, paving the way for deeper interest, research and institutions for persons with disabilities. In India, the field attained importance in the late 1990s. To solidify the ground, in 1995, the government introduced the ‘Persons With Disabilities Act’, reserving three per cent of jobs for those in the PWD category. This law has now been replaced and recognises 21 categories of disability, as opposed to the previous seven. Before we go further into the article, let’s clarify the word disability itself. It comprises both physical and mental disorders or differences. Disability can potentially strike anyone at any given moment in time due to an accident, war or any other unpredictability.

There are 26.8 million disabled people in India, according to the 2011 census. It is a two steps forward, one step backward situation. Social attitudes have come a long way from blaming it on curses or the sins of your past life to the sensitivity that people now show. But what remains a crucial point of discussion is the ableism of this world and the reluctance to change it. Be it public transport, education, policy makers or even the simple act of crossing a road, everything has been designed by and has been designed for the able-bodied. 

This same phenomenon mirrors itself in literature as well. First of all, inherently disability was seen as a problem. Authors writing about persons of disability would signal it through the slowness or unlovability of a character, lurking through the shadows and being portrayed as a burden to bear. The lack of representation was a concern, but the kind of representation was another concern in itself.  All of this began to change with the rise of the disability rights movement, as the agency was acquired by persons with disabilities themselves. Memoirs and autobiographies were seeing a boom, as narratives were being rewritten and the discourse around disability was being seen with full context. 

So, in this article, we will highlight the Indian writers who identify themselves as persons of disability and whose writing has contributed to conversations reshaping disability. 

1. Firdaus Kanga: It is safe to say that he is a jack of all trades. He’s a writer, actor and journalist. He is most notably known for his semi – autobiographical work ‘Trying to grow’ which was published in 1991. This work has also been adapted into a film by the title ‘Sixth Happiness’. He himself has osteogenesis imperfecta, wherein one’s bones become very fragile and are prone to breaking. His book is set in a Parsi family in Mumbai, and follows the story of a young man named Brit Kotwal. The whole story has an underlying sense of humour to it, which I find particularly very interesting. 
   
   As much as his life has been about pain, his works explore themes of identity, sexuality, pleasure and independence. Firdaus Kanga is one of the first artists who provided a multifaceted lens of the experience of a person with a disability. The text makes you experience a range of emotions from happiness, anger, frustration and the complexity of a human life.
    
2. Abhishek Annica: is a writer, poet and spoken word artist. Annica is his chosen name, representing Buddhist ideology and impermanence. His debut work ‘The Grammar of My Body’ features essays from his life where he dives into gender, sexuality and his experiences as a person with locomotor disability and chronic illness. He is the founder of Dislang, a digital magazine that features narratives of persons of disability. His pieces have been published in The Times of India, Gulmohur Quarterly, Alipore Post and many more prestigious papers.

3. K Vaishali: is a writer, speaker and an inclusivity activist based from Hyderabad. Her memoir, ‘Homeless : Growing Up Lesbian and Dyslexic in India’ was published in 2023, and it went on to win the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. This book talks about the experience of being a queer woman who also identifies with dyslexia and dysgraphia. The starting line of the book made me ensure that I want to read it till the end. It goes “I read online that writing can be therapeutic. I don’t know about that, but I can’t afford therapy, and writing is cheap.” Beyond her role as a writer, she has a master’s degree in communication and writes developer documentation for a tech company. 

4. Preeti Monga: is India’s first visually challenged aerobics instructor, alongside a disability activist, entrepreneur and writer. Her autobiographical text ‘The Other Senses’ is from the perspective of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, with no financial stability and a deteriorating eyesight. What makes her an important voice is that she echoes the fate of many Indian women who have been denied the right to study and thought that marriage would lead somewhere. Through her willingness, grit and determination, she has been able to turn her fate around and is an inspiration to many.  

5. Malini Chib: is a disability rights activist and an author. She is best known for her work ‘One Little Finger’, which she wrote over the course of two years with one finger. She is also the founder of the ADAPT rights group ( Able Disable All People Together). It is an organisation with a sincere belief in building an inclusive society. In 2011, she was adorned with a National Award for the Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the role model category. Furthermore, her life has been adapted into a film titled ‘Margarita with a Straw’. 

6. Shivani Gupta: is the founder of AccessAbility, a firm that offers consultancy services for designing independent spaces for persons of disability. She is also the author of her autobiographical work, No Looking Back, which records her experiences of the plight of disabled people in India, how she overcame it and the building of her identity back again brick by brick. She met with an accident at a young age and was diagnosed with a spinal injury.
   
   She has worked extensively in collaboration with the Chief Commissioner of Disabilities and has presented India in various international conferences.   

7. Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay: is a poet and identifies himself as an autistic person. He published his first book, when he was just twelve, titled ‘Beyond the Silence: My Life, the world and Autism.’ He has expanded his creative canvas widely, as he has now written a short story collection along with non-fiction books. He is based in Bangalore, but shifted to America, where he continued to develop his literary voice and gain recognition for his work. 

8. Tarini Mohan: is the author of the memoir ‘Lifequake : A Story of Hope and Humanity’ published in 2025. She used to work at Morgan Stanley in New York at the ripe age of twenty-three. But she left that hollow job for something that gave her purpose and met with a tragic accident, after which she was confined to a wheelchair.  

Her work is an honest exploration of the acceptance of her new life and identity. What stood out to me in this book was the way the author blends her medical condition details while learning to feel comfortable in her own skin. The writing is very vivid as it makes you relive the littlest of moments through her stories, such as sunshine through the hospital room, brushing her hair again and the joy of eating fruits.  

Beyond inspiration

As you can probably guess, the word inspiration is associated a lot with persons of disability. While it is true that these stories make you wonder about human resilience, there are layers that go beneath it. Firstly, it creates a kind of pressure for persons with disabilities to become a moment of motivation for someone, a passing thought of rising emotions. And, it narrows down the story of a person to a person with a disability. It tends to create stereotypes and strip humanity away.

Moreover, one must nurture an objective point of view. This is to say that pieces of literature being produced should be evaluated for their depth, metaphorical meaning, lyricism and narrative strength rather than solely reducing them to the identity of the writer. What stands as a risk factor is that the craft, imagination and intellectual labour are viewed through the lens of disability. These texts deserve to be engaged critically and thoughtfully, allowing them to be appreciated not merely as testimonies of determination or the light beyond the darkness but as meaningful artistic and literary contributions in their own right.