“This Kind of Child – The ‘Disability’ Story”

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) A new book aims to understand the lived experiences of persons with disabilities and those who care for them through conversations, short fictions and personal essays, publisher Westland Books announced on the eve of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

“This Kind of Child – The ‘Disability’ Story”, by poet and translator K Srilata, will be released on December 19.

“‘This Kind of Child’ offers a multi-perspective understanding of the disability experience – its emotional as well as imagined truth,” Srilata said.

What started out as her daughter’s story soon became the story of everything surrounding the term ‘disability’.

“I am the mother of a child who did not fit the school system, a child who was disabled by it. She was a child who made ‘errors’, ‘mistakes’ that the school system was unforgiving of. We were told by the principal of an alternative school that they could not possibly admit ‘this kind of child’. My daughter went from being a child to ‘this kind of child’ in that one moment,” Srilata added.

The book brings together first-person accounts, interviews, and short fiction which open up the experiential worlds of persons with disabilities and those who love and care for them.

“Disability is a complex subject. The multiple perspectives that this book weaves together are filled with empathy and reflect a clear-eyed vision for what might be. This is a book that everyone needs to read,” Karthika VK, publisher of Westland Books said. PTI MAH SHD SHD