Editorial Note: Deconstructing Our Able-Normative Institutional Structures
Chandrika Bothra & Tanishk Goyal*
Volume 14 Issue 2 (2021)
If we truly believe that legal academia guides law and policy making, the abject failure of our institutions to provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities strikes at the heart of their assurance of inclusiveness and equal citizenship in the society. A by-product of the lack of such accommodations is the creation of a chilling effect on persons with disabilities which seriously affects their ability to litigate and prevents them from attempting to contribute to legal academia. The result is the creation of a body of legal scholarship which is dominated only by the non-disabled persons. As such, when courts rely on academia while delivering their judgments, they end up overlooking the causes that could have been espoused by such persons with disabilities. This invisibilisation of the scholarship of persons with disabilities is affront not only to their constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination, but individual dignity as well. At the NUJS Law Review, we acknowledge that in some way, we too, have been complicit in enabling this chilling effect. We use this note to analyse the noticeable impediments faced by persons with disabilities in India, especially in the context of accessibility to legal academia. This analysis is underpinned with the constitutive reasons for such impediments which, in turn, have created a narrative that has normalised their everyday indignation. Concurrently, we highlight the recent positive developments in the realm of disability regime in India, which has given persons with disabilities, some cautious optimism for a better tomorrow. Lastly, we also announce the incorporation of reasonable accommodations on the website of the NUJS Law Review. This initiative is nothing more than the long-overdue vindication of the rights of our readers, authors, members and professionals, who, we believe, will now be able to access the NUJS Law Review website without having to go through certain access barriers.