WELCOME TO

Department of Disability Studies

The Department of Disability Studies aims to become the lead centre for teaching, professional skills development and research on disability related issues in Sri Lanka. At the DDS all teaching and research programs are underpinned by a disability studies paradigm.

WELCOME TO

Department of Disability Studies

Undergraduate Programmes

Offers courses for Speech and Hearing Science degree.

SHS Student Portal

Student Portal for SHS Degree Program.

OT Student Portal

Student Portal for OT Degree Program.

Research

The department is engaged in multidisciplinary research.

Galle Literary Festival 2016

With the aim of offering equal access to an arts platform for children with and without disabilities,the Department of Disability Studies in collaboration with the Department of Fine Arts (Drama & Theatre and Image Art Unit and the Visual Arts & Design and Performing Arts Unit), the Department of English and the English Language Teaching Unit organized a stall titled 'Common Ground' at the Children's Festival of the Galle Literary Festival 2016 on Saturday the 17th of January 2016 at the Dharmapala Park in Galle.

Leading up to the festival, the students and staff of the department offered inclusive theatre workshops in Jaffna, Mannar, Kalmunai, Ragama and Ratmalana. The activities offered at the stall included:

1Inclusive Children Theatre

Three of the inclusive theatre performances emerged from the series of inclusive drama workshops undertaken. Following on from the workshops, original drama scripts were written by Dulip Luxman (Batch 3), Samadhi Edirisinghe (Batch 5) and Nipuni Adikari (Batch 6). The three inclusive theatre pieces used a combination of Sinhala, Tamil, English and Sri Lankan Sign Language. We showcased performance groups from Jaffna,

Kalmunai, Tangalle,Ragama and Ratmalana. Our aim was to move away from the portrayal of children with disabilities as 'gifted' or 'special in spite of a disability' or even 'differently-abled' and move toward inclusive theatre productions where the individual's unique contribution to the production is appreciated and the collective experience and expression valued.

2Inclusive Art Sessions

Art sessions were offered with a variety of art activities including a multi-sensory group mural connected to a children's story using recycled items in keeping with the university's and the children's festival's eco-friendly theme, hand and finger-painting and free-compositions, which culminated in a mobile art exhibition.

3Performance poetry

This session was a presentation of multilingual poetry by undergraduate students.We also offered children who accessed the stall the opportunity to experience multi-sensory children's stories and poetry activities.