About

The Canadian Disability Studies Association-Association Canadienne des Études sur L’Incapacité held its first annual meeting at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg in May 2004.

In 2004, the association began building the foundation for our organization based on the by-laws adopted on June 1, 2005 at CDSA-ACEI’s 2nd Annual Conference at the University of Western Ontario in London. That same year CDSA-ACEI became a “provisional” member association of the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences.

CDSA-ACEI is dedicated to:

• Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas and scholarship regarding disability;
• Networking among individual members, community groups, and other academic organizations; and
• Maintaining and building a commitment to a scholarship that remains connected to, informed by, and in ongoing dialogue with community and consumer organizations and agencies.

An essential value of the CDSA-ACEI is the promotion of the “Nothing About Us Without Us” approach to research and scholarship. That is to say, we intend to maintain a firm commitment to supporting research and scholarship which is fully inclusive of and informed by the perspectives of people with disabilities.

It is a central value of the CDSA-ACEI to bring uniquely Canadian perspectives into the global scholarship that is currently growing regarding disability issues and disability rights.