Ted Talk by Gagan Chhabra

Ableism, a lesser known “-ism”, is encountered by more than 1 billion people with disabilities globally. Gagan Chhabra, who is a blind Norwegian citizen of Indian descent, explores the contours of the term ableism, identifies the means to combat disability-based discrimination, and accentuates the need to create an inclusive society where all individuals can fully participate – irrespective of their ability status. Leaning on his life experiences from Norway and India, as well as his research in this field, Gagan reminds us that a person with disability is often viewed as either a tragic victim or an inspiration porn, but not as a human being. He highlights the fact that disability is a part of human condition, and at the end of the day, and we all are temporarily able-bodied individuals. Gagan Chhabra has very recently obtained his PhD degree from Oslo Metropolitan University and now works as a project manager for inclusion at the Atlas-Alliance. Gagan is a blind professional and has worked in disparate fields such as management consulting, academia, research, and civil society. His research activities focused on comparing disability policies and labor market experiences of youth with disabilities and has been published internationally. Over the years Gagan has held capacity-building workshops on themes such as disability rights, economic empowerment of vulnerable youths and social inclusion. At TEDxOsloMet, Gagan will share epistemic insights and experiential perspectives on the theme of Ableism. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

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