The Crip-Lit Cards project would seek to develop and produce a card game that would be ‘inclusive’ in nature and would give the players a critical lens to read the history of world literature and question the idea of literary canon. This card game would be very valuable in teaching any subjects to disabled persons and could be extremely useful to the society.
Usually when we think of card games, given its overt visual nature, we automatically tend to think of the sighted people only. But can we develop a card game that would be inclusive in nature? Here, the word ‘inclusive’ is to be emphasised. Creating card games that can be accessed exclusively by visually disabled people would again reinstate a sense of segregation and relegating the disabled people to a ‘special category’. But this card game would aim to attack the arbitrary wall between disabled and non-disabled people. This would be yet another move to bring disabled people and non-disabled people together in the context of entertainment. ‘Entertainment’ is a keyword here, for it is in this context, in which critical subjects/issues like history, literary canon, chronology and social hierarchy would be raised and challenged.
Inclusion is one of the foci of this project. As a queer-deafblind person involved in the field of Humanities, I have noted with dismay that awareness about the intersections of
marginalities often remain outside the general conception of literature among students. Thus, this card game would seek to create interest among students from all disciplines to engage critically with Literature and Culture in general. Each of these cards would tell us something about world literature. The subjects of each of these cards would not only challenge the idea of canon, but also address the issues of marginality. Thus, both the form and the content of the game would uphold the principle of ‘inclusion.’ Here it may be pointed out that the Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016, in its chapter on Education underlines the need to make education and particularly curriculum accessible and meaningful to PWDs. In addition, this would also give the players an idea about chronology in the realm of literature and culture, and therefore a general sense of history (a history that is often overlooked) as well.
At the end of this project, The English Department would have a game kit containing a deck of accessible cards and a set of booklets explaining the rules of the game. The cards will have tactile markers, contrasting colours and bold prints so that sighted persons along with persons with (varying degrees of) visual disability can access them. Also, the booklets will be available in print and braille versions. The illustrations on the cards will obviously be related to literature and ideas pertaining to ‘marginality.’
Students from UG and PG levels of the department will be involved in this project to carry out the research necessary to develop the specificities of the game. Their opinions will be sought to make the subjects of the cards as varied and inclusive as possible.
This game can actually be used by the teachers of literature to explain the students the
concepts of canon, inclusion, and history. What is more, this may be used by teachers and
students of multiple departments such as Comparative literature, Bengali, Sociology,
Sanskrit, English and even Education to explain their students the various aspects of world literature, their chronology and create sensitisation regarding inclusion and interdisciplinarity. In addition, this game kit would function as a model, which can be replicated by the Science and the Engineering departments as well. For instance, the department of Physics can use a modified version of this game kit to suit the needs of their students, and to make them aware of the works of disabled scientists and physicists across the world. Schools (secondary and higher secondary levels) can also replicate this model according to the needs and demands of their students.
This may be an important tool in creating awareness, sensitisation and enhancing interest in literature, culture, inclusion and marginality politics. This game will enable the larger society to engage with the concepts of disability, non-discrimination and empowerment through entertainment. Core academic discussion on disability, inclusion etc. might often appear ‘not quite interesting’ to the ‘general mass;’ but when these concepts are presented in the forms of games and entertainment, their appeal becomes much more immediate. As mentioned earlier, this game kit will be designed not only for the disabled persons but for disabled and non- disabled people alike. In other words, it will be a model to show society the values of co-operation, co-existence, mutual respect, and respect for difference. Workshops which focus on gender, race, caste and disability can make use of this card game to explain the concepts of intersectionality to the participants. In other words, this game is not going to be limited to educational institutions alone but can be adapted to suit all those who want to know about the voices from the margins.
Once the basic kit is produced it can be further developed to create advanced level games
which would be more complex and nuanced.
